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Stroke

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Alternative News:

• Evaluation on the Efficacy and Safety of Panax Notoginseng Saponins in the Treatment of Stroke among Elderly People: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of 206 Randomized Controlled Trials - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2023 May 4 - "Evidence regarding the effect of Panax notoginseng saponins (PNS) on treating elderly stroke patients is scare and inconsistent. This study investigated the efficacy and safety of PNS by means of meta-analysis so as to provide an evidence-based reference for the treatment of elderly patients with stroke. ... Single PNS intervention or PNS combined with WM/TAU significantly improves the neurological status, the overall clinical efficacy and daily living activities of elderly stroke patients. However, more multicenter RCT research with high quality is required in the future to verify the results in this study" - See Panax ginseng at Amazon.com.
• Resveratrol Preconditioning Mitigates Ischemia-Induced Septal Cholinergic Cell Loss and Memory Impairments - Stroke 2023 Mar 13 - "Cholinergic cells originating from the nuclei of the basal forebrain (BF) are critical for supporting various memory processes, yet BF cholinergic cell viability has not been explored in the context of focal cerebral ischemia. In the present study, we examined cell survival within several BF nuclei in rodents following transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. We tested the hypothesis that a previously established neuroprotective therapy-resveratrol preconditioning-would rescue BF cell loss, deficits in cholinergic-related memory performance, and hippocampal synaptic dysfunction after focal cerebral ischemia ... We demonstrate for the first time that focal cerebral ischemia induces cholinergic cell death within memory-relevant nuclei of the BF. The preservation of cholinergic cell viability may provide a mechanism by which resveratrol preconditioning improves memory performance and preserves functionality of memory-processing brain structures after focal cerebral ischemia" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.
• Neuroprotective effects of melatonin-mediated mitophagy through nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain and leucine-rich repeat-containing protein X1 in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage - FASEB J 2023 Feb;37 - "Hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is a major cause of brain damage in neonates. Mitochondrial dysfunction acts as a hub for a broad spectrum of signaling events, culminating in cell death triggered by HI. A neuroprotective role of melatonin (MT) has been proposed, and mitophagy regulation seems to be important for cell survival ... This study aimed to clarify whether NLRX1 participates in the regulation of mitophagy during MT treatment for hypoxic-ischemic brain damage (HIBD) ... In summary, MT modulates mitophagy induction through NLRX1 and plays a protective role in HIBD, providing insight into potential therapeutic targets for MT to exert neuroprotection" - See melatonin at Amazon.com.
• Statin use may reduce risk of brain-bleed strokes up to 38 percent - Washington Post, 12/20/22 - "The study found that longer use of statins was linked to a lower risk for experiencing an intracerebral hemorrhage, ranging from a 16 percent lower risk for shorter-term use to a 38 percent lower risk for those who had taken statins for five years or more. The researchers also found that the location of the bleeding in the brain did not affect the risk reductions."
• Protective effects of curcumin on ischemia/reperfusion injury - Phytother Res 2022 Sep 19 - "Ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury is a term used to describe phenomena connected to the dysfunction of various tissue damage due to reperfusion after ischemic injury. While I/R may result in systemic inflammatory response syndrome or multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, there is still a long way to improve therapeutic outcomes. A number of cellular metabolic and ultrastructural alterations occur by prolonged ischemia. Ischemia increases the expression of proinflammatory gene products and bioactive substances within the endothelium, such as cytokines, leukocytes, and adhesion molecules, even as suppressing the expression of other "protective" gene products and substances, such as thrombomodulin and constitutive nitric oxide synthase (e.g., prostacyclin, nitric oxide [NO]). Curcumin is the primary phenolic pigment derived from turmeric, the powdered rhizome of Curcuma longa. Numerous studies have shown that curcumin has strong antiinflammatory and antioxidant characteristics. It also prevents lipid peroxidation and scavenges free radicals like superoxide anion, singlet oxygen, NO, and hydroxyl" - See curcumin at Amazon.com.
• Network Pharmacology and Bioinformatics Methods Reveal the Mechanism of Berberine in the Treatment of Ischaemic Stroke - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022 Jun 29 - "The potential targets and biological effects of berberine in the treatment of ischaemic stroke were predicted in this study. The lncRNA H19/EGFR/JNK1/c-Jun signalling pathway may be a key mechanism of berberine-induced neuroprotection in ischaemic stroke" - See berberine at Amazon.com.
• Serum L-Carnitine Levels Are Associated With First Stroke in Chinese Adults With Hypertension - Stroke 2022 Jun 30 - "The mean level of serum L-carnitine in the stroke population was 4.7 μg/mL, which was significantly lower than that of the control group (5.7 μg/mL). When L-carnitine was assessed as quintiles, compared with the reference group (quintile 1, <3.3 μg/mL), the odds of stroke were 0.62 (95% CI, 0.39-1.00) in quintile 2, 0.66 (95% CI, 0.40-1.10) in quintile 3, 0.47 (95% CI, 0.28-0.81) in quintile 4, and 0.50 (95% CI, 0.30-0.84) in quintile 5. The trend test was significant (P=0.01). When quintiles 2 to 5 were combined, the adjusted odds ratio of first stroke was 0.58 (95% CI, 0.38-0.87) compared with quintile 1" - See l-carnitine at Amazon.com.
• Problem in the Recent American Heart Association Guideline on Secondary Stroke Prevention: B Vitamins to Lower Homocysteine Do Prevent Stroke - Stroke 2022 Jun 24 - "We recommend that the guideline be revised to say that B vitamins to lower homocysteine prevent stroke and that methylcobalamin or hydroxycobalamin should be used instead of cyanocobalamin" - See methylcobalamin at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D deficiency can lead to dementia - Science Daily, 6/14/22 - "low levels of vitamin D were associated with lower brain volumes and an increased risk of dementia and stroke ... genetic analyses supported a causal effect of vitamin D deficiency and dementia ... in some populations as much as 17 per cent of dementia cases might be prevented by increasing everyone to normal levels of vitamin D (50 nmol/L)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Inverse association between plasma phylloquinone and risk of ischemic stroke in Chinese adults with hypertension and high body mass index: a nested case-control study - J Nutr 2022 Jun 6 - "In Chinese patients with hypertension, there was an inverse association between baseline plasma phylloquinone and risk of first ischemic stroke among those with higher BMI" - Note: People take vitamin k antagonists such as Warfarin to prevent strokes. I'm not a doctor but it sounds like they could also be contributing to strokes by reducing plasma vitamin K.
  • Phytomenadione - Wikipedia - "Phytomenadione, also known as vitamin K1 or phylloquinone, is a vitamin found in food and used as a dietary supplement."  - See vitamin K at Amazon.com.
• Gut Bacteria Linked to Stroke Severity, Risk - Medscape, 5/6/22 - "Gut microbiota have been implicated in dementia risk, cardiovascular disease, and multiple sclerosis relapse. Prior research has also pointed to a possible link between gut bacteria and stroke ... A potential future development of our study would be to investigate the effects of altering the gut microbiota of patients at high risk of stroke by giving them probiotics, prebiotics, or performing fecal matter transplants and measuring whether their risk of stroke is reduced ... The exact mechanisms by which gut bacteria might influence neurologic conditions such as stroke are uncertain, but one possibility is that they could cause changes to the immune system" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
• Probiotic Improves Symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Medscape, 5/9/22 - "After the 30-day treatment period with B longum 35624, a significant decrease in IBS severity was observed, compared with baseline. The IBS-SSS score went from 303 to 208 (P < .001). More than half of the patients (57%) experienced an overall decrease in their symptoms. The rate of severe symptoms decreased from 46.6% to 20%; moderate symptoms decreased from 48.1% to 36.1%; mild symptoms increased from 4.7% to 35.2%; and 8.7% of patients were in remission after the treatment vs 0.9% before. A significant improvement in disease severity (more than a 50-point decrease in the IBS-SSS score) was observed in 65.7% of patients, regardless of the IBS subtype ... After 30 days of treatment, a significant improvement in quality of life was noted in the patients (IBS-QOL score 68.8 vs 60.2, P < .001), and more than 6 out of 10 (63%) were satisfied with the treatment"
• Decreased Risk of Stroke in People Using Red Yeast Rice Prescriptions (LipoCol Forte®): a Total Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022 Apr 23 - "Compared with the non-RYR cohort, patients who received RYR prescriptions had a decreased risk of stroke (HR 0.65, 95% CI 0.59-0.71), including hemorrhagic stroke (HR 0.60, 95% CI 0.44-0.83), ischemic stroke (HR 0.49, 95% CI 0.43-0.57), and other types of strokes (HR 0.53, 95% CI 0.42-0.67). The association between RYR prescription and stroke risk was significant in both sexes and in people aged more than 40 years, as well as in those individuals with various medical conditions. The frequency of RYR prescription (HR 0.57, 95% CI 0.50-0.64) was associated with a decreased risk of stroke with a dose-response relationship (p for trend<0.0001). This study showed a potentially positive effect of RYR on the risk of stroke. However, compliance with medication use should be cautioned" - See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D and brain health: an observational and Mendelian randomization study - Am J Clin Nutr 2022 Apr 22 - "Vitamin D deficiency was associated with an increased risk of dementia and stroke, with the strongest associations for those with 25(OH)D <25nmol/L (vs. 50-75.9 nmol/L, adjusted HR: 1.79" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Notoginsenoside R1 ameliorates mitochondrial dysfunction to circumvent neuronal energy failure in acute phase of focal cerebral ischemia - Phytother Res 2022 Apr 13 - "Due to sudden loss of cerebral blood circulation, acute ischemic stroke (IS) causes neuronal energy attenuation or even exhaustion by mitochondrial dysfunction resulting in aggravation of neurological injury. In this study, we investigated if Notoginsenoside R1 ameliorated cerebral energy metabolism by limiting neuronal mitochondrial dysfunction in acute IS ... Notoginsenoside R1 administration increases cerebral glucose and lactate transportation and ATP levels, ameliorates neuronal mitochondrial function after IS. Notoginsenoside R1 may be a novel protective agent for neuronal mitochondria poststroke"
  • Focus on Notoginsenoside R1 in Metabolism and Prevention Against Human Diseases - Drug Des Devel Ther. 2020 - "Notoginsenoside (NG)-R1 is one of the main bioactive compounds from Panax notoginseng (PN) root, which is well known in the prescription for mediating the micro-circulatory hemostasis in human" - See Panax ginseng at Amazon.com.
• Exposure-Response Analysis and Mechanism of Ginkgolide B's Neuroprotective Effect in Acute Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion Stage in Rat - Biol Pharm Bull 2022 - "Ginkgolide B (GKB) is a well-established neuroprotectant for acute ischemia stroke. However, its cerebral exposure and real-time response remain elusive in acute ischemia/reperfusion stage, and it hinders its usage in therapeutic window of ischemia stroke ... GKB exhibits greater cerebral exposure in acute ischemia/reperfusion rats and neuroprotective effect through reducing PAF in exposure-response manner and mediating PAF-regulated intracellular signaling pathways. Our finding highlights clinical implications of GKB in therapeutic time window of ischemic stroke" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• Sulforaphane protects myocardium from ischemia-reperfusion injury by regulating CaMKIIN2 and CaMKIIδ - Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2022 Mar 4 - "Myocardial ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury poses a significant threat to human health. High level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium overload are the foremost causes of myocardial damage in I/R. Sulforaphane (SFN) is known for its promising antioxidant effect ... this study demonstrated that SFN exerts cardioprotective effect toward I/R injury through upregulating CaMKIIN2 and down-regulating CaMKIIδ" - See sulforaphane at Amazon.com.
• Astragalus Flavone Induces Proliferation and Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells in a Cerebral Infarction Model - Med Sci Monit 2022 Mar 7 - "Ischemic cerebrovascular disease leads to the activation and differentiation of neural stem cells (NSCs) into mature neurons and glia cells to repair nerve damage. Astragalus flavone (ASF) has shown its potential role in proliferation and differentiation into dopamine neurons of NSCs ... ASF therapy can improve the neurologic functions and reduce the cerebral infarction volume in a cerebral infarction model. Moreover, ASF promoted the proliferation of NSCs and induced differentiation into neurons and oligodendrocytes, which might be involved in regulating factors in Notch signaling" - See astragalus at Amazon.com.
• Association Between Plasma L-Carnitine and Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 Jan 14 - "L-carnitine has been shown to exert neuroprotective effects on cerebral ischemia, mainly by improving mitochondrial function and reducing inflammation. L-carnitine supplementation has also been promoted to enhance cognitive function ... The study sample population was drawn from the China Antihypertensive Trial in Acute Ischemic Stroke. Plasma L-carnitine were measured at baseline in 617 patients with ischemic stroke using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry ... Plasma L-carnitine were inversely associated with cognitive impairment at 3 months after ischemic stroke, and the adjusted odds ratio (95% CI) for the highest versus lowest quartiles of L-carnitine was 0.60 (0.37, 0.98; p for trend = 0.04). Each 1-SD increase in log-transformed L-carnitine concentration was significantly associated with a 15% (95% CI: 1%, 29%) reduction in the risk of cognitive impairment after stroke. The addition of L-carnitine to the model including conventional risk factors significantly improved the risk reclassification for cognitive impairment (net reclassification improvement: 17.9%, integrated discrimination improvement: 0.8% ; both p < 0.05). Furthermore, joint effects of L-carnitine and inflammation markers were observed, and patients with higher L-carnitine and a lower inflammatory status simultaneously had the lowest risk of poststroke cognitive impairment" - See L-carnitine at Amazon.com.
• Olive oil consumption is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke - Clin Nutr 2021 Nov 15 - "Olive oil is associated with lower risk of CVD and stroke. The maximum benefit could be obtained with a consumption between 20 and 30 g/day. The association could be stronger for virgin olive oil and might operate from the early stages of the disease" - See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com but it could just be the omega-9 in olive oil.
• Melatonin ameliorates cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in diabetic mice by enhancing autophagy via the SIRT1-BMAL1 pathway - FASEB J 2021 Dec - "Diabetic brains are more vulnerable to ischemia-reperfusion injury. Previous studies have proved that melatonin could protect against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (CIR) injury in non-diabetic stroke models; however, its roles and the underlying mechanisms against CIR injury in diabetic mice remain unknown ... these results indicate that melatonin treatment can protect against CIR-induced brain damage in diabetic mice, which may be achieved by the autophagy enhancement mediated by the SIRT1-BMAL1 pathway" - See melatonin at Amazon.com.
• The Effect of Probiotics in Stroke Treatment - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2021 Oct 28 - "enteral nutrition (EN) ... The probiotics combined with EN group's therapeutic effects were superior to those of the EN alone. Thus, probiotics combined with EN is worthy of both clinical application and promotion in stroke treatment" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.
• Coffee or Tea? Drinking Both Tied to Lower Stroke, Dementia Risk - Medscape, 11/15/21 - "Those who drank both coffee and tea during the day saw the greatest benefit. Drinking 2-3 cups of coffee and 2-3 cups of tea lowered stroke risk by 32% (P < .001) and dementia risk by 28% ... Drinking both beverages offered significantly greater benefits than drinking just coffee or tea alone, with an 11% lower risk for stroke (P < .001), an 8% lower risk for dementia (P = .001), and 18% lower risk for vascular dementia ... Among those participants who experienced a stroke during the follow-up period, drinking 2-3 cups of coffee was associated with 20% lower risk for poststroke dementia (P = .044), and for those who drank both coffee and tea (0.5-1 cups of coffee and 2-3 cups of tea per day) the risk for poststroke dementia was lowered by 50%" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com and green tea extract at iHerb.
• Role of citicoline and choline in the treatment of post-stroke depression: an exploratory study - J Int Med Res 2021 Nov - "To compare selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and nootropic drugs in the reduction of anxiety and depressive symptoms in post-stroke patients ... A total of 44 post-stroke patients with depression (aged 45-75 years) were enrolled in the study: 20 were treated with SSRIs and 24 received nootropic drugs. From baseline to follow-up, the SSRI group showed a large effect size with regard depression (success rate difference [SRD] 0.57; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.21, 0.79) and anxiety (SRD 0.49; 95% CI 0.14, 0.74), whereas the nootropic group showed a small effect size for depression (SRD 0.16; 95% CI -0.17, 0.46) and a small effect size for anxiety (SRD 0.36 ... The administration of nootropic drugs could be a valid therapeutic strategy to manage post-stroke patients suffering from mild-moderate anxiety or anxious-depressive syndrome, but this requires further research" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Plasma selenium and the risk of first stroke in adults with hypertension: a secondary analysis of the China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial - Am J Clin Nutr 2021 Sep 21 - "Previous studies indicated that selenium (Se) may play an important role in cardio-cerebrovascular disease. However, the relationship between circulating selenium and risk of first stroke remains inconclusive ... In summary, there was a significant inverse association between plasma Se and risk of first stroke in Chinese adults with hypertension, especially among those with higher baseline folate concentrations and those with higher time-averaged SBP over the treatment period" - See se-methyl l-selenocysteine at Amazon.com and iHerb.
• Low-sodium salt prevents stroke - Science Daily, 8/30/21 - "Participants in intervention villages were given free salt substitute (about 75% sodium chloride and 25% potassium chloride) as a replacement for regular salt and advised to use it for all cooking, seasoning and food preservation. They were also encouraged to use the salt replacement more sparingly than they previously used salt to maximise their sodium reduction. Sufficient salt substitute was provided to cover the needs of the entire household (about 20 g per person per day). Participants in control villages continued their usual habits ... The risk of stroke was reduced with salt substitute compared to regular salt (29.14 versus 33.65 per 1,000 patient-years; rate ratio [RR] 0.86"
• People with stroke who walk 30 minutes per day may have 54% lower risk of early death - Science Daily, 8/11/21 - "people who walk or garden at least three to four hours per week, or bike at least two to three hours per week, or the equivalent after having a stroke may have a 54% lower risk of death from any cause"
• Plasma choline and betaine and risks of cardiovascular events and recurrent stroke after ischemic stroke - Am J Clin Nutr 2021 Jun 22 - "Choline and betaine have been suggested to play a pivotal role in neurotransmitter synthesis, cell membrane integrity, and methyl-group metabolism, exerting neuroprotective effects in patients with various neurological disorders ... Plasma choline and betaine were inversely associated with cardiovascular events and recurrent stroke after ischemic stroke. Specifically, in fully adjusted models, each additional SD of choline and betaine was associated with 35% (95% CI: 20%-48%) and 30% (95% CI: 14%-43%) decreased risks of subsequent cardiovascular events, respectively, and 34% (95% CI: 16%-48%) and 29% (95% CI: 12%-43%) decreased risks of recurrent stroke, respectively" - See choline at Amazon.com and betaine anhydrous (TMG) at Amazon.com.
• Association of Serum Magnesium Levels With Risk of Intracranial Aneurysm: A Mendelian Randomization Study - Neurology 2021 Jun 22 - "Magnesium has been implicated in regulating blood pressure and vascular endothelial cell function, but its role in the pathophysiology of intracranial aneurysm is not know ... This study provides evidence to support that increased serum magnesium concentrations reduce the risk of intracranial aneurysm and associated hemorrhage" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Magnesium Strongly Tied to Lower Risk for Intracranial Aneurysm - Medscape, 6/30/21 - "The effects may be partially mediated by magnesium's influence on systolic blood pressure ... These results suggest that raising serum magnesium levels ― through a magnesium-rich diet or magnesium supplementation ― "may play a role in the primary prevention of intracranial aneurysm and associated hemorrhage,"" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Relationship between the Circulating Selenium Level and Stroke: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies - J Am Coll Nutr 2021 Mar 30 - "Although our results suggest that the circulating selenium level is inversely associated with stroke, current evidence is still insufficient to conclude their definite association. More well-designed prospective cohort studies with detailed selenium biomarker specification are needed to elaborate the concerned issues further" - See se-methyl l-selenocysteine at Amazon.com.
