Olive oil reduces stroke risk

Fewer strokes from healthy olive oil consumption

17/06/2011

The risk of stroke is significantly reduced by the regular consumption of olive oil. This is the result of French researchers from the University of Bordeaux in a comprehensive study with more than 7,600 participants. Olive oil is one „cheap and easy way“ Stroke prevention, study director Cécilia Samieri and colleagues report in the current issue of the journal „Neurology“.

Olive oil is said to have a variety of positive health properties, but for the first time a stroke-preventive effect has now been demonstrated, according to the French scientists. The risk of stroke is reduced by more than 40 percent in those who consume olive oil frequently, according to the latest French long-term study. Olive oil is an efficient and cost-effective means of preventing strokes, researchers at the University of Bordeaux report.

Stroke risk and olive oil consumption studied
The link between olive oil consumption and the risk of stroke has been examined in several ways in the current French study. Thus, 7,625 people from Bordeaux, Dijon and Montpellier were questioned about their olive oil consumption at the age of 65 and then the risk of stroke was monitored for a period of up to six years. For the time being, the subjects themselves should assign their olive oil consumption to one of three different categories. Thirty-seven percent of study respondents described their own olive oil consumption as strong, 40 percent as medium and 23 percent said they did not use olive oil. To control the subjective assessments, the French scientists also carried out a blood test on 1,245 study participants. This allowed the researchers on the basis of the oleic acid level in the blood conclusions about the olive oil consumption of the subjects. Thus, the personal details of the study participants could be compared with the measurements of the blood values.

Olive oil consumption reduces the risk of stroke
The results of the current study are as clear as they are astonishing: people who consume olive oil intensively - not only for cooking but also as a salad dressing or pure with bread - are 41 percent less likely to suffer from stroke than those who do not use olive oil use. This correlation has also been confirmed when other typical stroke risk factors, such as dietary habits, physical inactivity or overweight, have been included, researchers from the University of Bordeaux report. In addition, the relationship was even more clearly demonstrated in the studies of blood values, because here had the subjects with the highest oleic acid values, a 73 percent lower stroke risk than the study participants with the lowest oleic acid levels. In total, 148 out of the 7,625 people interviewed suffered a stroke (115 ischemic strokes, 28 haemorrhagic strokes, 5 without a known cause), and none of the subjects had such problems before the start of the study.

Olive oil as a nutritional recommendation for stroke prevention
Whether the reduction in stroke risk is clearly due to olive oil consumption or that other factors may have played a role, however, can only be determined to a limited extent based on current results. For example, it would be conceivable that olive oil does not prevent the stroke preventive effect, but other foods that are just palatable by the olive oil, so that the olive oil consumption increases, commented the US physician Nikolaos Scarmeas of Columbia University, the current contribution in the trade magazine „Neurology“. Therefore, further studies are necessary to confirm the current result before a clear nutritional recommendation can be made. For Cécilia Samieri of the University of Bordeaux, however, it is clear that „Olive oil is a useful addition to other foods and indirectly increases the benefits of healthy meals“ can, while at the same time the taste is improved. The French scientists are convinced that a close „Link between high olive oil consumption and low stroke risk“ so that olive oil should be included in the dietary recommendations for stroke prevention. (Fp)

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Picture: Daisies