Stroke risk 'could be lowered' with Mediterranean diet

Living a life with a diet associated with countries such as Greece, Turkey and Italy could help a person lower their risk of having a stroke, according to a new study.

Scientists from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York judged the effects of the Mediterranean diet on stroke risk, which is largely caused by high blood pressure.

The diet itself consisted of such things as vegetables, legumes, fish, fruits, cereals and the vast quantity of monounsaturated fats found in the likes of olive oil, dairy products, meat and poultry. Wine was also taken into account, though only in mild volumes.

Nikolas Scarmeas of Columbia University Medical Center in New York said of the results: "The relationship between this type of brain damage and the Mediterranean diet was comparable with that of high blood pressure.

"In this study, not eating a Mediterranean-like diet had about the same effect on the brain as having high blood pressure."

Every year, around 150,000 people in the UK of strokes and out of everyone in the UK who has a stroke, around one-third will die within the first 10 days.

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