• Adding triglyceride-lowering Omega-3 based medication to statins may lower stroke risk - AHA, 3/11/21 - "Adding the triglyceride-lowering medication icosapent ethyl cut the risk of a first stroke by an additional 36% in patients already taking statin medications to treat high cholesterol ... In previous research, icosapent ethyl reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events ... The prescription medication is a highly purified form of an omega-3 fatty acid. The study’s results do not apply to supplements available over-the-counter"
• Eating more refined grains increases risk of heart attack, early death - Science Daily, 2/19/21 - "The study found that having more than seven servings of refined grains per day was associated with a 27 per cent greater risk for early death, 33 percent greater risk for heart disease and 47 per cent greater risk for stroke"
• Green Tea, Coffee May Help You Avoid a 2nd Heart Attack - WebMD, 2/4/21 - "Stroke survivors who drank at least seven cups per day were 62% less likely to die during the study period, versus non-drinkers. Similarly, the risk was cut by 53% among heart attack survivors who downed that much tea ... Green tea was not the only beverage tied to longer life. For heart attack survivors -- as well as people with no cardiovascular problems -- moderate coffee intake was also linked to better survival."
• Flu Vaccine Protective Against Stroke, CV Events? - Medscape, 7/30/20 - "Adults over the age of 50 years had a vaccination rate of 1.8% compared with 15.3% in the general population ... But these older adults who were vaccinated had better outcomes in the year following vaccination, with a 28% lower risk of MI, a 73% lower risk of death, a 47% lower risk of TIA, and a 73% lower risk of all-cause mortality ... Among patients with obesity, 2.4% were vaccinated compared with 9% of those with a healthy weight. And flu vaccination in obese patients was associated with a 41% reduction in MI, a 55% reduction in TIA, and a 76% reduction in all-cause mortality"
• Metformin Inhibits Intracranial Aneurysm Formation and Progression by Regulating Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotype Switching via the AMPK/ACC Pathway - J Neuroinflammation 2020 Jun 16 - "vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) ... intracranial aneurysm (IA) ... Metformin protects against IA formation and rupture by inhibiting VSMC phenotype switching and proliferation, migration, and apoptosis. Thus, metformin has therapeutic potential for the prevention of IA" - ReliableRXPharmacy carries metformin.
  • Intracranial aneurysm - Wiki - "Intracranial aneurysm, also known as brain aneurysm, is a cerebrovascular disorder in which weakness in the wall of a cerebral artery or vein causes a localized dilation or ballooning of the blood vessel"
• Dietary and Serum Omega-6/Omega-3 Fatty Acids Are Associated with Physical and Metabolic Function in Stroke Survivors - Nutrients. 2020 Mar 6 - "six-minute walk distance (6MWD) ... The dietary intake ratio of omega-6/omega-3 fatty acids averaged 12.6 ± 7.1 and the serum concentration ratio was 1.21 ± 0.37, which were correlated (r = 0.88, p < 0.01). Higher dietary intake and serum concentrations of omega-6/omega-3 fatty acids were associated with lower 6MWD and higher HOMA-IR, while a higher serum omega-6/omega-3 concentration index was associated with lower VO2peak (p's < 0.05). These preliminary data suggest that both dietary omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids (quantitated as their intake ratio) and the serum concentration ratio of omega-6/omega-3 may be important indices of physical dysfunction and insulin resistance in chronic stroke survivors"
• Shingles vaccine may also reduce stroke risk - Science Daily, 2/12/20 - "Receiving the shingles vaccine lowered the risk of stroke by about 16%, lowered the risk of ischemic (clot-caused) stroke by about 18% and lowered the risk of hemorrhagic (bleeding) stroke by about 12% ... The vaccine's protection was strongest among people ages 66 to 79 years ... Among those under the age of 80 years, the shingles vaccine reduced the risk of stroke by nearly 20% and in those older than 80, reduced the risk by about 10% ... The reason for increased risk of stroke after a shingles infection may be due to inflammation caused by the virus"
• Higher iron levels may boost heart health -- but also increase risk of stroke - Science Daily, 7/16/19 - "The results reveal not only are naturally higher iron levels associated with a lower risk of high cholesterol levels, they also reduce the risk of arteries becoming furred with a build-up of fatty substances ... However the research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, also revealed the potential risks associated with naturally higher iron levels. These included a higher risk of blood clots related to slow blood flow blood -- a common cause of stroke -- and a higher risk of bacterial skin infection ... getting the right amount of iron in the body is a fine balance -- too little can lead to anemia, but too much can lead to a range of problems including liver damage"
• Combined citicoline and docosahexaenoic acid treatment improves cognitive dysfunction following transient brain ischemia - J Pharmacol Sci. 2019 Apr;139(4):319-324 - "BCCAO ischemic mice were treated for a total of 11 days with a combination of citicoline (40 mg/kg body weight/day) and DHA (300 mg/kg body weight/day) or each alone. Combined citicoline and DHA synergistically and significantly improved learning and memory ability of ischemic mice compared with either alone. Further, citicoline and DHA treatment significantly prevented neuronal cell death, and slightly increased DHA-containing PtdCho in the hippocampus, albeit not significantly. Taken together, these findings suggest that combined citicoline and DHA treatment may have synergistic benefits for partially improving memory deficits following transient brain ischemia" - [Nutra USA] - See choline at Amazon.com and docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D and estradiol help guard against heart disease, stroke, and diabetes - Science Daily, 6/12/19 - "vitamin D has been associated with several markers of metabolic syndrome, including obesity, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Supplementation with vitamin D has been shown to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome over a 20-year follow-up ... Because the synergistic benefits of vitamin D and estrogen are already documented to improve bone health in women, researchers in this newest study from China hypothesized that the same interaction might affect metabolic syndrome. The cross-sectional study included 616 postmenopausal women aged 49 to 86 years who were not taking estrogen and vitamin D/calcium supplements at the beginning of the trial. It concluded there was a positive correlation between vitamin D and estradiol" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Neuroprotective Effects of Diets Containing Olive Oil and DHA/EPA in a Mouse Model of Cerebral Ischemia - Nutrients. 2019 May 18;11(5) - "These findings support the use of DHA/EPA-omega-3-fatty acid supplementation and olive oil as dietary source of MUFAs in order to reduce the damage and protect the brain when a stroke occurs" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com.
• Fish Oil, Particularly EPA, Linked to Reduced Ischemic Stroke - Medscape, 1/17/19 - "It is quite remarkable that we saw a significant 28% reduction in stroke in REDUCE-IT with a highly purified ethyl ester of EPA (icosapent ethyl), and in this study they found a 26% lower rate of stroke associated with higher EPA levels ... "It is also worth noting in this study that while EPA was associated consistently with cardiovascular benefits, the case for DHA was more mixed. This latter observation may in part help explain why all the recent studies of omega-3 fatty acids had been neutral – until REDUCE-IT ... Also, lower rates of large artery atherosclerosis were seen with higher intakes of total marine n-3 PUFA (HR 0.69); EPA (HR 0.66); and DHA (HR, 0.72) and higher adipose tissue content of EPA (HR 0.52), but not with higher adipose tissue content of total marine n-3 PUFA or DHA" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com.
• Saunas May Reduce Stroke Risk - NYT, 5/2/18 - "After adjusting for other variables, they found that compared with people who took saunas once a week, those who took them two to three times weekly were 12 percent less likely to have a stroke. People who took saunas four to seven times a week reduced their risk for stroke by 62 percent" - See JNH Lifestyle saunas at Amazon.com.
• Pomegranate supplementation improves cognitive and functional recovery following ischemic stroke: A randomized trial - Nutr Neurosci. 2018 Feb 13:1-6 - "we administered commercially-available pomegranate polyphenol or placebo pills twice per day for one week to adult inpatients in a comprehensive rehabilitation setting starting approximately 2 weeks after stroke. Pills contained 1 g of polyphenols derived from whole pomegranate, equivalent to levels in approximately 8 oz of juice. Placebo pills were similar to the pomegranate pills except that they contained only lactose ... Pomegranate-treated subjects demonstrated more neuropsychological and functional improvement and spent less time in the hospital than placebo controls" - See pomegranate extract at Amazon.com.
• Association of Serum 25(OH) D Levels with Infarct Volumes and Stroke Severity in Acute Ischemic Stroke - J Nutr Health Aging. 2018;22(1):97-102 - "NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score ... In conclusion, reduced serum 25(OH) D levels in acute ischemic stroke are an early predictor of larger volumes of ischemic tissue and worse neurological deficit (assessed by the NIHSS)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com. 
• Folic Acid Supplementation for Stroke Prevention in Patients With Cardiovascular Disease - Am J Med Sci. 2017 Oct;354(4):379-387 - "Folic acid supplementation was associated with a significant benefit in reducing the risk of stroke in patients with CVD (RR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.84-0.97; P = 0.005). In the stratified analysis, greater beneficial effects were observed in participants with a decrease in homocysteine concentrations of 25% or greater (RR = 0.85; 95% CI: 0.74-0.97; P = 0.03), those with a daily folate dose of less than 2mg (RR = 0.78; 95% CI: 0.68-0.89; P = 0.01), and populations in regions with no or partly fortified grain (RR = 0.87; 95% CI: 0.81-0.94; P = 0.04)" - See methylfolate at Amazon.com.
• Cardioprotective Effects of Pomegranate (Punica granatum) Juice in Patients with Ischemic Heart Disease - Phytother Res. 2017 Sep 15 - "Ischemic heart disease is the leading cause of mortality worldwide ... Pomegranate juice caused significant reductions in the intensity, occurrence, and duration of angina pectoris in patients with unstable angina. Consistently, the test patients had significantly lower levels of serum troponin and malondialdehyde. Other studied parameters did not change significantly. The results of this study suggest protective effects of pomegranate juice against myocardial ischemia and reperfusion injury" - See pomegranate extract at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D Status and the Risk of Recurrent Stroke and Mortality in Ischemic Stroke Patients: Data from a 24-Month Follow-Up Study in China - J Nutr Health Aging. 2017;21(7):766-771 - "Compared with the first quartile of serum 25(OH) D levels, the ORs for stroke recurrence and mortality were as follows: second quartile, 0.80 (95% CI, 0.63-0.93) and 0.77 (95% CI, 0.65-0.89); third quartile, 0.42 (95% CI, 0.31-0.55) and 0.39 (95% CI, 0.30-0.52); fourth quartile, 0.12 (95% CI, 0.07-0.19) and 0.10 (95% CI, 0.06-0.15), respectively" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• B-vitamin and choline supplementation increases neuroplasticity and recovery after stroke - Neurobiol Dis. 2017 Jul;103:89-100 - "In supplemented diet mice, we report improved motor function after ischemic damage compared to mice fed a control diet after ischemic damage. Within the perilesional cortex, we show enhanced proliferation, neuroplasticity and anti-oxidant activity in mice fed the supplemented diet" - [Nutra USA] - See Citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Dietary intake of antioxidant vitamins and risk of stroke: the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2017 Jul 12 - "When stratified by current smoking status, the inverse association between dietary vitamin C intake and incidence of total stroke observed among non-smokers but not smokers, with respective multivariable hazard ratios for the highest versus lowest quintiles of vitamin C of 0.81 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.68-0.96; P-trend=0.03) among non-smokers; and 1.03 (0.84-1.25; P-trend=0.55) among smokers" - See American Health Products - Ester C W/Citrus Bioflavonoids, 1000 mg, 180 veg tablets at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Protein Intake and Stroke Risk in a General Japanese Population: The Hisayama Study - Stroke. 2017 May 9 - "the risks of total stroke and ischemic stroke significantly decreased by 40% (95% confidence interval, 12%-59%) and 40% (5%-62%), respectively, in subjects with the highest quartile of vegetable protein intake compared with those with the lowest one. In contrast, subjects with the highest quartile of animal protein intake had a 53% (4%-77%) lower risk of intracerebral hemorrhage"
• Longitudinal association between fasting blood glucose concentrations and first stroke in hypertensive adults in China: effect of folic acid intervention - Am J Clin Nutr. 2017 Jan 25 - "A high FBG concentration (≥7.0 mmol/L) or diabetes, compared with a low FBG concentration (<5.0 mmol/L), was associated with an increased risk of first stroke (6.0% compared with 2.6%, respectively; HR: 1.9; 95% CI: 1.3, 2.8; P < 0.001). Folic acid treatment reduced the risk of stroke across a wide range of FBG concentrations ≥5.0 mmol/L, but risk reduction was greatest in subjects with FBG concentrations ≥7.0 mmol/L or with diabetes (HR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.46, 0.97; P < 0.05). There was a significant interactive effect of FBG and folic acid treatment on first stroke" - See methylfolate at Amazon.com.
• Stroke-like brain damage is reduced in mice injected with omega-3s - Science Daily, 8/23/16 - "At 24 hours, mice treated with DHA, but not EPA, had a significant reduction in brain injury. In the following weeks, the DHA group also had significantly better results in multiple brain functions compared to the EPA-treated mice and untreated (control) mice" - See docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com.
• Inosine treatment helps recovery of motor functions after brain injury - Science Daily, 8/3/16 - "Brain injuries were created in the area controlling each monkey's favored hand. Four monkeys received inosine treatment, while four received a placebo ... While both the treated and placebo groups recovered significant function, three out of four of the treated monkeys were able to return to their pre-operative grasping methods. The placebo group developed a compensatory grasping method for retrieving food rewards unlike the original thumb-and-finger method ... Inosine has also been administered in human clinical trials for multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease and has been proven to be safe in doses up 3000 mg/day. Athletes have used inosine as a nutritional supplement for decades, and inosine supplements are widely available commercially" - See inosine at Amazon.com.
• Effectiveness of Gotu Kola Extract 750 mg and 1000 mg Compared with Folic Acid 3 mg in Improving Vascular Cognitive Impairment after Stroke - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2016;2016:2795915 - "17 subjects were treated with 1000 mg/day of gotu kola extract, 17 subjects treated with 750 mg/day of gotu kola extract, and 14 subjects treated with 3 mg/day of folic acid for 6 weeks. A Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Indonesian version (MoCA-Ina) was conducted at the beginning of treatment and after 6 weeks of therapy. It was found that all trials effectively improved poststroke VCI based on MoCA-Ina scores over the course of the study. There is no significant difference in ΔMoCA-Ina (score at the 6th week of treatment - score at the beginning) mean score among the three groups, indicating that gotu kola is as effective as folic acid in improving poststroke VCI. Gotu kola was shown to be more effective than folic acid in improving memory domain. This study suggested that gotu kola extract is effective in improving cognitive function after stroke" - See gotu kola at Amazon.com.
• n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Reduce Neonatal Hypoxic/Ischemic Brain Injury by Promoting Phosphatidylserine Formation and Akt Signaling - Stroke. 2015 Sep 15 - "n-3 PUFAs robustly protect against H/I-induced brain damage in neonates by activating Akt prosurvival pathway in compromised neurons. In addition, n-3 PUFAs promote the formation of membrane phosphatidylserine, thereby promoting Akt activity and improving cellular survival" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.
• Association between intakes of magnesium, potassium, and calcium and risk of stroke: 2 cohorts of US women and updated meta-analyses - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 May 6 - "Pooled multivariate RRs of total stroke for women in highest compared with lowest quintiles were 0.87 (95% CI: 0.78, 0.97) for total magnesium, 0.89 (95% CI: 0.80, 0.99) for total potassium, and 0.97 (95% CI: 0.87, 1.09) for total calcium intake. Pooled RRs for women in highest compared with lowest quintiles of a combined mineral diet score were 0.72 (95% CI: 0.65, 0.81) for total stroke, 0.78 (95% CI: 0.66, 0.92) for ischemic stroke, and 0.80 (95% CI: 0.61, 1.04) for hemorrhagic stroke. In the updated meta-analyses of all prospective studies to date, the combined RR of total stroke was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.83, 0.92) for a 100-mg/d increase of magnesium intake, 0.91 (95% CI: 0.88, 0.94) for a 1000-mg/d increase of potassium intake, and 0.98 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.02) for a 300-mg/d increase of calcium intake" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com and potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D status, hypertension and ischemic stroke: a clinical perspective - J Hum Hypertens. 2015 Mar 26 - "Meticulous management of hypertension, regular monitoring of serum 25(OH)D levels and treatment of severe vitamin D deficiency, particularly in hypertensive subjects, could help in effective prevention of stroke" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Efficacy of Folic Acid Therapy in Primary Prevention of Stroke Among Adults With Hypertension in China: The CSPPT Randomized Clinical Trial - JAMA. 2015 Mar 15 - "randomly assigned to receive double-blind daily treatment with a single-pill combination containing enalapril, 10 mg, and folic acid, 0.8 mg (n = 10 348) or a tablet containing enalapril, 10 mg, alone (n = 10 354) ... Among adults with hypertension in China without a history of stroke or MI, the combined use of enalapril and folic acid, compared with enalapril alone, significantly reduced the risk of first stroke. These findings are consistent with benefits from folate use among adults with hypertension and low baseline folate levels" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com.
• Folic Acid May Help Ward Off Stroke in People With High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/15/15 - "20,000 adults in China with high blood pressure who had not suffered a heart attack or stroke .... Participants were randomly assigned to take a daily pill with folic acid and the high blood pressure drug enalapril (brand name Vasotec) or a pill with enalapril alone ... the risk of stroke was 21 percent lower among those taking enalapril/folic acid" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com.
• Low vitamin D predicts more severe strokes, poor health post-stroke - Science Daily, 2/5/15 - "Stroke patients with low vitamin D levels were found to be more likely than those with normal vitamin D levels to suffer severe strokes and have poor health months after stroke ... Overall, patients who had low vitamin D levels -defined as less than 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL) -- had about two-times larger areas of dead tissue resulting from obstruction of the blood supply compared to patients with normal vitamin D levels ... For each 10 ng/mL reduction in vitamin D level, the chance for healthy recovery in the three months following stroke decreased by almost half, regardless of the patient's age or initial stroke severity" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Potassium Intake and Stroke Mortality Risks - Medscape, 12/18/14 - "Comparing highest to lowest quartile of potassium intake with multivariate analyses yielded a hazard ratio of 0.90 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85-0.95) for all-cause mortality, 0.88 (95% CI, 0.79-0.98) for all stroke, and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.74-0.96) for ischemic stroke" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Circulating biomarkers of dairy fat and risk of incident stroke in U.S. men and women in 2 large prospective cohorts - Am J Clin Nutr. 2014 Dec;100(6):1437-1447 - "In 2 large prospective cohorts, circulating biomarkers of dairy fat were not significantly associated with stroke"
• Dietary Fiber Intake Is Inversely Associated with Stroke Incidence in Healthy Swedish Adults - J Nutr. 2014 Dec;144(12):1952-1955 - "High intakes of total fiber and fiber from fruits and vegetables but not from cereals were inversely associated with risk of stroke. After adjustment for other risk factors for stroke, the multivariable RRs of total stroke for the highest vs. lowest quintile of intake were 0.90 (95% CI: 0.81, 0.99) for total fiber, 0.85 (95% CI: 0.77, 0.95) for fruit fiber, 0.90 (95% CI: 0.82, 1.00) for vegetable fiber, and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.84, 1.04) for cereal fiber" - See fiber supplements at Amazon.com.
