Stroke: The surprising drink that may ‘halve’ the likelihood of having a stroke – study

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An ischaemic stroke results from a blockage that prevents nutrient-rich blood from reaching the brain. The first signs of an attack include slurred speech and lopsidedness in one side of the face. As a leading cause of death and disability around the world, developing effective countermeasures against stroke has quickly become an international priority. In one study, surprising results appeared to suggest that men who drank dairy milk were twice as likely to suffer a stroke, compared to their counterparts.

A quarter of strokes occur in people under the age of 65, and a fifth of all stroke victims succumb to an attack.

Two major risk factors for the condition include high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

The latter predisposes individuals to a narrowing of arteries, which makes it difficult for blood to flow through the arteries and reach the brain.

Sometimes, bits of plaque in the arteries can break off, and form a clot which, hiking the risk of both heart attack and stroke.

READ MORE: High cholesterol: The anti-inflammatory food that slashes ‘bad’ levels in weeks – study

For this reason, foods that increase levels of bad cholesterol have generally been linked to increased stroke risk.

One such food, namely milk, has long been vilified for its associations with high cholesterol because much of the fat it contains is saturated.

One study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, however, challenged this view.

The study leaned on data provided by more than 650 middle-aid men who were asked to record all their food and drink intake over a seven-day period.

This methodology was adopted with the aim of gaining more reliable information on total food intakes than questionnaires.

Researchers tracked the number of strokes and heart disease cases that occurred during a follow-up period of 20 years.

The team found that men who consumed at least 200ml of milk a day were half as likely to experience a stroke as those drinking the least milk.

This amount is said to provide a third of an adult’s daily calcium requirement.

Virtually all the milk consumed in the study was whole or full-fat milk.

The authors explained: “The present perception of milk as harmful, in increasing cardiovascular risk, should be challenged, and every effort should be made to restore it to its rightful place in a healthy diet. “

The team behind the study explained that the findings had also been supported by an overview of 10 major studies that assessed milk consumption, which also found an association between milk consumption and a lower risk of stroke.

In addition, it found marked improvements in blood pressure, which could be an explanatory factor for the reduction in stroke risk.

Other factors that could lower blood pressure include exercise, quitting smoking, and eating four to five cups of potassium-rich vegetables every day.

The findings of the study were later echoed in a Swedish experiment, published in the journal of the American Heart Association.

This time, researchers found that the more low-fat dairy the subjects consumed, the lower the risk of ischaemic stroke was.

However, the researchers found that full-fat dairy products didn’t raise or lower the risk, conversely to the previous study.

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