Mediterranean diet helps cerebrovascular disease
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By David Liu, Ph.D.
Eating Mediterranean diet may help prevent cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke, a new study published in Feb, 2011 in Annals of Neurology suggests.
The study of 707 participants of whom 222 had at least one infarct shows that people who adhered moderately to Mediterranean diet were 22 percent less likely to have an infarct and those who adhered most closely to Mediterranean diet were 36 percent less likely to suffer an infarct.
An infarct is a local area of dead tissue or necrosis caused by obstruction of the blood supply to the dead tissue.
The association remained the same after adjustment for other factors, according to authors of the study Nikolaos Scarmeas MD and colleagues of University of California at Davis, Sacramento, California.
Cerebrovascular disease is a group of diseases of the blood vessels including strokes, hemorrhagic stroke and ischemic stroke. Hypertension is considered the major cause while other risk factors such as smoking, obesity and diabetes can also boost the risk of the disease.
The study also found the magnitude of the protective effect of Mediterranean diet was similar to that of the risk increased by hypertension.
Early studies have already suggested that Mediterranean diet may help prevent strokes.
Additionally, Mediterranean diet was associated with reduced risk for breast cancer, prostate cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, heart disease, infertility, depression, birth defects, premature deaths, and Alzheimer's disease/dementia.
The Mediterranean diet is widely used in Southern Italy and Greece in the 1960s. The Mediterranean diet used in Greece in 1949 to 1949 consisted of cereals (61%), olive oil and fat (15%), potatoes(2), sugar and honey (4%), legume and nuts (6%), vegetables and fruits(5%), meat, fish and eggs(3%), dairy products (4%), and wine, beer and spirits (unknown). Animal protein is 19% of the total protein.
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