• n-3 PUFA Induce Microvascular Protective Changes During Ischemia/Reperfusion - Lipids. 2014 Oct 26 - "we may conclude that consumption of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially in the triacylglycerol form, could be a promising therapy to prevent microvascular damage induced by ischemia/reperfusion and its consequent clinical sequelae" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.
• Higher Potassium Intake Linked to Reduced Stroke - Medscape, 9/4/14 - "In the WHI study of older women aged 50-79, those without hypertension who had higher levels of potassium had a 27% reduced risk of stroke than women with low potassium levels ... in general, this population was well below the recommended daily allowance of potassium. In the United States, this is 4700 mg. The women in the WHI study had average intake of 2600 mg, which is very similar to average US intakes. Only 2.8% of women met or exceeded the 4700 mg recommended intake ... The World Health Organization recommends a potassium intake of more than 3510 mg per day, which may be easier to achieve, but still only 16% of women in this cohort met this requirement ... A baked potato contains 900 mg of potassium and a banana contains 420 mg"
• Plasma Magnesium and Risk of Ischemic Stroke Among Women - Stroke. 2014 Aug 12 - "Conditional on matching factors, women in the lowest magnesium quintile had a relative risk of 1.34 (95% confidence interval, 0.86-2.10; P trend=0.13) for total ischemic stroke compared with women in the highest quintile. Additional adjustment for risk factors and confounders did not substantially alter the risk estimates for total ischemic stroke. Women with magnesium levels <0.82 mmol/L had significantly greater risk of total ischemic stroke (multivariable relative risk, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.09-2.27; P=0.01) and thrombotic stroke (multivariable relative risk, 1.66; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-2.65; P=0.03) compared with women with magnesium levels ≥0.82 mmol/L" - See Jarrow Formulas, MagMind at Amazon.com.
• Protein has the effect of lowering blood pressure, which may play a role in reducing stroke risk - Science Daily, 6/11/14 - "the participants with the highest amount of protein in their diets were 20 percent less likely to develop a stroke than those with the lowest amount of protein in their diets ... For every additional 20 grams per day of protein that people ate, their risk of stroke decreased by 26 percent ... Protein has the effect of lowering blood pressure, which may play a role in reducing stroke risk"
• Panax notoginseng saponins promotes stroke recovery by influencing expression of Nogo-A, NgR and p75NGF, in vitro and in vivo - Biol Pharm Bull. 2014;37(4):560-8 - "This may be the mechanism of Panax notoginseng saponins that contributes to the recovery of nerve function, which plays an important role in brain protection after cerebral infarction" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.
• Potassium-rich diet and risk of stroke: Updated meta-analysis - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2014 Mar 18 - "Pooled analysis of 14 cohorts (overall 333,250 participants and 10,659 events) showed an inverse and significant association between K intake and risk of stroke (Relative Risk: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.72-0.90). Our results indicated a favorable effect of higher K intake on risk of stroke" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Brain saver: Vitamin E supplement helps 'redirect' blood during stroke - Science Daily, 4/29/14 - "brain damage during a stroke can be prevented by triggering the surrounding blood vessels to dilate and redirect the blood flow around a blockage ... The blood vessel "redirect" is the result of 10 weeks' worth of supplementation with a little-known type of vitamin E called tocotrienol. Tocotrienol appears to stimulate arteriogenesis -- or the remodeling of existing blood vessels that can instantaneously expand in response to a demand for oxygen-rich blood. This collateral blood supply can make a major difference in stroke outcomes ... Tocotrienol, found naturally in palm oil, is a vitamin E variant and currently available in stores as an oral nutritional supplement. Because it doesn't appear to interfere with other stroke therapies like blood thinners, or have any other side effects, Rink thinks that the vitamin could someday become a common stroke prevention strategy" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Iron Deficiency May Raise Stroke Risk - WebMD, 2/20/14 - "Those who had an iron deficiency had stickier platelets -- which are small blood cells that trigger clotting when they stick together -- and were more likely to suffer a stroke ... Even those with moderately low iron levels were about twice as likely to suffer a stroke as those with iron levels in the middle of the normal range" - See iron supplements at Amazon.com.
• Can Vitamin C Ward Off Stroke? - WebMD, 2/14/14 - "Vannier's team looked at 65 people who had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, comparing them with 65 healthy people ... On average, those who had a stroke had depleted levels of vitamin C, while vitamin C levels were normal in the healthy individuals ... Depleted levels of vitamin C was linked to longer hospitalizations, but not a higher risk of death ... Vitamin C levels were significantly lower in people who had brain bleeds, compared with healthy people, but we have not yet calculated an odds risk" - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com.
• Intakes of Potassium, Magnesium, and Calcium and Risk of Stroke - Stroke. 2014 Feb 11 - "36 094 participants aged 21 to 70 years. Dietary intake was assessed with a food frequency questionnaire ... 12 years of follow-up ... magnesium intake was associated with reduced stroke risk (hazard ratio [95% confidence interval] per 100 mg/d, 0.80 [0.67-0.97] dietary magnesium; 0.78 [0.65-0.93] total magnesium). Potassium and calcium intakes were not associated with stroke" - See Magtein at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Fatal CVD - Medscape, 12/23/13 - "Even after adjustment for other potential confounders, including smoking and physical activity, vitamin D deficiency still conferred a significant 27% increased risk for total CVD, and a 62% increased risk for fatal CVD ... Individuals with low vitamin D levels also had a significant 36% increased risk of total CHD and a nonsignificant 33% increased risk of total stroke" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Tea consumption and cardiovascular disease risk - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Oct 30 - "performed a search in 3 databases for meta-analyses and compared them with studies they subsumed ... In the case of stroke, a consistent, dose-response association with tea consumption on both incidence and mortality was noted with RRs of 0.80 (95% CI: 0.65, 0.98) for flavonoids and 0.79 (95% CI: 0.73, 0.85) for tea when high and low intakes were compared or the addition of 3 cups/d was estimated" - Note:  Blueberries are one of the highest in flavonoids.  My pick for flavonoids would be Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin B Supplements May Lower Stroke Risk - Medscape, 9/18/13 - "Researchers searched for randomized controlled trials published before August 2012 that compared vitamin B supplementation with placebo, very-low-dose B vitamins, or usual care; had a minimum follow-up of 6 months; and included stroke events as a study endpoint ... The researchers noted a reduction in overall stroke events resulting from lowered homocysteine levels following B vitamin supplementation (risk ratio, 0.93"
• Low Levels of High Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Events in Stable Ischemic Heart Disease Patients: A Post Hoc Analysis from the COURAGE Trial - J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013 Aug 8 - "While low HDL-C level is a powerful and independent predictor of cardiovascular risk, recent data suggest that this may not apply when low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) is reduced to optimal levels using intensive statin therapy ... performed a post hoc analysis in 2,193 men and women with stable ischemic heart disease (SIHD) from the COURAGE trial ... In the overall population, the rate of death/MI was 33% lower in the highest HDL-C quartile as compared with the lowest quartile, with quartile of HDL-C being a significant, independent predictor of death/MI (P = 0.05), but with no interaction for LDL-C category (P=0.40). Among subjects with LDL-C levels < 70 mg/dL, those in the highest quintile of HDL-C had a 65% relative risk reduction in death or MI as compared to the lowest quintile, with HDL-C quintile demonstrating a significant, inverse predictive effect" - See niacin at Amazon.com and my niacin page.
• Garlic intake is an independent predictor of endothelial function in patients with ischemic stroke - J Nutr Health Aging. 2013;17(7):600-4 - "ischemic stroke (ISS) ... 125 Chinese patients with prior ISS due to athero-thrombotic disease were recruited from the outpatient clinics during July 2005 to December 2006 ... validated food frequency questionnaire ... Daily garlic intake is an independent predictor of endothelial function in patients with ISS and may play a role in the secondary prevention of atherosclerotic events" - See garlic supplements at Amazon.com.
• Fish oil-enriched diet protects against ischemia by improving angiogenesis, endothelial progenitor cell function and postnatal neovascularization - Atherosclerosis. 2013 Aug;229(2):295-303 - "C57Bl/6 mice were fed a diet containing either 20% fish oil, rich in long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), or 20% corn oil, rich in n-6 PUFAs. After 4 weeks, hindlimb ischemia was surgically induced by femoral artery removal. We found that blood flow recovery was significantly improved in mice fed a fish oil diet compared to those fed a corn oil diet (Doppler flow ratio (DFR) at day 21 after surgery 78 +/- 5 vs. 56 +/- 4; p < 0.01). Clinically, this was associated with a significant reduction of ambulatory impairment and ischemic damage in the fish oil group. At the microvascular level, capillary density was significantly improved in ischemic muscles of mice fed a fish oil diet. This correlated with increased expression of VEGF and eNOS in ischemic muscles, and higher NO concentration in the plasma. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been shown to have an important role for postnatal neovascularization. We found that the number of EPCs was significantly increased in mice fed a fish oil diet. In addition, oxidative stress levels (DCF-DA, DHE) were reduced in EPCs isolated from mice exposed to fish oil, and this was associated with improved EPC functional activities (migration and integration into tubules). In vitro, treatment of EPCs with fish oil resulted in a significant increase of cellular migration. In addition, the secretion of angiogenic growth factors including IL6 and leptin was significantly increased in EPCs exposed to fish oil" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Low Dehydroepiandrosterone Sulfate is Associated With Increased Risk of Ischemic Stroke Among Women - Stroke. 2013 May 23 - "Between 1989 and 1990, 32 826 women without prior stroke in the Nurses' Health Study, an observational cohort, provided blood samples and were followed up for cardiovascular events ... Conditional on matching factors, the lowest DHEAS quartile exhibited a relative risk of 1.30 for ischemic stroke (95% confidence interval, 0.88-1.94), compared with the highest quartile and marginally unchanged when adjusted for confounders (relative risk=1.33; 95% confidence interval, 0.87-2.02). When modeled as a binary variable dichotomized at the lowest quartile, women with low DHEAS (≤the lowest quartile) had a significantly increased multivariable adjusted risk of ischemic stroke compared with those with higher levels (relative risk=1.41; 95% confidence interval, 1.03-1.92)" - See DHEA at Amazon.com.
• Reducing salt and increasing potassium will have major global health benefits - Science Daily, 4/4/13 - "increased potassium intake reduces blood pressure in adults, with no adverse effects on blood lipids, hormone levels or kidney function. Higher potassium intake was linked with a 24% lower risk of stroke in adults and may also have a beneficial effect on blood pressure in children, but more data is needed" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Fiber Intake and Risk of First Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Stroke. 2013 Mar 28 - "Total dietary fiber intake was inversely associated with risk of hemorrhagic plus ischemic stroke, with some evidence of heterogeneity between studies (I2; relative risk per 7 g/day, 0.93; 95% confidence interval, 0.88-0.98; I2=59%). Soluble fiber intake, per 4 g/day, was not associated with stroke risk reduction with evidence of low heterogeneity between studies, relative risk 0.94 (95% confidence interval, 0.88-1.01; I2=21%). There were few studies reporting stroke risk in relation to insoluble fiber or fiber from cereals, fruit, or vegetables" - See Garden of Life, RAW Fiber at Amazon.com.
• Urinary and plasma magnesium and risk of ischemic heart disease - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Mar 13 - "Urinary excretion of magnesium, an indicator of dietary magnesium uptake, might provide more consistent results ... examined 7664 adult participants free of known cardiovascular disease in the Prevention of Renal and Vascular End-Stage Disease (PREVEND) study-a prospective population-based cohort study ... median follow-up of 10.5 y ... urinary magnesium excretion had a nonlinear relation with IHD risk (P-curvature = 0.01). The lowest sex-specific quintile (men: <2.93 mmol/24 h; women: <2.45 mmol/24 h) had an increased risk of fatal and nonfatal IHD (multivariable HR: 1.60; 95% CI: 1.28, 2.00) compared with the upper 4 quintiles of urinary magnesium excretion. A similar increase in risk of the lowest quintile was observed for mortality related to IHD (HR: 1.70; 95% CI: 1.10, 2.61) ... Low urinary magnesium excretion was independently associated with a higher risk of IHD incidence. An increased dietary intake of magnesium, particularly in those with the lowest urinary magnesium, could reduce the risk of IHD" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Coffee and Green Tea May Help Lower Stroke Risk - WebMD, 3/15/13 - "The study looked at the green tea and coffee drinking habits of more than 82,000 Japanese adults, ages 45 to 74, for an average of 13 years ... People who drank at least 1 cup of coffee daily had about a 20% lower risk of stroke compared to those who rarely drank it ... People who drank 2 to 3 cups of green tea daily had a 14% lower risk of stroke, and those who had at least 4 cups had a 20% lower risk, compared to those who rarely drank it ... People who drank at least 1 cup of coffee or 2 cups of green tea daily had a 32% lower risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, compared to those who rarely drank either beverage. Intracerebral hemorrhage happens when a blood vessel bursts and bleeds inside the brain. About 13% of strokes are due to this condition ... Some chemicals in coffee include chlorogenic acid, which is thought to cut stroke risks by lowering the chances of developing type 2 diabetes" - [Abstract] - Note:  Chlorogenic acid is in fruit extracts such as blueberry extract.  See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com.
• Fish oil component reduces brain damage in newborns, mouse study suggests - Science Daily, 2/20/13 - "the novel use of a component of fish oil reduced brain trauma in newborn mice. The study reports that neonatal brain damage decreased by about 50% when a triglyceride lipid emulsion containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) was injected within two hours of the onset of ischemic stroke ... DHA provided protection while EPA did not" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Risk of hospitalization or death from ischemic heart disease among British vegetarians and nonvegetarians: results from the EPIC-Oxford cohort study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Jan 30 - "Vegetarians had a 32% lower risk"
• High dietary fiber intake prevents stroke at a population level - Clin Nutr. 2012 Dec 28 - "In 1647 unselected subjects, dietary fiber intake (DFI) was detected in a 12-year population-based study ... HR for incidence of stroke was lower when the daily intake of soluble fiber was >25 g or that of insoluble fiber was >47 g. In multivariate analyses, using these values as cut-off of DFI, the risk of stroke was lower in those intaking more that the cut-off of soluble (HR 0.31, 0.17-0.55) or insoluble (HR 0.35, 0.19-0.63) fiber. Incidence of stroke was also lower (-50%, p < 0.003 and -46%, p < 0.01, respectively)" - See Garden of Life, RAW Fiber at Amazon.com.
• Total and specific fruit and vegetable consumption and risk of stroke: A prospective study - Atherosclerosis. 2012 Dec 28 - "We prospectively followed 74,961 participants (34,670 women and 40,291 men) who had completed a food frequency questionnaire in the autumn of 1997 and were free from stroke, coronary heart disease, and cancer at baseline ... 10.2 years of follow-up ... The multivariable relative risk (RR) of total stroke for the highest vs. lowest category of total fruit and vegetable consumption was 0.87 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.78-0.97; P for trend = 0.01). The association was confined to individuals without hypertension (corresponding RR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.71-0.93; P for trend = 0.01). Among individual fruits and vegetable subgroups, inverse associations with total stroke were observed for apples/pears (RR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.80-0.98; P for trend = 0.02) and green leafy vegetables (RR, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.81-1.04; P for trend = 0.03) ... Particularly consumption of apples and pears and green leafy vegetables was inversely associated with stroke"
• Red and processed meat consumption and risk of stroke: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Nov 21 - "performed a literature search on PubMed database through June 2012 ... Comparing the highest category of consumption with lowest category, the pooled relative risks (RRs) of total stroke were 1.15 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.05-1.25) for total meat (red and processed meat combined) (n=4), 1.09 (95% CI, 1.01-1.18) for red meat (n=5) and 1.14 (95% CI, 1.05-1.25) for processed meat (n=5); the corresponding RRs of ischemic stroke (highest vs lowest quintile) were 1.15 (95% CI, 1.04-1.28), 1.13(95% CI, 1.01-1.25) and 1.19 (95% CI, 1.08-1.31). Consumption of red and/or processed meat was not associated with hemorrhagic stroke. In the dose-response analysis, the risk of stroke increased significantly by 10% and 13% for each 100 g per day increment in total and red meat consumption, respectively, and by 11% for each 50 g per day increment in processed meat consumption"
• Dietary fiber intake and stroke risk: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Oct 17 - "We performed a literature search on PubMed database through July 2012 to indentify prospective studies of dietary fiber intake in relation to risk of stroke ... The dose-response analysis suggested a 12% (RR=0.88; 95% CI, 0.79-0.97) reduction in risk of stroke for each 10 g per day increment in dietary fiber intake ... Findings of this meta-analysis indicate a significant inverse dose-response relationship between dietary fiber intake and risk of stroke" - See Garden of Life, RAW Fiber at Amazon.com.
• Serum lycopene decreases the risk of stroke in men: A population-based follow-up study - Neurology. 2012 Oct 9;79(15):1540-7 - "The study population consisted of 1,031 Finnish men aged 46-65 years in the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor cohort. Serum concentrations of carotenoids retinol and α-tocopherol were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography ... men in the highest quartile of serum lycopene concentrations had 59% and 55% lower risks of ischemic stroke and any stroke, compared with men in the lowest quartile (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.25-0.95, p = 0.036 for any stroke and HR = 0.41; 95% CI 0.17-0.97, p = 0.042 for ischemic stroke). α-Carotene, β-carotene, α-tocopherol, and retinol were not related to the risk of strokes" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.
• Tomatoes May Lower Your Risk for Stroke - WebMD, 10/8/12 - "Men who had the highest levels of lycopene in their blood were 55% less likely to have a stroke, compared with men who had the lowest levels of the antioxidant in their blood ... The new study included slightly more than 1,000 men from Finland aged 46 to 65. Researchers measured the level of lycopene in their blood when the study began and followed the men for about 12 years" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.
• Fish consumption and risk of stroke and its subtypes: accumulative evidence from a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Oct 3 - "A database was derived from 16 eligible studies (19 cohorts), including 402 127 individuals (10 568 incident cases) with an average 12.8 years of follow-up ... Accumulated evidence generated from this meta-analysis suggests that fish intake may have a protective effect against the risk of stroke, particularly ischemic stroke" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Chocolate: A sweet method for stroke prevention in men? - Science Daily, 8/29/12 - "While other studies have looked at how chocolate may help cardiovascular health, this is the first of its kind study to find that chocolate ... Those eating the highest amount of chocolate had a 17-percent lower risk of stroke, or 12 fewer strokes per 100,000 person-years compared to those who ate no chocolate ... In a larger analysis of five studies that included 4,260 stroke cases, the risk of stroke for individuals in the highest category of chocolate consumption was 19 percent lower compared to non-chocolate consumers. For every increase in chocolate consumption of 50 grams per week, or about a quarter cup of chocolate chips, the risk of stroke decreased by about 14 percent ... The beneficial effect of chocolate consumption on stroke may be related to the flavonoids in chocolate" - See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com.  I'm still betting it covers the flavonoids without the calories or the headache I get from chocolate.
• Low Vitamin D in Diet Linked to Increased Stroke - Medscape, 6/20/12 - "Study participants included 7385 Japanese-American men who enrolled in the Honolulu Heart Program, a long-running, prospective, population-based observational study, between 1965 and 1968. They were 45 and 68 years old at the baseline examination and were followed through 1999 for stroke ... Age-adjusted rates of stroke were significantly higher in the lowest dietary vitamin D quartile (0 - 1.12 µg/day) compared with the highest quartile (4.13 - 211.60 µg/day)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Low Dietary Vitamin D Predicts 34-Year Incident Stroke: The Honolulu Heart Program - Stroke. 2012 May 24 - "The Honolulu Heart Program is a prospective population-based cohort study of 8006 Japanese-American men in Hawaii who were 45 to 68 years old at the baseline examination in 1965 to 1968 ... 34 years of follow-up ... Age-adjusted rates of incident stroke were significantly higher in the lowest dietary vitamin D quartile compared with the highest (all stroke: 6.38 versus 5.14 per 1000 person-years follow-up, P=0.030; thromboembolic stroke: 4.36 versus 3.30, P=0.033). Using Cox regression, adjusting for age, total kilocalories, body mass index, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, pack-years smoking, physical activity index, serum cholesterol, and alcohol intake, those in the lowest quartile had a significantly increased risk of incident stroke (all stroke hazard ratio, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.01-1.47; P=0.038; thromboembolic stroke hazard ratio, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.01-1.59; P=0.044) with the highest as the reference. We found no significant associations between dietary vitamin D and hemorrhagic stroke" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Dietary fibre intake and ischaemic heart disease mortality: the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Heart study - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 May 23 - "average follow-up of 11.5 years ... The calibrated intake of dietary fibre was inversely related with IHD mortality; each 10 g/day was associated with a 15% lower risk (relative risk (RR) 0.85; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.73-0.99, P=0.031). There was no difference in the associations of the individual food sources of dietary fibre with the risk of IHD mortality; RR for each 5 g/day higher cereal fibre intake was 0.91 (CI: 0.82-1.01), RR for each 2.5 g/day fruit fibre intake was 0.94 (CI: 0.88-1.01) and RR for each 2.5 g/day vegetable fibre intake was 0.90 (95% CI: 0.76-1.07).  Conclusion: A higher consumption of dietary fibre is associated with a lower risk of fatal IHD with no clear difference in the association with IHD for fibre from cereals, fruits or vegetables"
• Citicoline Enhances Neuroregenerative Processes After Experimental Stroke in Rats - Stroke. 2012 May 10 - "Animals treated with citicoline showed a significantly better neurological outcome at Days 10, 21, and 28 after ischemia, which could not be attributed to differences in infarct volumes or glial scar formation. However, neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus, subventricular zone, and peri-infarct area was significantly increased by citicoline. Furthermore, enhanced neurological outcome after citicoline treatment was associated with a shift toward excitation in the perilesional cortex" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Flavonoid compound found in foods and supplements may prevent the formation of blood clots, study suggests - Science Daily, 5/8/12 - "It's not always fully appreciated that the majority of Americans will die as the result of a blood clot in either their heart or their brain ... The study focused on protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) which is found in all cells. Investigators in BIDMC's Division of Hemostasis and Thrombosis had previously shown that PDI is rapidly secreted from both platelets and endothelial cells during thrombosis, when a clot forms in a blood vessel, and that inhibition of PDI could block thrombosis in a mouse model ... Among the more than 5,000 compounds that were screened, quercetin-3-rutinoside (rutin) emerged as the most potent agent ... Surprisingly, studies of the rutin molecule demonstrated that the same part of the molecule that provides rutin with its ability to inhibit PDI also prevents the compound from entering cells ... "That finding explained how this compound can be both a potent inhibitor of PDI and a safe food supplement," ... Rutin proved to be the most potently anti-thrombotic compound that we ever tested in this model ... This discovery suggests that a single agent can treat and prevent both types of clots" - See rutin products at iHerb.
• Levothyroxine Treatment of Subclinical Hypothyroidism, Fatal and Nonfatal Cardiovascular Events, and Mortality - Arch Intern Med. 2012 Apr 23 - "Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) has been associated with ischemic heart disease (IHD) ... We used the United Kingdom General Practitioner Research Database to identify individuals with new SCH (serum thyrotropin levels of 5.01-10.0 mIU/L and normal free thyroxine levels) recorded during 2001 with outcomes analyzed until March 2009 ... Treatment of SCH with levothyroxine was associated with fewer IHD events in younger individuals, but this was not evident in older people" - See thyroid hormones at International Anti-aging Systems.
• Low-Fat Dairy May Help Lower Stroke Risk - WebMD, 4/19/12 - "The study researchers, who tracked the diets of nearly 75,000 men and women over 10 years, found that those who ate the most low-fat dairy foods and beverages were 12% less likely to have a stroke than those who ate the least ... The most plausible explanation is that low-fat dairy food lowers blood pressure ... consuming full-fat dairy products such as whole milk was not associated with risk of stroke ... those who ate a daily average of four servings of low-fat cheeses, yogurts, and milk significantly lowered their risk of stroke compared to those who did not include any low-fat dairy in their diet"
• Prospective observational study of isoflavone and the risk of stroke recurrence: potential clinical implications beyond vascular function -J Nutr Health Aging. 2012;16(4):383-8 - "Stroke recurrence and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) were documented. Brachial flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) was measured using high-resolution ultrasound. Isoflavone intake was estimated using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Results: Median isoflavone intake was 6.9 (range: 2.1 - 14.5) mg/day. Isoflavone intake was independently associated with increased FMD (Pearson R=0.23, p=0.012). At 30 months, there were 10 stroke recurrence and 12 MACE. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with isoflavone intake higher than median value had significantly longer median stroke recurrence-free survival time (19.0 [range: 10.4 - 27.6] mth versus 5.0 [range: 4.1 - 5.9] mth, p=0.021) and MACE-free survival time (19.0 [range: 10.4 - 27.6] mth versus 4.0 [range: 2.4 - 5.6] mth, p=0.013). Using multivariate cox regression, higher isoflavone intake was an independent predictor for lower risk of stroke recurrence (hazards ratio 0.18 [95%CI: 0.03 - 0.95], risk reduction 82%, p=0.043) and MACE (hazards ratio 0.16 [95%CI: 0.03 - 0.84], risk reduction 84%, p=0.030)" - See soy isoflavones at Amazon.com.
• Eating citrus fruit may lower women's stroke risk - Science Daily, 2/23/12 - "Women who ate high amounts of the compound had a 19 percent lower risk of ischemic stroke than women who consumed the least amount"
• Associations of dietary magnesium intake with mortality from cardiovascular disease: The JACC study - Atherosclerosis. 2012 Jan 28 - "Dietary magnesium intake was assessed by a validated food frequency questionnaire administered between 1988 and 1990 ... median 14.7-year follow-up ... Dietary magnesium intake was inversely associated with mortality from hemorrhagic stroke in men and with mortality from total and ischemic strokes, coronary heart disease, heart failure and total cardiovascular disease in women. The multivariable hazard ratio (95% CI) for the highest vs. the lowest quintiles of magnesium intake after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factor and sodium intake was 0.49 (0.26-0.95), P for trend=0.074 for hemorrhagic stroke in men, 0.68 (0.48-0.96), P for trend=0.010 for total stroke, 0.47 (0.29-0.77), P for trend<0.001 for ischemic stroke, 0.50 (0.30-0.84), P for trend=0.005 for coronary heart disease, 0.50 (0.28-0.87), P for trend=0.002 for heart failure and 0.64 (0.51-0.80), P for trend<0.001 for total cardiovascular disease in women" - See Jarrow Formulas, Magnesium Optimizer Citrate, 100 Easy-Solv Tablets at iHerb.
• Dietary Protein Sources and the Risk of Stroke in Men and Women - Stroke. 2011 Dec 29 - "During 26 and 22 years of follow-up in women and men, respectively, we documented 2633 and 1397 strokes, respectively. In multivariable analyses, higher intake of red meat was associated with an elevated risk of stroke, whereas a higher intake of poultry was associated with a lower risk. In models estimating the effects of exchanging different protein sources, compared with 1 serving/day of red meat, 1 serving/day of poultry was associated with a 27% (95% CI, 12%-39%) lower risk of stroke, nuts with a 17% (95% CI. 4%-27%) lower risk, fish with a 17% (95% CI, 0%-30%) lower risk, low-fat dairy with an 11% (95% CI, 5%-17%) lower risk, and whole-fat dairy with a 10% (95% CI, 4%-16%) lower risk. We did not see significant associations with exchanging legumes or eggs for red meat"
• Dietary magnesium intake and risk of stroke: a meta-analysis of prospective studies - Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Dec 28 - "Seven prospective studies, with 6477 cases of stroke and 241,378 participants were eligible for inclusion in the meta-analysis. We observed a modest but statistically significant inverse association between magnesium intake and risk of stroke. An intake increment of 100 mg Mg/d was associated with an 8% reduction in risk of total stroke (combined RR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.88, 0.97), without heterogeneity among studies (P = 0.66, I(2) = 0%). Magnesium intake was inversely associated with risk of ischemic stroke (RR: 0.91; 95% CI: 0.87, 0.96) but not intracerebral hemorrhage (RR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.84, 1.10) or subarachnoid hemorrhage (RR: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.90, 1.14)" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.
• Vegetables, fruits, grains reduce stroke risk in women - Science Daily, 12/1/11 - "They used a standard database to determine participants' total antioxidant capacity (TAC), which measures the free radical reducing capacity of all antioxidants in the diet and considers synergistic effects between substances ... For women with no history of cardiovascular disease who had the highest TAC, fruits and vegetables contributed about 50 percent of TAC ... Other contributors were whole grains (18 percent), tea (16 percent) and chocolate (5 percent) ... Women without cardiovascular disease with the highest levels of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 17 percent lower risk of total stroke compared to those in the lowest quintile ... Women with history of cardiovascular disease in the highest three quartiles of dietary TAC had a statistically significant 46 percent to 57 percent lower risk of hemorrhagic stroke compared with those in the lowest quartile"
• Fish Consumption and Ischemic stroke in Southern Sweden - Nutr J. 2011 Oct 11;10(1):109 - "Stroke risk decreased with fat fish intake ([greater than or equal to] 1/week versus <1/month) in both men and women; adjusted pooled Odds Ratio (OR) 0.69, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.54-0.89. However, stroke risk for women increased with intake of lean fish; adjusted OR 1.63 (95% CI: 1.17-2.28), whereas there was no association with men's lean fish intake; adjusted OR 0.97(95% CI: 0.73-1.27). Fish intake was self-reported retrospectively, yielding uncertain exposure assessment and potential recall bias. The findings regarding lean fish would be explained by recall bias if an individual's inclination to report lean fish consumption depended on both disease status and sex. The fact that the association between fat fish intake and stroke was similar in men and women does not support such a differential in recall ... The results suggest fat fish intake to decrease ischemic stroke risk and lean fish intake to increase women's stroke risk. The inconsistent relationship between fish intake and stroke risk reported in previous studies is further stressed by the results of this study"
• Oxytocin Mediates Social Neuroprotection After Cerebral Ischemia - Stroke. 2011 Sep 29 - "In the present study, adult male mice were socially isolated (housed individually) or socially paired (housed with an ovariectomized female); social pairing increased hypothalamic OT gene expression. To determine whether a causal relationship exists between increased OT and improved stroke outcome, mice were treated with exogenous OT or OT receptor antagonist beginning 1 week before induction of experimental stroke via middle cerebral artery occlusion ... Relative to social isolation, social housing attenuated infarct size, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress following experimental stroke; the neuroprotective effect of social housing was eliminated by receptor antagonist treatment. In contrast, administration of OT to socially isolated mice reproduced the neuroprotection conferred by social housing. We further report evidence for a direct suppressive action of OT on cultured microglia, which is a key instigator in the development of neuroinflammation after cerebral ischemia" - See Oxytocin 6x5iu tablets at International Antiaging Systems.
• Marine, but not plant, omega-3s may boost heart health for women: Study - Nutra USA, 9/7/11 - "High intakes of long chain omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, C20:5 n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6 n-3) was associated with a 38% reduction in the risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) in women, but not men ... Much attention has been paid to the conversion of ALA to the longer chain EPA, with many stating that this conversion is very small. Indeed, between 8 and 20 per cent of ALA is reportedly converted to EPA in humans, and between 0.5 and 9 per cent of ALA is converted to DHA ... high intakes of long chain omega-3s ranging from 0.45 to 11.2 grams per day were associated with a 38% reduction in IHD risk for women only" - [Abstract] - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Dietary {alpha}-linolenic acid, linoleic acid, and n-3 long-chain PUFA and risk of ischemic heart disease - Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Aug 24 - "α-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3)  ... Four hundred seventy-one cases of IHD were observed during a median follow-up period of 23.3 y. Higher intake of ALA was not significantly associated with decreased risk of IHD among women or men. Although the HR of IHD was stepwise decreased with increasing ALA intake in men [0.84 (95% CI: 0.62, 1.14) in the medium compared with the lowest tertile (reference) and 0.83 (95% CI: 0.56, 1.24) in the highest compared with the lowest tertile], this change was far from significant (P-trend: 0.39). No evidence of effect modification by n-3 LC-PUFA or LA was observed. High n-3 LC-PUFA intake, in comparison with low intake, was inversely associated with risk of IHD; this trend was significant in women (P = 0.04; HR: 0.62; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.97) but not in men (P = 0.15; HR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.51, 1.06). No associations were observed between intake of LA and risk of IHD" - Note:  α-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3) is the form of omega-3 found in things like vegetable and flax seeds, linoleic acid (LA, 18:2 n-6) is what's in most vegetable oils like corn and soy. - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Omega-3s reduce stroke severity, study suggests - Science Daily, 8/24/11 - "the extent of brain damage following a stroke was reduced by 25% in mice that consumed DHA type omega-3s daily ... the effects of stroke were less severe in mice that had been fed a diet rich in DHA for three months than in mice fed a control diet. In mice from the DHA group, they saw a reduction in the concentrations of molecules that stimulate tissue inflammation and, conversely, a larger quantity of molecules that prevent the activation of cell death ... This is the first convincing demonstration of the powerful anti-inflammatory effect of DHA in the brain ... This protective effect results from the substitution of molecules in the neuronal membrane: DHA partially replaces arachidonic acid, an omega-6 fatty acid known for its inflammatory properties ... this anti-inflammatory effect is likely transferable to humans" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Accumulation of Dietary Docosahexaenoic Acid in the Brain Attenuates Acute Immune Response and Development of Postischemic Neuronal Damage - Stroke. 2011 Aug 18 - "We show that a 3-month DHA treatment prevented microglial activation after ischemic injury, reduced the ischemic lesion size, and increased levels of the antiapoptotic molecule Bcl-2 in the brain. Additional analysis revealed a significant decrease in the levels of COX2 and IL-1β, but not in other proinflammatory cytokines. Importantly, long-term DHA supplementation significantly changed the n-3:n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid ratio in the brain ... Collectively, these data indicate that diet-induced accumulation of DHA in the brain protects against postischemic inflammation and injury. Because DHA is widely available at low cost and has an excellent safety profile, our data suggest that increased DHA intake may provide protection against acute immune response/brain damage in ischemic stroke" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Less salt, less strokes, says new research - Science Daily, 8/11/11 - "a reduction of 3 grams of salt intake per day would prevent up to 8,000 stroke deaths and up to 12,000 coronary heart disease deaths per year in the UK ... A similar reduction in the USA would result in up to 120,000 fewer cases of coronary heart disease, up to 66,000 strokes and up to 99,000 heart attacks annually. It would also save up to $24 billion annually in health care costs"
• Potassium, Calcium, and Magnesium Intakes and Stroke Risk (printer-friendly) - Medscape, 8/2/11 - "In conclusion, findings from this prospective cohort study of women suggest that potassium and magnesium intakes are inversely associated with risk of cerebral infarction among women with hypertension. We observed no protective effect of calcium intake on stroke risk"
• 'Gifted' natural vitamin E tocotrienol protects brain against stroke in 3 ways - Science Daily, 7/5/11 - "This is one of the first studies to provide evidence that a safe nutrient - a vitamin - can alter microRNA biology to produce a favorable disease outcome ... Here, a natural nutritional product is simultaneously acting on multiple targets to help prevent stroke-induced brain damage. That is a gifted molecule" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Preventive use of one form of natural vitamin E may reduce stroke damage - Science Daily, 7/5/11 - "Vitamin E occurs naturally in eight different forms, and this work led by Ohio State University scientists is focused on the tocotrienol form, also known as TCT. The commonly known form of vitamin E belongs to a variety called tocopherols. TCT is not abundant in the American diet but is available as a nutritional supplement. It is a common component of a typical Southeast Asian diet ... In the study, 24 hours after a stroke, lesions indicating brain tissue damage were about 80 percent smaller in dogs that received supplementation than were the lesions in dogs that received no intervention. Imaging tests showed that the treated animals' brains had better blood flow at the stroke site as compared to untreated dogs' brains, a difference attributed to tiny collateral blood vessels' ability to improve circulation in the brain when blood flow stopped in more substantial vessels ... In the study, 20 dogs were randomly assigned to one of two groups: those receiving a placebo pill, and those receiving 200 milligrams of mixed tocotrienols ... Additional examination of the affected brain tissue showed that the TCT supplementation appeared to support arteriogenesis, a process by which collateral arteries remodel themselves into larger vessels so they can bypass the site of blockage" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Olive Oil Linked to Reduced Stroke Risk - WebMD. 6/15/11 - "seniors who regularly used this healthy monounsaturated fat had a 41% lower risk of stroke compared to their counterparts who never used olive oil ... So what exactly is it about olive oil that may lower stroke risk? There are several theories, she says. It may be that people choose olive oil over saturated, artery-clogging fats. “Moreover, previous research found that the polyphenols from virgin olive oil account specifically for its ability to lower oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL)” or bad cholesterol. High cholesterol levels are a known risk factor for stroke ... Olive oil is a healthy fat and it can reduce cholesterol and inflammation, and has been shown to help reduce the incidence of heart disease" - Click here for my olive oil mayonnaise recipe.  See olive leaf extract at Amazon.com.
• Link between phosphate intake and heart disease demonstrated in new study - Science Daily, 6/7/11 - "cholesterol deposits in the wall of arteries are increased following a higher phosphate diet. This leads to narrowing of the arteries, which is the cause of most heart attacks and strokes ... Food high in phosphate includes biscuits, cakes, sweets, dairy products and meats such as offal and veal" - Note:  They left out soda which is high in phosphate.
• Coffee drinking linked to reduced stroke risk in women - Science Daily, 3/10/11 - "Drinking more than a cup of coffee a day was associated with a 22 percent to 25 percent lower risk of stroke, compared with those who drank less ... The food frequency questionnaire made no distinction between regular and decaffeinated coffee but decaffeinated coffee consumption in the Swedish population is low ... Potential ways that coffee drinking might reduce the risk of stroke include weakening subclinical inflammation, reducing oxidative stress and improving insulin sensitivity"
• Boost Potassium Intake to Cut Stroke by 20% - Medscape, 2/28/11 - "Potassium intake may be increased by well-described dietary changes, mainly an increase in fruit and vegetable consumption, as recommended by all guidelines to prevent vascular diseases ... those that are very rich in potassium--including bananas, tomatoes, oranges, apricots, and most legumes--is probably best ... The researchers identified 11 studies on the association between habitual dietary potassium intake and incidence of vascular events over the past 30 years ... In the pooled analysis, a 1.64-g (42 mmol)/day higher potassium intake--which Strazzullo says is equivalent to around three pieces of fruit high in potassium--was associated with a 21% lower risk of stroke (risk ratio 0.79; p=0.0007), with a trend toward lower risk of CHD and total CVD that attained statistical significance after the exclusion of a single cohort (RR 0.93; p=0.03 and RR 0.74; p=0.0037)" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.
• Fruit and vegetable intake and mortality from ischaemic heart disease: results from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Heart study - Eur Heart J. 2011 Jan 18 - "average of 8.4 years ... Participants consuming at least eight portions (80 g each) of fruits and vegetables a day had a 22% lower risk of fatal IHD [relative risk (RR) = 0.78, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.65-0.95] compared with those consuming fewer than three portions a day. After calibration of fruit and vegetable intake to account for differences in dietary assessment between the participating centres, a one portion (80 g) increment in fruit and vegetable intake was associated with a 4% lower risk of fatal IHD (RR = 0.96, 95% CI: 0.92-1.00, P for trend = 0.033). Conclusion Results from this large observational study suggest that a higher intake of fruits and vegetables is associated with a reduced risk of IHD mortality. Whether this association is causal and, if so, the biological mechanism(s) by which fruits and vegetables operate to lower IHD risks remains unclear"
• Immunomodulatory effect of Hawthorn extract in an experimental stroke model - J Neuroinflammation. 2010 Dec 30;7(1):97 - "middle cerebral artery occlusion-(MCAO) induced stroke ... In summary, Hawthorn extract helped alleviate pro-inflammatory immune responses associated with I/R-induced injury, boosted IL-10 levels, and increased Foxp3-positive Tregs in the brain, which may have aided in suppression of activated inflammatory cells. Such treatment also minimizes apoptotic cell death by influencing STAT-3 phosphorylation and Bcl-xL expression in the brain. Taken together, the immunomodulatory effect of Hawthorn extract may play a critical role in the neuroprotection observed in this MCAO-induced stroke model" - See hawthorn products at Amazon.com.
• Three Whole-Grain Portions Daily May Lower Cardiovascular Risk - Medscape, 1/4/11 - "Daily consumption of 3 portions of whole-grain foods (WGF) is linked to lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in healthy, middle-aged people mainly by lowering blood pressure (BP) ... assigned to continue the refined diet (control) or to switch to a whole-wheat diet or to a whole-wheat plus oat diet, for 12 weeks ... Compared with the control group, the WGF groups had a significant reduction in systolic BP (6 mm Hg) and a significant reduction (3 mm Hg) in pulse pressure ... The observed decrease in systolic blood pressure could decrease the incidence of coronary artery disease and stroke by ≥ 15% and 25%, respectively"
• Fish consumption and risk of stroke in Swedish women - Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Dec 29 - "Fish consumption was significantly inversely associated with risk of total stroke but not cerebral infarction or hemorrhagic stroke. Compared with women in the lowest quintile of fish consumption (<1.0 servings of fish/wk), the multivariable RR of total stroke for women in the highest quintile (>3.0 servings of fish/wk) was 0.84 (95% CI: 0.71, 0.98; P for trend = 0.049). Consumption of lean fish but not of other fish types was inversely associated with risk of stroke. The multivariable RR of total stroke was 0.67 (95% CI: 0.49, 0.93; P for trend = 0.07) for ≥3 servings of lean fish/wk compared with that for no consumption"
• Docosahexaenoic acid: brain accretion and roles in neuroprotection after brain hypoxia and ischemia - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2010 Dec 21 - "DHA is a major n-3 fatty acid in the mammalian central nervous system and enhances synaptic activities in neuronal cells ... DHA attenuates brain necrosis after hypoxic ischemic injury, principally by modulating membrane biophysical properties and maintaining integrity in functions between presynaptic and postsynaptic areas, resulting in better stabilizing intracellular ion balance in hypoxic-ischemic insult. Additionally, DHA alleviates brain apoptosis, by inducing antiapoptotic activities such as decreasing responses to reactive oxygen species, upregulating antiapoptotic protein expression, downregulating apoptotic protein expression, and maintaining mitochondrial integrity and function" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Citicoline in Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Vascular Dementia After Stroke - Stroke. 2010 Dec 16 - "Stroke doubles the risk of dementia and is a major contributor to vascular cognitive impairment and vascular dementia ... Citicoline has demonstrated neuroprotective effects in acute stroke and has been shown to improve cognition in patients with chronic cerebrovascular disease and in some patients with Alzheimer disease. A recent trial lasting 6 months in patients with first-ever ischemic stroke showed that citicoline prevented cognitive decline after stroke with significant improvement of temporal orientation, attention, and executive function. Experimentally, citicoline exhibits neuroprotective effects and enhances neural repair. Citicoline appears to be a safe and promising alternative to improve stroke recovery and could be indicated in patients with vascular cognitive impairment, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer disease with significant cerebrovascular disease" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.
• Whey supplements lower blood pressure: Low-cost protein gets big results in people with elevated blood pressure - Science Daily, 12/8/10 - "Beverages supplemented by whey-based protein can significantly reduce elevated blood pressure, reducing the risk of stroke and heart disease ... daily doses of commonly available whey brought a more than six-point reduction in the average blood pressure of men and women with elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressures ... blood-pressure reductions like those seen by Fluegel can reduce cardiovascular disease and bring a 35 to 40 percent reduction in fatal strokes" - See whey protein at Amazon.com.
• Fish oil component given up to 5 hours after stroke limits brain damage, study finds - Science Daily, 11/8/10 - "DHA has potent anti-inflammatory effects. Since inflammation is at the root of many chronic diseases, DHA treatment has been widely demonstrated to have beneficial effects in patients with coronary heart disease, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, sepsis, cancer, dry eye disease, and age-related macular degeneration ... To determine how DHA might be effective in stroke treatment and recovery, the LSUHSC research team administered either DHA or saline intravenously at 3, 4, 5, and 6 hours after the onset of stroke. MRIs showed that neurological deficits were reduced by the administration of DHA. DHA treatment reduced swelling and facilitated neurobehavioral recovery. The volume of the area of destroyed tissue was reduced by an average of 40% when DHA was administered at 3 hours, 66% at 4 hours, and 59% at 5 hours. Further analysis showed it triggered production of Neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1), a naturally occurring neuroprotective molecule in the brain derived from DHA ... only did DHA treatment salvage brain tissue that would have died, its repair mechanisms rendered some areas indistinguishable from normal tissue by 7 days" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Frequent chocolate consumption could reduce CHD risk, US study - Nutra USA, 9/21/10 - "dark chocolate intake was associated with a 39 per cent lower risk of myocardial infarction and stroke combined ... In the fully adjusted model, consumption of chocolate more than five times a week was associated with 57 per cent lower prevalent CHD compared with subjects who did not consume chocolate ... Exclusion of subjects with prevalent diabetes and those who were on a weight loss diet made the association stronger ... the inability to distinguish the different types of chocolate might have led to an underestimation of the true association between cocoa/chocolate polyphenol consumption and CHD in the study"
• Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Supplementation Confers Long-Term Neuroprotection Against Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury Through Anti-Inflammatory Actions - Stroke. 2010 Aug 12 - "neonatal hypoxia/ischemia (H/I) ... : Female rats were treated with or without an omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids-enriched diet from the second day of pregnancy until 14 days after parturition ... Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation significantly reduced brain damage and improved long-term neurological outcomes up to 5 weeks after neonatal H/I injury. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids exerted an anti-inflammatory effect in microglia both in an in vivo model of H/I and in in vitro microglial cultures subjected to inflammatory stimuli by inhibiting NF-kappaB activation and subsequent release of inflammatory mediators. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids confer potent neuroprotection against neonatal H/I brain injury through, at least partially, suppressing a microglial-mediated inflammatory response" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• How dark chocolate may guard against brain injury from stroke - Science Daily, 5/5/10
• How red wine may shield brain from stroke damage: researchers discover pathway in mice for resveratrol's apparent protective effect - Science Daily, 4/21/10 - "Two hours after feeding mice a single modest dose of resveratrol, a compound found in the skins and seeds of red grapes, the scientists induced an ischemic stroke by essentially cutting off blood supply to the animals' brains. They found that the animals that had preventively ingested the resveratrol suffered significantly less brain damage than the ones that had not been given the compound ... his study suggests that resveratrol increases levels of an enzyme (heme oxygenase) already known to shield nerve cells in the brain from damage. When the stroke hits, the brain is ready to protect itself because of elevated enzyme levels. In mice that lacked the enzyme, the study found, resveratrol had no significant protective effect and their brain cells died after a stroke" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.
• Vitamin B3 shows early promise in treatment of stroke - Science Daily, 2/24/10 - "An early study suggests that vitamin B3 or niacin, a common water-soluble vitamin, may help improve neurological function after stroke ... Niacin is known to be the most effective medicine in current clinical use for increasing high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), which helps those fatty deposits ... Niacin essentially re-wires the brain which has very exciting potential for use in humans" - See niacin at Amazon.com.
• Flavonols may slash stroke risk in women: Study - Nutra USA, 2/9/10 - "the researchers noted that a high intake of flavonols, predominantly from tea in the Dutch population and from tea, onions, apples, and broccoli in US studies, was associated with a 20 per cent reduction in stroke risk" - [Abstract]
• Dietary Flavonol Intake May Lower Stroke Risk in Men and Women - J Nutr. 2010 Jan 20 - "A high intake of flavonols compared with a low intake was inversely associated with nonfatal and fatal stroke with a pooled relative risk of 0.80"
• How one form of natural vitamin E protects brain after stroke - Science Daily, 1/11/10 - "Our research suggests that the different forms of natural vitamin E have distinct functions. The relatively poorly studied tocotrienol form of natural vitamin E targets specific pathways to protect against neural cell death and rescues the brain after stroke injury ... Vitamin E occurs naturally in eight different forms. The best-known form of vitamin E belongs to a variety called tocopherols. The form of vitamin E in this study, tocotrienol or TCT, is not abundant in the American diet but is available as a nutritional supplement. It is a common component of a typical Southeast Asian diet" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.
• Low Vitamin D Has a Role in Heart Risk - WebMD, 1/7/10 - "Darker-skinned people produce less vitamin D from the sun than those with lighter skin, and studies show that blacks are far more likely to have lower levels of the vitamin than whites ... Several recent studies also suggest that low levels of vitamin D are associated with an increased risk for heart attack and stroke ... Compared to everyone else in the study, the quarter with the lowest vitamin D levels had a 40% higher risk of dying from heart attacks, strokes, and other heart-related events ... Blacks were 38% more likely to die of cardiovascular causes than non-Hispanic whites, and the researchers concluded that most of this excess was related to their lower vitamin D levels" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Inadequate levels of vitamin D may significantly increase risk of stroke, heart disease and death - Science Daily, 11/16/09 - "a new study by researchers at the Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City suggests that Vitamin D contributes to a strong and healthy heart as well -- and that inadequate levels of the vitamin may significantly increase a person's risk of stroke, heart disease, and death, even among people who've never had heart disease ... patients with very low levels of Vitamin D were 77 percent more likely to die, 45 percent more likely to develop coronary artery disease, and 78 percent were more likely to have a stroke than patients with normal levels. Patients with very low levels of Vitamin D were also twice as likely to develop heart failure than those with normal Vitamin D levels ... Recently, studies have also linked Vitamin D to the regulation of many other bodily functions including blood pressure, glucose control, and inflammation, all of which are important risk factors related to heart disease" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Curcumin May Prevent Clogged Arteries - WebMD, 7/20/09 - "The current study suggests curcumin may thwart the development of atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries, a key risk factor for heart attacks and strokes ... Researchers in France fed 20 mice a diet supplemented with curcumin or a comparison diet not supplemented with curcumin. After 16 weeks, mice fed on the curcumin-based diet had a 26% reduction in fatty deposits in their arteries compared to mice on the comparison diet ... In addition, curcumin appeared to alter the genetic signaling involved in plaque buildup at the molecular level" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.
• Low HDL-cholesterol is associated with the risk of stroke in elderly diabetic individuals: Changes in the risk for atherosclerotic diseases at various ages - Diabetes Care. 2009 Jun 9 - "IHD and CVD occurred in 1.59% and 1.43% of participants over 2-year period. The relation of lower HDL-cholesterol and/or higher LDL-cholesterol to occurrence of IHD in subjects<65 y.o. was significant. Lower HDL-cholesterol was also significantly related to CVD in subjects >=65y.o. and especially those>=75 y.o. (n=1016; odds ratio, 0.511*; 95%CI, 0.239- 0.918, *P<0.05). Stepwise multiple regression analysis with onset of CVD as a dependent variable showed same result. Conclusion: Lower HDL-cholesterol is an important risk factor for not only IHD but also CVD, especially in the diabetic elderly" - See niacin at Amazon.com (niacin increases HDL).
• Low magnesium levels may increase stroke risk - Nutra USA, 4/22/09 - "Blood levels of magnesium were negatively associated with the risk of stroke, they said, with levels of 1.6, 1.7, and 1.8 mEq/L linked to a 22, 30, and 25 per cent reduction in stroke, respectively, compared to 1.5 mEq/L "
• Green, Black Tea Can Reduce Stroke Risk, Research Suggests - Science Daily, 3/4/09 - "By drinking three cups of tea a day, the risk of a stroke was reduced by 21 percent. It didn't matter if it was green or black tea ... the effect appears to be linear ... researchers have speculated that the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) or the amino acid theanine may be what helps. Antioxidants are believed to help prevent coronary artery disease ... we do know that theanine is nearly 100-percent absorbed .... It gets across the blood-brain barrier and it looks a lot like a molecule that's very similar to glutamate, and glutamate release is associated with stroke" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com and theanine at Amazon.com.
• B Vitamins May Cut Stroke Risk - WebMD, 2/20/09 - "people who took the vitamins were 25% less likely to suffer a stroke over the study period than those who took placebo"
• Coffee Cuts Stroke Risk in Women - WebMD, 2/16/09 - "women who drank four or more cups of coffee a day had a 20% reduced risk of stroke compared to women who had less than one cup per month. Drinking two to three cups per day reduced risk by 19%. Drinking a cup five to seven times a week reduced risk by 12%"
• Vitamin D Deficiency Increases Risk of Cardiovascular Disease - Doctor's Guide, 12/10/08 - "a review article published in the December 9 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology ... patients with vitamin D levels below 15 ng/mL were twice as likely to experience a heart attack, stroke, or other CV event within the next 5 years compared with those with higher levels" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Too Little Vitamin D Puts Heart at Risk - WebMD, 12/1/08 - "people with low vitamin D levels were twice as likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or other heart-related event during follow-up, compared with those with higher vitamin D levels ... Sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 blocks approximately 99% of vitamin D synthesis by the skin ... The safe upper limit of vitamin D consumption is 10,000 IU per day ... Vitamin D supplements are available in two different forms: Vitamin D2 and Vitamin D3. Although both appear effective in raising vitamin D blood levels, Vitamin D3 supplements appear to result in a longer-lasting boost" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Ginkgo Extract May Reduce Stroke Damage - Medscape, 10/10/08 - "They found that mice pretreated with EGb761 had smaller brain infarcts and less neurologic dysfunction than their untreated counterparts ... Treatment with EGb761 after the stroke (4.5 hours post-reperfusion) was also associated with a significant reduction in infarct size" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.
• Isoflavone Dietary Supplement Improves Functioning Of Arteries In Stroke Patients - Science Daily, 9/23/08 - "A dietary supplement containing isoflavone – a chemical found in soybeans, chickpeas, legumes and clovers – can improve artery function in stroke patients ... 12 weeks of isoflavone supplement, at a dose of 80 mg a day, significantly improved brachial FMD and, therefore, vascular endothelial dysfunction in patients who had suffered an ischaemic stroke (a stroke caused by blood clots or other obstructions)"
• Indian Spice In Turmeric Reduces Size Of Hemorrhagic Stroke - Science Daily, 9/22/08 - "This active ingredient of the Indian curry spice, turmeric, not only lowers your chances of getting cancer and Alzheimer's disease, but may reduce the size of a hemorrhagic stroke ... significantly decreases the size of a blood clot" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.
• Fish May Boost Memory, Prevent Stroke - WebMD, 8/4/08 - "Researchers reporting in tomorrow’s issue of Neurology have found that older adults whose diets include three or more weekly helpings of baked or broiled tuna and other fish high in omega-3 fatty acids are less likely to develop "silent" brain lesions that can lead to cognitive decline and vascular stroke" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.
• Low Vitamin D Levels Independent Predictor of Fatal Stroke - Medscape, 7/24/08 - "Low levels of vitamin D appear to be an independent predictor of fatal stroke — a finding that suggests supplementation may be a promising approach for stroke prevention" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Low Vitamin D Levels Predict Stroke in Patients Referred to Coronary Angiography - Stroke. 2008 Jul 17 - "Low levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D are independently predictive for fatal strokes, suggesting that vitamin D supplementation is a promising approach in the prevention of strokes" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Fiber May Predict Stroke Severity and Outcome - Medscape, 2/29/08 - "Higher dietary-fiber intake may result in less severe stroke and improve stroke outcomes"
• Fruit, Vegetable Eaters Have Fewer Strokes - WebMD, 1/9/08 - "Specifically, vitamin C levels may prove to be a good predictive indicator of stroke risk, independent of known risk factors such as age, smoking history, blood pressure, and cholesterol, they write"
• Plasma vitamin C concentrations predict risk of incident stroke over 10 y in 20 649 participants of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer Norfolk prospective population study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jan;87(1):64-9 - "persons in the top quartiles of baseline plasma vitamin C concentrations had a 42% lower risk (relative risk: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.43, 0.78) than did those in the bottom quartile"
• Vitamin C linked to lower stroke risk: study - WebMD, 1/7/08 - "The highest average blood levels of vitamin C (greater than 66 micromoles per litre) were associated with a 42 per cent lower risk of stroke, compared to the lowest average blood levels (less than 41 micromoles per litre)" - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com.
• Folic Acid and Stroke--Finally Some Good News - Medscape, 1/3/08 - "the results of this trial were notable for a 25% relative reduction in the risk for stroke among participants receiving folate and B vitamins vs placebo"
• Not Enough 'Good' Cholesterol Makes It Harder To Recover From Stroke - Science Daily, 11/26/07 - "People with low levels of HDL, high levels of homocysteine, and diabetes are twice as likely as those without such problems to have poorer cognitive function and greater disability after stroke"
• Intensive Nutritional Supplementation After Stroke Improves Patient Outcomes - Doctor's Guide, 10/11/07
• Carnosine Is Neuroprotective Against Permanent Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Mice - Stroke. 2007 Oct 4 - "Carnosine is neuroprotective in focal cerebral ischemia and appears to influence deleterious pathological processes that are activated after the onset of ischemia" - See l-carnosine products at iHerb.
• B Vitamin Plasma Levels and the Risk of Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack in a German Cohort - Stroke. 2007 Sep 20 - "Our data suggest that low vitamin B12 plasma levels, particularly in combination with low folate levels, increase the risk of cerebral ischemia. This effect may be mediated at least partly through elevations of homocysteine levels"
• Efficacy of folic acid supplementation in stroke prevention: a meta-analysis - Lancet. 2007 Jun 2;369(9576):1876-82 - "Folic acid supplementation significantly reduced the risk of stroke by 18%"
• Folic acid 'reduces stroke risks' - BBC News, 5/31/07 - "They found the vitamin reduced the relative risk of stroke by an average of 18% ... An even greater risk reduction - 30% - was seen when the treatment lasted more than 36 months" - See iHerb folic acid products.
• Folic Acid May Lower Stroke Risk - WebMD, 5/31/07
• New Stroke Guidelines Underscore Importance of Aspirin for Women - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/06 - "aspirin was associated with a 17% reduction in the overall risk of stroke (P = 0.04) and a 24% reduction in the risk of ischemic stroke ... The guidelines do not recommend the use of aspirin for prevention of a first stroke in men"
• Mittens May Aid Stroke Recovery - WebMD, 2/21/06
• Fruits, Veggies Cut Stroke Risk - WebMD, 1/26/06 - "People who reported eating more than five daily servings of fruits and vegetables had the lowest stroke risk. They were 26% less likely to have a stroke over 13 years than those who ate fruits and vegetables fewer than three times daily"
• Level of Activity Key to Cutting Stroke Risk - WebMD, 8/4/05 - "Being moderately to highly active during leisure time can slash stroke risk ... This means vigorous activity (like running, swimming, or heavy gardening) for more than three hours a week"
• Antioxidant-rich Diets Reduce Brain Damage From Stroke In Rats - Science Daily, 7/1/05 - "rats fed diets preventatively enriched with blueberries, spinach or an algae known as spirulina experienced less brain cell loss and improved recovery of movement following a stroke"
• Recovering from a Stroke? - Dr. Weil, 4/14/05
• A New Paradigm for Stroke Prevention - Life Extension Magazine, 4/05
• Fruits, Vegetables May Cut Stroke Risk - WebMD, 6/3/04
• Best Way to Avoid a Stroke? - Dr. Weil, 2/26/04 - "Can tocotrienol and/or isoflavone supplements help reverse plaque buildup in the carotid artery? ... Your physician may have prescribed one of the statin drugs to lower cholesterol. You should adhere to a low-fat diet emphasizing lots of fruits and vegetables, particularly purple fruits, berries and red wine (if you drink alcohol) ... I would also include omega-3 fatty acids"
• Higher Fruit, Vegetable Intake Associated With Lower Stroke Risk - Medscape, 9/18/03 - "Investigators observed a protective effect for infarction and a clearer one for hemorrhage associated with daily fruit and vegetable consumption; risk reduction for intracerebral hemorrhage was 32% in men and 30% in women"
• More Physical Therapy Aids Stroke Rehab - WebMD, 8/14/03
• Chinese Herb [Gastrodine (also called gastrodin)/Gastrodia elata]  May Treat Vascular Dementia - WebMD, 6/11/03 - "Patients who took gastrodine three times a day for 12 weeks did better on tests of mental function and behavior than patients who took Duxil"
• Aspirin As Effective As Ticlopidine In African American Antiplatelet Stroke Prevention Study - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/03
• Aspirin May Be Better Than Ticlopidine for Recurrent Stroke Prevention... - Medscape, 6/10/03 - "Ticlopidine (Ticlid; Roche) does not appear to be superior to aspirin in preventing recurrent strokes in African-American patients"
• Low Vitamin B6 but Not Homocyst(e)ine Is Associated With Increased Risk of Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack in the Era of Folic Acid Grain Fortification - Stroke 2003 May 8 - "Low B6 but not tHcy was strongly associated with cerebrovascular disease in this postfortification, folate-replete sample"
• Exercise Can Help Dissolve Blood Clots - WebMD, 5/8/03
• Ginseng May Improve Memory After Stroke - WebMD, 2/14/03
• Moderate Drinking Decreases Stroke Risk - WebMD, 2/6/03
• Study in 43,000 men touts benefits of even a little fish - USA Today, 12/24/02 - "Men who ate about 3 to 5 ounces of fish one to three times a month were 43% less likely to have a stroke during 12 years of follow-up ... Omega-3 fatty acids, found in most fish, have been shown to lower levels of blood fats linked to cardiovascular disease and to help keep blood from clotting"
• Folic Acid for Your Heart - WebMD, 11/22/02 - "By increasing folic acid intake and thus decreasing homocysteine, the researchers say the risk of heart disease would drop by 16%, blood clots in the legs by 25%, and stroke by 24%" - See iHerb folic acid products.
• Argument Strengthens For Folic Acid To Reduce Homocysteine Level - Doctor's Guide, 11/26/02 - "A decrease in serum homocysteine of 3 micromol/l, which can be achieved by a daily intake of about 0.8 mg folic acid, should reduce the risk of ischaemic heart disease by 16 percent, deep vein thrombosis by 25 percent, and stroke by 24 percent" - See iHerb folic acid products.
• Strokes: New Routes to Recovery? - Dr. Weil, 10/3/02
• Antioxidant Reduces Stroke Damage - WebMD, 10/1/02 - "A new study shows the antioxidant, known as AEOL 10150, neutralized hazardous free radicals and prevented cell death in a mouse model of stroke. Researchers say the antioxidant is designed to mimic a natural antioxidant, but it works against a wider range of free radicals and also lasts longer in the body" - That last sentence is why I take as large a variety of anti-oxidants as possible though out the day.  I had a good article on my home page that explained why different anti-oxidants were required by various free radicals but the link went dead.
• Low Dietary Or Serum Potassium Risk Factor For Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 8/27/02 - "Diuretic users had an increased risk for stroke which was associated with lower serum potassium (relative risk 2.5;P<0.0001). People who did not use diuretics had an increased risk for stroke if they had low dietary potassium intake (relative risk 1.5;P<0.005)"
• Fatty Acid Lowers Stroke Risk - WebMD, 8/1/02 - "a fatty acid found in corn, sunflower, and safflower oils and soybeans may help prevent strokes ... the fatty acid known as linoleic acid may reduce the risk of strokes, especially those caused by blood clots ... for every 5% increase in the level of linoleic acid, there was a 28% reduction in the risk of either type of stroke, a 34% drop in the risk of clot-related strokes, and 19% decline in hemorrhagic strokes"
• Dietary Folate May Reduce Stroke Risk - Medscape, 7/5/02
• Natural Chemical May Treat Strokes - WebMD, 6/21/02 - "Testing in humans could begin early next year for inosine, which appears to help the brain "rewire" itself after injury ... In newly reported studies involving rats, inosine was shown to promote the growth of nerve cells in areas of the brain that remained undamaged following stroke. This new nerve growth, in turn, took over some of the functions of the stroke-damaged parts of the brain. The findings are reported in the June 25 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" - See inosine at Amazon.com.
• Low Vitamin C Increases Stroke Risk - WebMD, 6/7/02
• Foods Rich In Folate May Reduce Risk Of Stroke - Intelihealth, 5/3/02
• Folate Fights Stroke and Heart Disease - WebMD, 5/2/02 - "people who consumed at least 300 mcg of folate every day had a 20% lower risk of stroke and a 13% lower risk of cardiovascular disease than those consuming less than 136 mcg of folate per day ... Folate is also thought to offset risk of cardiovascular disease, by reducing levels of homocysteine in the blood. Homocysteine is linked with higher risk of atherosclerosis because it damages arteries, but vitamins B-6 and B-12, as well as folic acid, have been found to prevent that damage from occurring"
• Healthful Habits Key In Curbing Stroke Among Elderly - Doctor's Guide, 2/12/02
• Choline Precursors Lower Stroke Death and Disability Rates, Meta-analysis Indicates - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/02 - "Choline precursors are a group of molecules that get converted to phospholipids in the brain. Phospholipids perform many functions, including serving as crucial nerve cell membrane components and acting as neurotransmitters. Choline precursors include drugs like lecithin and citicoline ... Death and disability rate was 54.6 (611/1119) percent for patients treated with choline precursors compared to 66.4 (561/844) percent for those on placebo ... choline precursors might improve ischemic brain damage in two ways, by neuroprotection or by enhancement of neurorepair processes" - Note:  Phosphatidylserine (PS) supplements contain mixture of phospholipids.  The best supplier of PS is Degussa Bioactives, which used to be Lucas-Meyer but they broke up into two companies.  See their phospholipids page.  Taking PS supplements has the added benefit of lowering cortisol.
• Healthful Habits Key In Curbing Stroke Among Elderly - Doctor's Guide, 2/12/02 - "In women, risk of cerebral occlusion decreased significantly with increasing duration and recency of estrogen use ... Hypertension, diabetes, heart attack, and smoking were significant stroke risk factors in both women and men ... Exercise reduced stroke risk in general, and antioxidant vitamin supplements decreased risk of cerebral occlusion ...major emphasis should be directed in this population toward the reduction of modifiable predictors: hypertension, smoking, physical inactivity, and poor diet"
• Strokes Linked to Chiropractic Treatment - WebMD, 2/8/02
• 'D' Good News for Stroke Patients - WebMD, 7/9/01 - "These patients often have dramatic responses to vitamin D therapy ... Patients who are so weak that they are in a wheelchair will gain significant muscle strength and walk in a few months."
• Modified Diet As Useful As Many Other Drugs For Reducing Stroke Risk - Doctor's Guide, 2/19/01

Other News:

• Long-term exposure to low levels of air pollution increases risk of heart and lung disease - Science Daily, 2/22/21 - "Researchers examined hospitalization records for more than 63 million Medicare enrollees in the contiguous Unites States from 2000 to 2016 to assess how long-term exposure to air pollution impacts hospital admissions for specific cardiovascular and respiratory issues. The study measured three components of air pollution: fine particulate matter (PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ozone (O3). Using hundreds of predictors, including meteorological values, satellite measurements and land use to estimate daily levels of pollutants, researchers calculated the study participants' exposure to the pollutants based upon their residential zip code ... Data also showed there were surges in hospital admissions for all of the health outcomes studied with each additional unit of increase in particulate matter. Specifically, stroke rates increased by 2,536 for each additional ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter of air) increase in fine particulate matter each year ... There was an increased risk of stroke and atrial fibrillation associated with long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide"
• More Evidence Backs LDL Below 70 to Reduce Recurrent Stroke - Medscape, 2/21/20 - "Treating LDL to a mean of 66 mg/dL vs 96 mg/dL was associated with a 26% relative risk reduction for the composite endpoint of ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, new symptoms requiring urgent coronary or carotid revascularization, and vascular death in an adjusted analysis."
• Here’s How Strokes Happen When You’re as Young as Luke Perry - NYT, 3/5/19 - "The lining of an artery tears and separates from the vessel wall. A blood clot forms at the site of the tear and travels to the brain, eventually blocking the flow of blood to brain tissue ... This can happen after a sudden movement of the neck, including neck manipulation by a chiropractor or when playing sports. In some cases, Dr. Wechsler said, it has happened to people riding roller coasters ... A patent foramen ovale, or “a hole in the heart.” When a baby takes its first breath, a passageway between the left side and right side of the heart is supposed to close. In about 25 percent of people, it remains open. In some of these people, the hole can raise the odds of stroke ... Blood clots ... A heart defect or rhythm disturbance ... Clots also can form because a person has a heart rhythm disturbance such as atrial fibrillation ... Artery narrowing ... An aneurysm or an arteriovenous malformation"
• What Is Optimum BP in Stroke Thrombectomy? - Medscape, 6/25/18 - "Researchers found the optimum systolic pressure to be 135 mm Hg; increasing values above this level were associated with increased risk for symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and a lower chance of successful reperfusion"
• IRIS: New Analysis Finds Best Candidates for Pioglitazone After Stroke - Medscape, 9/26/17 - "in patients with recent ischemic stroke or TIA and insulin resistance, pioglitazone reduced recurrent stroke or MI by about one fourth compared with placebo"
• Optimal Systolic Blood Pressure Levels for Primary Prevention of Stroke in General Hypertensive Adults: Findings From the CSPPT (China Stroke Primary Prevention Trial) - Hypertension. 2017 Feb 27 - "In conclusion, among adults with hypertension and without a history of stroke or myocardial infarction, diabetes mellitus, or renal function decline, a lower SBP goal of 120 to 130 mm Hg, as compared with a target SBP of 130 to 140 mm Hg or <120 mm Hg, resulted in the lowest risk of first stroke"
• Pioglitazone for Secondary Stroke Prevention: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Stroke. 2016 Dec 20 - "Use of pioglitazone in stroke patients with insulin resistance, prediabetes, and diabetes mellitus was associated with lower risk of recurrent stroke (hazard ratio 0.68; 95% confidence interval, 0.50-0.92; P=0.01) and future major vascular events (hazard ratio 0.75"
• Popular heartburn medication may increase ischemic stroke risk - heart.org, 11/15/16 - "PPIs have been associated with unhealthy vascular function, including heart attacks, kidney disease and dementia ... Researchers determined if the stroke occurred while patients were using 1 of 4 PPIs: omeprazole (Prilosec), pantoprazole (Protonix), lansoprazole (Prevacid) and esomeprazole (Nexium) ... At the highest dose for these 4 PPI’s, stroke risk increased from 30 percent for lansoprazole (Prevacid) to 94 percent for pantoprazole (Protonix) ... There was no increased risk of stroke associated with another group of acid-reducing medications known as H2 blockers, which include famotidine (Pepcid) and ranitidine (Zantac)"
• Stroke recovery in mice improved by Ambien, study shows - Medscape, 12/18/15 - "In almost every case, zolpidem-treated mice recovered at a faster rate than control mice did. It took about a month, for example, for mice not given zolpidem to fully recover their stroke-impaired ability to notice the tape stuck to their paw. Mice given zolpidem recovered that ability within a few days of treatment"
• More Support for Causal Link Between Marijuana and Stroke - Medscape, 2/20/15 - "81% of cases exhibited a temporal relationship with cannabis use and the index event; the patient sustained a stroke within 24 hours of using cannabis ... In 70%, the evaluation was sufficiently comprehensive to exclude other sources for stroke"
• In older men, higher plasma testosterone or dihydrotestosterone are independent predictors for reduced incidence of stroke but not myocardial infarction - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Sep 30:jc20142664 - "3,690 community-dwelling men aged 70-89 years ... follow-up was 6.6 years ... In multivariate analysis adjusting for age and other risk factors, neither T, DHT nor E2 were associated with incident MI (fully-adjusted hazard ratio [HR] for T in Quartile (Q)4 vs Q1: 0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.66-1.28; DHT: 0.83, 0.59-1.15; E2: 0.84, 0.62-1.15). Higher T or DHT was associated with lower incidence of stroke (T: Q4:Q1 fully-adjusted HR=0.56, 95% CI=0.39-0.81, p=0.002; DHT: 0.57, 0.40-0.81, p=0.002). E2 was not associated with stroke (HR=0.76, 95% CI=0.54-1.08, p=0.123)"
• Stroke Risk Increases With HbA1c Level in Women but Not Men - Medscape, 3/3/14 - "Among women, those with HbA 1c of 8.0%–8.9% were 19% more likely to have a stroke than those with normal blood sugar levels; those with levels of 9.0%–9.9% had a 32% increased risk for stroke; and those with HbA 1c above 10% a 42% higher risk ( P for trend < .001). Men demonstrated a trend toward increased risk for stroke as HbA 1c increased, but this was not statistically significant"
• Statins and the risks of stroke recurrence and death after ischemic stroke: The Fukuoka Stroke Registry - Atherosclerosis. 2013 Dec;231(2):211-5 - "CVEs: stroke recurrence or transient ischemic attack) and all-cause mortality in a cohort of Japanese patients with first-ever ischemic stroke ... The 2822 eligible patients registered in the Fukuoka Stroke Registry with first-ever acute ischemic stroke from June 2007 to February 2011 were classified into statin users (n = 993) and non-users (n = 1829) at discharge, and followed up until March 2012 ... The cumulative risks of CVE and death after 4 years were significantly lower in statin users than in non-users (13.8% versus 19.5%, P = 0.005 for CVE; 11.8% versus 21.7%, P < 0.001 for death). After adjusting for multiple confounding factors, statin treatment significantly reduced the risks of CVE (HR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.92; P = 0.011) and all-cause mortality (HR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.50 to 0.89; P = 0.006)"
• Dietary Intake of Saturated Fatty Acids and Incident Stroke - Medscape, 5/15/13 - "We sought to test the hypothesis that SFA intake is associated inversely with risk of stroke and its subtypes and positively with coronary heart disease among Japanese, whose average SFA intake is lower than that of Westerners ... We found inverse associations between SFA intake and total stroke [multivariable hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for the highest vs. lowest quintiles = 0.77 (0.65–0.93), trend P = 0.002], intraparenchymal haemorrhage [0.61 (0.43–0.86), P for trend = 0.005], and ischaemic stroke [0.84 (0.67–1.06), trend P = 0.08], primarily for deep intraparenchymal haemorrhage [0.67 (0.45–0.99), P for trend = 0.04] and lacunar infarction [0.75 (0.53, 1.07), trend P = 0.02]. We also observed a positive association between SFAs intake and myocardial infarction [1.39 (0.93–2.08), trend P = 0.046] primarily among men. No associations were observed between SFAs intake and incidence of subarachnoid haemorrhage or sudden cardiac death"
• Consider Cannabis as Cause of Stroke in Younger Patients - Medscape, 1/22/13 - "because most cannabis smokers are young, patients under 45 years of age presenting with symptoms of stroke should be asked about cannabis use and have their urine tested for cannabinoids ... The authors note that 59 case reports of cannabis-related stroke (mean age, 33 years) have been described. Most cases were in men, with a male-to-female ratio of 4.9:1 ... although only these few cases of stroke associated with cannabis use have been documented, this is probably just the tip of the iceberg ... Nobody is looking for it, and if you don't look you won't find it. Neurologists are not thinking about cannabis as a possible cause of stroke so they don't ask patients about it ... cannabis appears to be associated with multifocal intracerebral stenosis, which can cause a stroke ... The stenoses are caused by shrinkage of the blood vessels and can occur in several different areas of the brain. It appears that cannabis may cause the arteries to constrict"
• Total hip replacement surgery increases risk of stroke, study suggests - Science Daily, 11/9/12
• Red Meat Consumption and Risk of Stroke: A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Studies - Stroke. 2012 Jul 31 - "For each serving per day increase in fresh red meat, processed meat, and total red meat consumption, the RR (95% CI) of total stroke were 1.11 (1.03-1.20), 1.13 (1.03-1.24), and 1.11 (1.06-1.16), respectively"
• Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in relation to stroke: a case-control study - Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2012 Jun 14 - "No statistically significant association was found between habitual intakes of SSBs and stroke"
• Top risk of stroke for normal-weight adults: Getting under 6 hours of sleep - Science Daily, 6/11/12 - "Habitually sleeping less than six hours a night significantly increases the risk of stroke symptoms among middle-age to older adults who are of normal weight and at low risk for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) ... After adjusting for body-mass index (BMI), they found a strong association with daily sleep periods of less than six hours and a greater incidence of stroke symptoms for middle-age to older adults, even beyond other risk factors"
• Dietary Sodium and Risk of Stroke in the Northern Manhattan Study - Stroke. 2012 Apr 12 - "The American Heart Association recommends limiting sodium intake to ≤1500 mg/day for ideal cardiovascular health ... Participants were from the Northern Manhattan Study (mean age 69+/- 10 years, 64% women, 21% white, 53% Hispanic, 24% black), a population-based cohort study of stroke incidence. Sodium intake was assessed with a food frequency questionnaire at baseline and evaluated continuously and categorically: ≤1500 mg/day (12%), 1501 to 2300 mg/day (24%), 2301 to 3999 mg/day (43%), and ≥4000 mg/day (21%). Over a mean follow-up of 10 years ... Participants who consumed ≥4000 mg/day sodium had an increased risk of stroke (hazard ratio, 2.59; 95% CI, 1.27-5.28) versus those who consumed ≤1500 mg/day with a 17% increased risk of stroke for each 500-mg/day increase"
• Telomere length and risk of stroke in Chinese - Stroke. 2012 Mar;43(3):658-63 - "As compared with the fourth (longest) quartile, the odd ratios [OR] (and 95% confidence intervals [CI]) for ischemic stroke risk were as follows: third quartile, 1.37 (1.04-1.82); second quartile, 1.53 (1.17-2.02); and first quartile, 2.12 (1.62-2.77) ... Shorter telomere length was associated with ischemic stroke and was a strong predictor of poststroke death"
• Meat consumption in relation to mortality from cardiovascular disease among Japanese men and women - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Feb 15 - "Moderate meat consumption, up to ~ 100 g/day, was not associated with increased mortality from ischemic heart disease, stroke or total cardiovascular disease among either gender"
• Who Will Benefit From Stroke Drug? New Score Can Help Decide - Science Daily, 2/7/12
• Anemia may more than triple your risk of dying after a stroke - Science Daily, 2/2/12 - "Without red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body, fatigue, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat and other symptoms can occur .. Patients with severe anemia were 3.5 times more likely to die while still in the hospital and 2.5 times more likely to die within a year"
• Blood-pressure-lowering drug after stroke aids recovery, study suggests - Science Daily, 10/21/11
• Diet soda may raise odds of vascular events; Salt linked to stroke risk - Science Daily, 2/9/11 - "In findings involving 2,564 people in the large, multi-ethnic Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS), scientists said people who drank diet soda every day had a 61 percent higher risk of vascular events than those who reported no soda drinking ... In separate research using 2,657 participants also in the Manhattan study, scientists found that high salt intake, independent of the hypertension it causes, was linked to a dramatically increased risk of ischemic strokes (when a blood vessel blockage cuts off blood flow to the brain)"
• Insulin resistance may be associated with stroke risk - Science Daily, 10/11/10 - "Individuals in the top quarter of insulin resistance had a 45 percent greater risk of any type of vascular event. However, insulin resistance was not associated with heart attack or vascular death separately"
• J-curve revisited: an analysis of blood pressure and cardiovascular events in the Treating to New Targets (TNT) trial - Eur Heart J. 2010 Sep 16 - "The relationship between SBP or DBP and primary outcome followed a J-curve with increased event rates above and below the reference BP range, both unadjusted and adjusted (for baseline covariates, treatment effect, and LDL levels). A time-dependent, non-linear, multivariate Cox proportional hazard model identified a nadir of 146.3/81.4 mmHg where the event rate was lowest. A similar non-linear relationship with a higher risk of events at lower pressures was found for most of the secondary outcomes of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, non-fatal MI, or angina. However, for the outcome of stroke, lower was better for SBP. Conclusion In patients with CAD, a low BP (<110-120/<60-70 mmHg) portends an increased risk of future cardiovascular events (except stroke)"
• NSAID use associated with future stroke in healthy population - theheart.org, 9/8/10 - "NSAID use was associated with an increased risk of stroke. This increased risk ranged from about 30% with ibuprofen and naproxen to 86% with diclofenac ... there was also a dose-relationship found, with the increased risk of stroke reaching 90% (HR 1.90) with doses of ibuprofen over 200 mg and 100% (HR 2.0) with diclofenac doses over 100 mg. He pointed out that the results were particularly striking, given that this study was conducted in healthy individuals"
• Egg consumption and CHD and stroke mortality: a prospective study of US adults - Public Health Nutr. 2010 Jul 16:1-10 - "'high' egg consumption (>/=7 times/week v. <1 time/week) was not associated with significantly increased CHD mortality (HR = 1.13, 95 % CI 0.61, 2.11 (men); HR = 0.92, 95 % CI 0.27, 3.11 (women)). There was a statistically significant inverse association between 'high' egg consumption and stroke mortality among men (HR = 0.27, 95 % CI 0.10, 0.73), but the estimate was imprecise because of sparse data. We did not observe a statistically significant positive association between 'high' egg consumption and CHD or stroke mortality in analyses restricted to individuals with diabetes, but these analyses may be limited due to the small number of diabetics. CONCLUSIONS: We did not find a significant positive association between egg consumption and increased risk of mortality from CHD or stroke in the US population. These results corroborate the findings of previous studies"
• Vacuum cleaner sucks up strokes - Science Daily, 6/8/10
• Shingles May Raise Risk of Stroke - WebMD, 10/8/09
• Stroke: Surgery Safer than Angioplasty? - Science Daily, 8/28/09
• Stroke Doubles Patients' Risk Of Hip Or Thigh Fracture - Science Daily, 8/6/09
• Cholesterol OK? Statins Still Help Heart - WebMD, 7/1/09 - "Combined data from 10 trials that included more than 70,000 patients without cardiovascular disease, but with cardiovascular risk factors, showed a 12% reduction in deaths among patients who took statins ... The statin group also had 30% fewer heart attacks and 20% fewer strokes over four years of follow-up"
• Blood-pressure-lowering Drugs Should Not Be Limited To People With High Blood Pressure - Science Daily, 5/19/09 - "Blood pressure lowering drugs should be offered to anyone old enough to be at risk of a heart attack or stroke (or who is otherwise known to be at risk), regardless of their blood pressure ... using any one of the main classes of blood pressure lowering drugs at standard dose reduced fatal and non-fatal heart attacks by about a quarter and stroke by about a third. Heart failure was also reduced by about a quarter. The reductions in disease were similar in people with and without clinical cardiovascular disease and regardless of blood pressure before treatment ... three drugs together, each at low dose to minimize side effects, could increase the preventive effect, reducing heart attacks by about 45% and stroke by about 60%"
• Poor Sleep Quality Leads To Poorer Prognosis After Stroke - Science Daily, 4/28/09
• Statins May Lower Stroke Risk - Science Daily, 4/15/09 - "strokes were 18% less likely among patients taking statins than among those who didn't get statins ... For every drop of 39 mg/dL in LDL "bad" cholesterol, stroke risk dropped by 21%"
• Statins Lower Stroke Severity, Improve Recovery - Science Daily, 2/27/09 - "patients who were taking statins before a stroke experienced better outcomes and recovery than patients who weren't on the drug — even when their cholesterol levels were ideal"
• Rosuvastatin Nearly Cuts in Half Risk of Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/09 - "A refined analysis of a major clinical trial indicates that treating patients with the cholesterol-lowering agent rosuvastatin dramatically reduces the incidence of stroke among patients with high levels of C-reactive protein when compared with patients taking placebo ... Patients in the study were randomised to rosuvastatin 20 mg daily or placebo"
• More May Benefit From Cholesterol Drugs - WebMD, 1/13/09 - "Eight out of 10 middle-aged and older Americans may benefit from treatment with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs ... All the participants had elevated levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) ... Over an average of two years of treatment, participants who took the statin Crestor had half as many heart attacks, strokes, and deaths from cardiovascular causes as participants randomly assigned to receive a placebo"
• Dual Treatment For Stroke Leads To Improved Recovery Rates, Reduced Mortality - Science Daily, 11/16/08
• Statins Lower Risk of Recurrent Stroke in Both Elderly, Younger Patients - Doctor's Guide, 9/10/08 - "Within each group, about half of the people received atorvastatin and about half received a placebo. The participants were then followed for an average of 4.5 years ... Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol was lowered by an average of 61 points during the study for the elderly group, and by 59 points for the younger group. Those in the younger group reduced their risk for another stroke by 26% and the elderly group reduced their risk by 10%"
• Belly Fat Linked to Stroke Risk - WebMD, 8/14/08 - "The BMI, however, was not independently associated with an increased risk of stroke ... The risk association for waist measurements was far more powerful. People with bigger waist circumferences (greater than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women) had four times the stroke risk when compared with people with typical waistlines"
• Even Low Levels Of Air Pollution May Pose Stroke Risk - Science Daily, 5/29/08 - "Although the magnitude of elevated risk of stroke/TIA due to PM2.5 exposure was relatively small, the vast majority of the public is exposed to ambient air pollution at the levels observed in this community or greater every day, suggesting a potentially large public health impact" - SUVs!!!
• DASH Diet Improves Women's Heart Health - WebMD, 4/14/08 - "The women who had the highest DASH scores had the lowest risk for heart disease and stroke. Closely following a DASH diet resulted in a 24% reduction in heart disease risk and 18% lower risk of stroke when compared to those with the lowest DASH scores"
• Brain Damage Occurs Within Minutes From The Onset Of A Stroke, Study Reveals - Science Daily, 2/18/08
• Statins for All Adults with Diabetes? - WebMD, 1/10/08 - "One-third fewer people with type 1 or type 2 diabetes would suffer heart attacks or strokes if they took cholesterol-lowering statin drugs"
• High Triglycerides, Other Cholesterol Raise Risk Of Stroke - Science Daily, 1/4/08
• Blood Pressure Drug Telmisartan Shows Powerful Activity Against Stroke, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 12/17/07 - "83 percent of rats given no medication showed signs of stroke, as did 56 percent of rats given ramipril alone. However, no strokes were noted in the telmisartan-only or the telmisartan/ramipril combo groups ... Telmisartan's ability to easily pass through the blood-brain barrier (something ramipril cannot do) is likely behind the neuroprotective effect noted in the study" - Note:  See my First Line Suggestions for Hypertension where telmisartan and ramipril are my suggestions.
• Lipitor Linked to Bleeding After Stroke - WebMD, 12/12/07
• Atorvastatin Helps Protect Kidneys in SPARCL Patients - Doctor's Guide, 11/12/07 - "Treatment of stroke patients with atorvastatin can preserve kidney function in patients with or without chronic kidney disease, metabolic syndrome or type 2 diabetes"
• Need For Speed: Two New Studies On Stroke - Science Daily, 11/8/07 - "only 44 percent of patients experiencing full-blown clot-based strokes got to the hospital even within six hours of the start of their symptoms -- and 36 percent didn't get there until more than 12 hours had passed"
• 'Silent' Strokes Common in Older People - WebMD, 10/31/07
• High Levels of Uric Acid May Cause Cerebral Strokes, Affecting Cognitive Function - Doctor's Guide, 10/17/07 - "Even minimal elevations in serum UA are associated with structural and functional brain changes, specifically involving the development of ischaemic injury"
• A Meta-Analysis of 94,492 Patients With Hypertension Treated With Beta Blockers to Determine the Risk of New-Onset Diabetes Mellitus - Am J Cardiol. 2007 Oct 15;100(8):1254-1262 - "Beta-blocker therapy resulted in a 22% increased risk for new-onset DM ... beta blockers resulted in a 15% increased risk for stroke"
• Double Cardiovascular Benefit For People With Chronic Kidney Disease - Science Daily, 10/5/07
• Antibiotic May Help Treat Stroke - WebMD, 10/2/07
• Mini-strokes Linked To Uric Acid Levels - Science Daily, 10/1/07 - "high-normal uric acid (UA) levels may cause barely detectable mini strokes that potentially contribute to mental decline in aging adults"
• New Treatment For Stroke Works Up To A Day After Symptoms Start - Science Daily, 10/1/07
• Pioglitazone Exerts Protective Effects Against Stroke in Stroke-Prone Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats, Independently of Blood Pressure - Stroke. 2007 Sep 20 - "Our work provides the first evidence that pioglitazone significantly protects against hypertension-induced cerebrovascular injury and stroke by improving vascular endothelial dysfunction, inhibiting brain inflammation, and reducing oxidative stress. These beneficial effects of pioglitazone were independent of blood pressure or blood sugar values. Thus, pioglitazone appears to be a potential therapeutic agent for stroke in type 2 diabetes with hypertension"
• Prevention of stroke in patients with hypertension - Am J Cardiol. 2007 Aug 6;100(3A):17J-24J - "In contrast to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) provide consistent benefits in stroke protection beyond blood pressure lowering. The ARB telmisartan has a particularly interesting profile for stroke management. Selective angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockade and 24-hour blood pressure control with telmisartan provide the potential for improved stroke prevention"
• Low triiodothyronine: a strong predictor of outcome in acute stroke patients - Eur J Clin Invest. 2007 Aug;37(8):651-7 - "The 1-year mortality was 27.34% for low T3 and 19.37% for normal T3 cases (P = 0.006). A smaller percentage of patients with low T3 values were independent at 1 year compared to those with normal T3 values [54.2% vs. 68.7%, chi(2) = 12.09, P < 0.001, odds ratio (OR) = 0.53"
• Elevated Serum Estradiol Ups Stroke Risks - Physician's Weekly, 5/7/07 - "High levels of serum estradiol may increase the risk of stroke in elderly men"
• Parkinson's Disease Drugs May Ease Stroke-related Disability - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/07
• Tirofiban Safe and Reduces Six-Month Mortality After Ischemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/24/06
• Drug May Aid Aspirin After Ministroke - WebMD, 5/18/06
• Atorvastatin Effective for Stroke Prevention - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/06 - "the atorvastatin arm (265 events) showed a significant 16% risk reduction over placebo (311 events)"
• Closing Holes in Heart Important Treatment for Young Stroke Patients, Study Says - Doctor's Guide, 5/17/06
• Aspirin + Cholesterol Drugs + Blood Pressure Drugs = Less Severe Strokes - Science Daily, 5/11/06
• New Guidelines Offer Power to Prevent Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/5/06
• New Guidelines for Stroke Prevention - WebMD. 5/4/06
• Aspirin + Cholesterol Drugs + Blood Pressure Drugs = Less Severe Strokes - Doctor's Guide, 4/25/06
• Drug Trio May Cut Stroke Severity - WebMD, 4/24/06
• Anti-Platelet Use Reduces Stroke Severity and Improves Outcomes in Patients With No History of Ischemic Events - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/06
• Lower Doses of Clot-Busting Drug Safer for Stroke Patients - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/06
• Drug-Ultrasound Combination Increases Reopening of Blocked Arteries After Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/16/06
• Penn Study Identifies Patients Most at-Risk for Secondary Strokes - Doctor's Guide, 1/27/06
• Blood-Thinning Drugs Raise Alarm in Stroke Victims - ABC News, 1/6/06
• Did blood thinners worsen Sharon's stroke? - MSNBC, 1/5/06
• Mini-Strokes Warn of More Serious Problems - Intelihealth, 12/19/05
• Statins Reduce Risk of Stroke and Death after Carotid Artery Surgery - Doctor's Guide, 11/10/05
• Right-Brain Stroke Could Be Underdiagnosed - Doctor's Guide, 7/29/05
• Cholesterol Drugs May Help After Bleeding Stroke - WebMD, 7/28/05
• New Blood Test Predicts Stroke Risk - WebMD, 6/20/05
• The Role of Statins in Preventing Stroke - Medscape, 6/7/05 - "statins reduce stroke through cumulative improvements in a number of different components of atherosclerosis including effects on the endothelium, thrombosis, plaque stability, and through anti-inflammatory effects"
• Cholesterol Drugs Help Stroke Recovery - WebMD, 4/12/05 - "Unless there are medical reasons not to take the drugs, all patients who suffer a stroke should be put on statins ... people started on statin drugs within a week of a stroke were one-and-a-half to more than twice as likely to recover and go home within 45 days as those who were not given the drugs"
• Stroke Warning Signs May Start Days Earlier - WebMD, 3/7/05
• Anger, Guilt May Trigger Stroke - WebMD, 12/13/04
• Preventing Stroke Without Major Surgery - WebMD, 12/1/04
• Ultrasound-Aided Therapy Better Than Stroke Drug Alone - Doctor's Guide, 11/18/04
• Magnetic Stimulation May Speed Stroke Rehab - WebMD, 11/5/04
• Specialized Arm Exercises for Stroke Recovery - WebMD, 10/19/04
• Testosterone May Help In Recovery From Strokes, Suggests Preliminary Findings In Study - Science Daily, 10/13/04
• Fast Walking Helps Stroke Recovery - WebMD, 10/7/04
• Study Finds High Incidence Of Unnecessary Anti-stroke Surgeries - Science Daily, 9/14/04
• Study Identifies Medical and Neurological Complications That Increase Risk of Dying in Hospital After Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 9/13/04
• Clot-Busting Stroke Drug's Benefit Reaffirmed - WebMD, 9/2/04
• FDA Clears First Device for Removing Blood Clots in Stroke Patients - Doctor's Guide, 8/16/04
• Statins Effective for Treating Acute Ischemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/04
• Early Carotid Endarterectomy Recommended for Patients With TIA or Minor Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/18/04
• Hospitalised Stroke Patients Should Be Screened for Sleep Apnea - Doctor's Guide, 4/27/04
• New Knowledge, Drug Strategies and Treatments Are Improving Post-stroke Outcomes - Doctor's Guide, 4/26/04
• Epileptic Seizure: Red Flag for Stroke - WebMD, 4/9/04
• Advances in Ischemic Stroke Interventions - Physician's Weekly, 3/8/04
• 'Statin' Cholesterol Drugs Lower Stroke Risk - WebMD, 3/4/04 - "Statin therapy should now be considered routinely for all patients at high risk of stroke, irrespective of their initial cholesterol concentrations or the presence of heart disease"
• ASA-Clopidogrel Combination Enhances Antiplatelet Response in Cerebrovascular Disease - Doctor's Guide, 2/10/04
• Statins May Protect against Cognitive Impairment after Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/10/04
• New Thrombolytic, Desmoteplase, May Be Effective Up to 9 Hours After Stroke Onset - Doctor's Guide, 2/10/04
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea May Precede Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/9/04
• Statins May Improve Neurologic Outcomes After Ischemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/9/04
• Homocysteine Independent Risk Factor for Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/9/04
• Ultrasound Improves Outcomes Among Stroke Patients Given Tissue Plasminogen Activator - Doctor's Guide, 2/9/04
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging/Transesophageal Echocardiogram Combo Best Diagnostic Tool For Sub-Acute Stroke Patients - Doctor's Guide, 2/9/04
• Metabolic Syndrome Nearly Doubles Stroke Risk - Doctor's Guide, 2/9/04
• Primary Angioplasty Reduces Stroke Risk When Medical Therapy Fails - Doctor's Guide, 2/6/04
• Stroke Risks May Hint at Alzheimer's, Too - WebMD, 1/15/04
• Combination Antiplatelet Drugs Help Prevent Ischaemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 1/12/04
• Ximelagatran Potential Alternative to Warfarin in Prevention of Stroke in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation - Doctor's Guide, 12/16/03
• Elevated Serum Calcium Linked to Increased Carotid-Artery Plaque Thickness - Doctor's Guide, 11/4/03 - "People with elevations of serum calcium also have thicker carotid-artery plaques, and therefore may be at greater risk of a stroke ... This finding is important, because the risk of myocardial infarction…increases 5-fold within 5 years for every 0.16 mm of carotid-wall thickness"
• Air Pollution Linked to Stroke - WebMD, 10/13/03
• Dietary Fat and Cholesterol Intake Apparently Not Related to Stroke in Healthy Men - Doctor's Guide, 10/8/03
• Milder Strokes with Common Blood Thinners - Physician's Weekly, 10/6/03
• High-Fat Diet Doesn't Cause Stroke - WebMD, 10/2/03
• Antidepressants Help Stroke Recovery - WebMD, 10/1/03
• Post-Stroke Treatment With Antidepressants Appears To Reduce Death Rate - Doctor's Guide, 9/30/03
• Anticoagulation Therapy Reduces Stroke Frequency, Severity, and Mortality in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation - Doctor's Guide, 9/11/03
• Aspirin, Coumadin Make Strokes Milder - WebMD, 9/10/03
• Early Intervention with Atacand (Candesartan) Improves Outcome for Patients with Acute Ischaemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 7/28/03
• Over-the-Counter Drugs May Cause Strokes - WebMD, 7/11/03
• PROGRESS Trial Supports Use of Perindopril-Based Therapy for Preventing Secondary Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 7/4/03
• Drug [stimulant amphetamines] Heightens Sense of Touch - WebMD, 7/3/03
• C-Reactive Protein: Marker for Stroke? - WebMD, 6/23/03
• Stroke Risk May Start in the Womb - WebMD, 6/19/03
• Remission Of Depression Linked With Sustained Improvement In Cognitive Function Following Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 6/17/03
• Improving Stroke Outcomes: Get With The Guidelines – Stroke - Physician's Weekly, 6/9/03
• Elevated C-Reactive Protein Level Possible Risk Factor for Thromboembolic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/27/03
• Abciximab May Work On Secondary Clots In Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/27/03
• Lowering Homocysteine Levels May Reduce Stroke Risk in Patients with Peripheral Artery Disease - Doctor's Guide, 5/26/03
• Large Artery Disease Linked to Early Recurrent Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/26/03
• Delayed Recanalisation Worsens Chances of Symptomatic Intracranial Haemorrhage in Stroke Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/26/03
• Independent Review Suggests Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator Improves Stroke Outcome - Doctor's Guide, 5/25/03
• Dipyridamole Helps Prevent Secondary Stroke – But Reason Remains a Mystery - Doctor's Guide, 5/25/03
• Anticoagulation Treatment for Arterial Fibrillation/Stroke Patients Under-Prescribed in Elderly and Cognitively Impaired - Doctor's Guide, 5/23/03
• Abciximab Beneficial for Acute Ischaemic Stroke Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/23/03
• Subarachnoid Hemorrhage In Young And Middle-Aged Adults Largely Preventable - Doctor's Guide, 5/23/03
• Previous Treatment with Statins Improves Outcome in Non-Lacunar Ischaemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03 - "Taking statins for any reason seemed to improve the outcome of NLIS as a whole, but especially in patients who had suffered atherothrombotic infarction"
• Lack of Gag Reflex in Acute Stroke Patients May Predict Need for Gastrostomy Tube - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03
• Could Urinary Catheters Increase Mortality in Stroke Patients? - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03
• Use of Mannitol Questioned in Acute Stroke Treatment - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03
• Preventive Treatment Should Be Continued Indefinitely after Transient Ischaemic Attack - Doctor's Guide, 5/22/03
• Bleeding Strokes Called Subarachnoid Hemorrhage May Be Preventable - WebMD, 5/21/03
• Depression Linked To High Stroke Mortality - Intelihealth, 5/21/03
• Few Concerned Despite High Stroke Risk - WebMD, 5/16/03
• Neck Cracking Raises Stroke Risk - WebMD, 5/12/03
• Overuse Of Stroke Prevention Surgery Drops, But 1 In 10 Still Inappropriate - Doctor's Guide, 5/9/03
• Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging Accurately Detects Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 5/7/03
• Caffeine Plus Ethanol Safely Provides Stroke Patients Neuroprotection - Doctor's Guide, 4/25/03
• Family History Raises Odds Of Stroke At Young Age - Doctor's Guide, 4/25/03
• Botulinum Toxin Type A May Be Useful In Post-Stroke Leg Rehabilitation - Doctor's Guide, 4/22/03
• Experimental Stroke Treatment May Protect Brain - WebMD, 4/10/03
• As Body Temperature Drops, Penumbral Volume Increases - Doctor's Guide, 4/8/03
• Taking Statins After Acute Ischemic Stroke Improves Outcome - Doctor's Guide, 4/8/03
• Community-Based Experience with Tissue Plasminogen Activator for Stroke Improves Outcome - Doctor's Guide, 4/7/03
• More Effort Needed to Reduce Time Delay in Thrombolysis in Stroke Patients - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/03
• Elderly Can Achieve Good Outcome With Intra-Arterial Thrombolysis - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/03
• American Stroke Association Updates Urgent Stroke Care Guidelines - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/03
• Emboli Retrieval System Effective for Opening Intracranial Arteries in Ischemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/03
• Blood Pressure Boost Can Help Ischemic Stroke Patients - Clinical Psychiatry News, 4/03
• Triflusal No Better Than Aspirin In Preventing Vascular Events After Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 3/27/03
• 'Silent' Stroke Doubles Risk of Dementia - WebMD, 3/26/03
• New Developments in the Treatment of Intracerebral Hemorrhage - Doctor's Guide, 3/21/03
• Minimally Invasive Procedure Shrinks Blood Clots In The Brain - Doctor's Guide, 3/21/03
• Subtle Stroke Symptoms Often Ignored - WebMD, 3/20/03
• For High Blood Pressure Patients, Mornings Raise Stroke Risk - WebMD, 3/3/03 - "many of the elderly have morning surges in blood pressure that can drastically increase their risk of stroke"
• Ischemic Stroke Effects Lessened by Natural Substance [interleukin-10] - WebMD, 2/10/03
• Rate of Strokes in Black Population Four-fold Higher Than Among Whites - Doctor's Guide, 2/19/03
• Delayed Post-Stroke Dementia Likely Related to Vascular Causes - Doctor's Guide, 2/19/03
• Novel Stent Procedure May Offer Benefits Over Carotid Endarterectomy - Doctor's Guide, 2/18/03
• Airway Devices Help Stroke Patients Breathe Easier - Doctor's Guide, 2/18/03
• Risk of Stroke Increased Greatly when Hypertension Not Treated - Doctor's Guide, 2/18/03
• Neurologist Care Improves Outcomes After Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/18/03
• Blood Glucose, Recanalization, Intra-Cranial Bleeding, All Risk Factors For Poor Outcome Following Ischaemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/18/03
• Abciximab Provides Good Functional Outcomes, Safety Profile In Patients With Acute Ischaemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/18/03
• Blood Pressure Reduction in First 24 Hours Might Lead to Worse Outcome for Stroke Patients - Doctor's Guide, 2/18/03
• Intravenous Transplantation of Human Neural Stem Cells Restores Stroke Deficits - Doctor's Guide, 2/17/03
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging Aids Selection For Systemic Thrombolysis Three to Six Hours After Onset of Symptoms - Doctor's Guide, 2/17/03
• Hormone Therapy Raises Stroke Risk - Doctor's Guide, 2/17/03
• Even "Benign" Strokes May Need Aggressive Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 2/14/03
• Sepsis Drug Prevents Stroke Damage - WebMD, 2/3/03
• Treatment Helps Stroke Victims Regain Movement - TheSanDiegoChannel.com, 1/31/03
• Lower the Head after Acute Ischaemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 1/30/03
• Recurrent Strokes May Be Averted If Predictors For Morbidity, Mortality Are Identified And Treated - Doctor's Guide, 1/22/03
• Young Diabetics Have High Stroke Risk - WebMD, 1/16/03
• Intense Heart-Smart Program Pays Off - WebMD, 1/14/03 - "The healthy benefits of a low-fat diet, regular exercise, and cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may be much greater in combination than alone in helping people with heart disease prevent future heart attack, stroke, and even death. New research shows following a strict program that combines all three approaches can lower a person's chances of suffering a major heart-related problem from one in three to one in 15"
• Stroke Risk Factors a Mystery to Most - WebMD, 1/14/03
• BP Drug Cozaar Also Prevents Stroke - WebMD, 1/7/03 - "Cozaar reduced the risk of stroke by about 25% compared with atenolol"
• FDA Advisors Recommend Losartan for Stroke Prevention - Medscape, 1/7/03
• Tooth Loss Linked to Stroke Risk - WebMD, 12/12/02 - "tooth loss may increase the risk of stroke by as much as 74% compared with those who have a healthy mouthful of teeth ... The findings add more evidence to support the growing link between gum (periodontal) disease, which is caused by bacterial infections, and the risk of stroke and heart disease" - Possible solution?:
  • Low-dose Periostat (Doxycycline) Shows Benefits in Patients with Heart Failure - Doctor's Guide, 11/20/02 - "At six-month follow-up, sub-antimicrobial dose doxycyline significantly reduced CRP levels by 45.8 percent compared to baseline values (p<0.05). The drug was also associated with a 33.5 percent reduction in interleukin-6 and a 50 percent reduction in metalloproteinase ... The findings are exciting, since research is now showing that CRP is both a key marker of inflammation leading to future acute coronary events, but also that CRP itself may contribute to the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis"
• 'New Horizon' for Stroke Treatment - Medscape, 11/26/02
• Raloxifene Halves Cerebrovascular Risk in Postmenopausal Women - Medscape, 11/20/02 - "raloxifene (Evista) reduces the risk of stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) in postmenopausal women by 48% over four years"
• Inflammation May Increase Stroke Risk In Men With Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 11/1/02 - "The study found that men with systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) at or above 140 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and elevated levels of inflammation-sensitive plasma proteins (ISP) were four times as likely to have a stroke as were men who had normal blood pressure and normal ISP levels. Moreover, the inflammatory proteins predicted stroke risk for 10 or more years." - See my inflammation page for ways to reduce it.
• Women's Stroke Symptoms Often Different - WebMD, 10/25/02
• Subarachnoid Aneurysm Therapy Revamp Signalled By Major Trial - Doctor's Guide, 10/24/02
• Drugs [tissue plasminogen activator, citicoline, Tat-NR2B9c] Stop Stroke Damage - WebMD, 10/24/02
• Atorvastatin Shown to Decrease Heart Disease and Stroke in Patients with Hypertension And Low Cholesterol - Doctor's Guide, 10/11/02
• Stroke Risks Linked With Initiation Of Hormone Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 10/11/02 - "The risk of ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke doubles in the first six months of initiating hormone therapy in post-menopausal women"
• Strategies Outlined For Primary, Secondary Prevention of Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 9/18/02 - "The most recent evidence suggests that there are four primary prevention strategies for stroke: adequate blood pressure reduction, treatment of hyperlipidemia, antithrombotic therapy in atrial fibrillation patients and antiplatelet therapy in myocardial infarction patients"
• LIFE Substudy Shows Losartan Superior to Atenolol at Reducing Stroke Risk - Doctor's Guide, 9/16/02
• Intramuscular Botulinum Toxin A Curbs Wrist, Finger Spasticity - Doctor's Guide, 8/8/02
• Botox Eases Stroke Disability - WebMD, 8/7/02
• Cholesterol Raises Women's Stroke Risk - WebMD, 7/11/02 - "it's the first time they've been able to show that high cholesterol levels are a major risk factor for stroke death among women"
• Stroke Patients With High Blood Sugar At Higher Risk Of Death - Doctor's Guide, 7/10/02
• Ulcer-Causing Bacteria Linked to Stroke - WebMD, 7/8/02 - "H. pylori causes ulcers in the stomach ... those who had suffered a stroke from a blocked large artery had significantly higher levels of the more potent strains of the bacteria ... The study also found that levels of a substance known as C-reactive protein (CRP) that indicates inflammation within the body were also higher in the stroke groups. But patients with the potent strains of H. pylori had the highest CRP levels ... treating patients with H. pylori infection may be an easy way to reduce the risk of stroke"
• Cozaar (Losartan) Lowered Risk Of Total Mortality In Patients With Diabetes By 39% Versus Atenolol - Doctor's Guide, 6/27/02 - "treatment with losartan resulted in a 24 per cent reduction in the primary composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, stroke and heart attack compared to the beta-blocker atenolol (p=0.03). Blood pressure and pulse pressure reductions were similar with both therapies. In addition, losartan significantly reduced the risk of cardiovascular death by 37 per cent (p=0.03) and total mortality by 39 per cent ... A 39 per cent reduction in total mortality with losartan is an important observation given that the observed reduction is versus an established antihypertensive, atenolol ... It is widely accepted that elevated systolic blood pressure is an even stronger risk factor for cardiovascular events than diastolic blood pressure"
• Reducing Hypertension In The Elderly Leads To A Significant Reduction In The Incidence Of Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 6/27/02
• Sertraline May Prevent Depression and Improve Cognitive Function within One Year of Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 6/27/02
• Stroke Specialists Call For Measure Of Physical And Mental Impairments - Doctor's Guide, 6/5/02
• Patients Who First Note Stroke Symptoms Upon Awakening Most Often Have Lacunar Strokes - Doctor's Guide, 6/3/02
• Meta-analysis of Research on Dipyridamole for Prevention of Stroke and Vascular Events in Patients With Vascular Disease - Doctor's Guide, 6/3/02
• Milnacipran Effective In Post-Stroke Depression - Doctor's Guide, 5/29/02
• MRI Is Valuable in Predicting Stroke - Medscape, 5/3/02
• MR Studies Are Valuable In Predicting Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 4/29/02
• Low Potassium Levels Soon After a Stroke Linked to Poor Outcome - Doctor's Guide, 4/18/02
• Lack of Patient Awareness of Acute Stroke Symptoms/Treatment Options Contributes to Underutilization of Thrombolytic Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 4/18/02
• Weather Affects Stroke Risk - WebMD, 4/17/02
• Low Testosterone and the Brain - WebMD, 4/17/02 - "New research suggests the male hormone may help men reduce their risk of stroke as well as improve symptoms of Parkinson's disease ... When the five patients studied received testosterone replacement therapy, researchers found symptoms such as fatigue, depression, anxiety, and sexual function improved greatly"
• A Big Waist = Bigger Risk of Stroke - WebMD, 4/16/02
• Anger Danger in Stroke Patients - WebMD, 4/11/02
• Elderly Patients Have High Stroke Risk Within Six Months of Heart Attack - Doctor's Guide, 4/3/02
• Significant Stroke Prevention Noted With Ramipril - Doctor's Guide, 3/21/02 - ACE inhibitors
• Non-Phamacologic Technique Helps Prevent Stroke in Atrial Fibrillation Patients - Doctor's Guide, 3/18/02
• Abdominal Obesity Identified as Independent Risk Factor for Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/14/02
• Family Life and Financial Stability Affect Male Risk of Death From Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 2/12/02
• Robot Helps Stroke Survivors Relearn Movement - WebMD, 2/12/02
• Ramipril Reduces Stroke Risk, HOPE Trial Follow-up Reports - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/02
• Sudden Movements Can Bring on Stroke - WebMD, 2/11/02
• Study: Jolts May Cause Strokes - Intelihealth, 2/10/02
• Study: Stroke Victims Need Drugs Fast - Intelihealth, 2/10/02
• Flu Shot Helps Prevent Stroke - WebMD, 1/31/02
• Study: Calcium may help determine risk of stroke - USA Today, 1/31/02
• Special Stroke Test May Help More People - WebMD, 1/24/02
• After Stroke, Start Physical Therapy Early - WebMD, 1/17/02
• Depression And Anxiety Increase Risk Of Fatal Stroke - Intelihealth, 1/4/02
• Stroke Patients Show Significant Risk Reduction When Given Atacand (Candesartan Cilexetil) - Doctor's Guide, 11/29/01
• C-Reactive Protein Levels Indicative of Ischemic Risk in Some Men - Doctor's Guide, 11/12/01
• Blood Pressure Combo [ACE inhibitor & diuretic] Lowers Risk of Stroke - WebMD, 9/27/01
• Amphetamine/Speech Therapy Combination May Relieve Stroke-Related Speech Problems - Doctor's Guide, 9/7/01
• Moderate Alcohol Consumption May Protect Against Silent Stroke/White Matter Disease - Doctor's Guide, 9/7/01 - ""Overall, we found that non-drinkers have the most strokes and white matter disease," ... "Light-to-moderate drinkers have fewer strokes and the least amount of white matter disease, but somewhat greater atrophy. Moderately heavy drinkers have the fewest strokes but more white matter disease and the most atrophy." ... much of alcohol's protective effect against strokes is thought to stem from its ability to raise levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), the so-called good cholesterol carrier. In addition, alcohol is known to be a mild blood thinner, so it could offer protection from silent strokes caused by tiny blood clots in the brain ... Brain atrophy and drinking were linked in a dose-dependent manner, suggesting that even low levels of alcohol use may contribute to brain shrinkage"
• Alcohol's effect on the brain a 'mixed' bag - USA Today, 9/6/01 - "Moderate drinking may reduce the risk of certain types of stroke and scarring in the core of elderly people's brains, a study found. But alcohol may also promote shrinkage of the brain — a condition seen in Alzheimer's patients"
• Exanta (Ximelagatran) Safe/Tolerable for Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation - Doctor's Guide, 9/4/01
• New Approach To Therapy Could Offer Breakthrough To Millions Of Stroke Victims - Intelihealth, 8/28/01
• Stroke Hurts the Family, Too - WebMD, 7/11/01
• Acetaminophen: For Fevers, Pains, ... and Stroke? - WebMD, 7/6/01
• Stroke Warning Signs Not Well Recognized In United States Stroke Belt - Doctor's Guide, 6/19/01
• Triflusal Preferable To Aspirin For Secondary Prevention Of Ischemic Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 6/19/01
• Drug Study May Change What Doctors Think About High Blood Pressure, Avoiding Stroke - WebMD, 6/18/01 - "Lowering high blood pressure is one of the best ways to prevent stroke and heart disease. Now it turns out that the combination of two blood pressure medications -- perindopril (Aceon) and indapamide -- can prevent stroke even if blood pressure is normal"
• Blood Pressure Drugs Cut Stroke Risk - Intelihealth, 6/17/01 - "giving stroke patients blood pressure pills and diuretics could halve the chance of their suffering another stroke"
• New Treatment Prevents Strokes By Eliminating Blood Clots From Heart - Doctor's Guide, 3/26/01 - "The treatment, known as PLAATO™ (Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Transcatheter Occlusion), prevents strokes by eliminating a source of blood clots from the heart ... The procedure involves threading a small tube, or catheter, into the heart and depositing a permanent occlusion device into the left atrial appendage, a thumb-like pouch where blood clots are prone to form"
• Study Backs Heart Attack Drug - Intelihealth, 3/19/01 - "The heart drug Plavix reduces the risk of new heart attacks, strokes and death by 20 percent a year in people being treated for mild heart attacks and bad chest pain"
• Doctors Make New Strides In Attacking Brain Clots - Intelihealth, 3/9/01
• Direct-to-Brain Drug Works More Than Six Hours Poststroke - WebMD, 3/5/01 - "Dye injected through the tube allowed Barr to pinpoint the clot on an X-ray. Barr then ran an even smaller tube -- barely thicker than a thread -- up into the man's brain until it reached the clot. Then he put a small amount of a clot-dissolving drug into the tube and let it drip directly onto the clot ... "His artery was opened in one hour, and he had a nearly complete recovery at three months""
• How to Stop a Stroke From Striking, Alcohol, Overexertion Could Trigger Strokes - WebMD, 2/26/01
• Umbilical Cords Could Repair Brains - Intelihealth, 2/19/01
• Umbilical Blood Cells Heal Stroke Damage in Rats - WebMD, 2/18/01
• Strokes More Common in Snorers, Heavy Sleepers - WebMD, 2/16/01
• Forget About Estrogen As Protection Against Stroke, Researchers Say - Doctor's Guide, 2/16/01
• Brain damage real from 'silent stroke' - CNN, 2/16/01
• Amino acid may trigger strokes - USA Today, 2/15/01
• Homocysteine May Trigger Strokes - Intelihealth, 2/15/01 - "One way to lower homocysteine is to increase doses of the B vitamins - folic acid and vitamins B-6 and B-12 . . . .doctors estimate that one-quarter of the U.S. population has clearly elevated levels."
• Doctor fights stroke with innovative tactics - CNN, 2/15/01
• Study: Low Fat Linked To Stroke Risk - Intelihealth, 2/13/01
• Cancer Drug May Prevent Stroke-Related Brain Injury, New Approach May Reduce Death and Permanent Disability - WebMD, 2/1/01
• Intensive Training May Boost Recovery From Stroke and Other Brain Injuries - WebMD, 12/6/00
• Blood-Pressure Drug Approved to Prevent Stroke, Heart Attack - WebMD, 10/6/00
• Low Stroke Rates Associated With Vitamin C Level In Bloodstream - Doctor's Guide, 10/6/00
• Depression May Up Stroke Risk, But It Can Be Treated - WebMD, 7/21/00
• FDA Approves Aggrenox For Patients With Previous Strokes - Doctor's Guide, 11/23/99
• Thick Blood May Increase Stroke Risk - Doctor's Guide, 8/17/99
• Extremely low cholesterol may lead to strokes, study finds - CNN, 2/5/99
• Stroke Survivors Can Fare Well Into Older Age - Doctor's Guide, 4/2/98