By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, April 18, 2009, abstracted from “Dietary fiber and fiber-rich food intake in relation to risk of stroke in male smokers” printed online March 25, 2009 in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition

In the United States alone, someone has a stroke every 45 seconds and someone dies of stroke every three minutes. As the third leading cause of death among Americans (cancer and heart disease are the leading causes), stroke costs our healthcare system $57 billion each year (1). The cost of stroke between 2005 and 2050 in the United States is estimated to exceed $2 trillion (2).

Natural ways to help maintain a healthy heart include vitamin D (3) B-vitamins (4) like folic acid (5), calcium (6) and tea (7). Now a new study (8) has found that fiber, specifically soluble-fiber foods, may help with heart health.

In the study, researchers analyzed fiber intake of more than 26,000 men from the ATBC stroke study (9). The men were divided into five levels of total fiber intake:

Level 1: 16.1 grams of total fiber per day
Level 2: 20.9 grams of total fiber per day
Level 3: 24.7 grams of total fiber per day
Level 4: 28.9 grams of total fiber per day
Level 5: 35.8 grams of total fiber per day

Men with a high fiber intake consumed 63% less alcohol (11.1 vs. 29.43 g per day), and had 25% higher intake of folate (384 vs. 288 g per day), 27% more magnesium (558 vs. 411 g per day), 54% more fruits (4.3 vs. 2.0 g per day), 25% more vegetables (5.4 vs. 4.1 g per day), 68% more cereal (28.2 vs. 9.2 g per day) and 69% more rye products (94.7 vs. 30.2 g per day).

When looking at fiber intake and its relation to stroke, the researchers found that those in the highest fiber intake group had a 14% reduced of subarachnoid hemorrhage* (10) compared to those in the lowest intake group. When looking at water-soluble fiber intake (fiber found in fruits, many vegetables, and legumes (11)), there was a 14% reduced risk of stroke (12) between the highest (7.7 g per day) versus the lowest (3.8 g per day) intake. Finally, when looking at water-insoluble fiber intake (fiber found in whole grain, whole wheat, and some vegetables (12)), there was a 12% and 11% reduced risk of intracerebral hemorrhage** (13) and subarachnoid hemorrhage, respectively, between the highest (28.3 g per day) and lowest (12.2 g per day) intakes.

For the researchers, “These findings suggest a beneficial effect of the consumption of fruits, vegetables and cereals on stroke risk.”

* Subarachnoid hemorrhage: Bleeding in the area between the brain and the thin tissues that cover the brain.
** Intracerebral hemorrhage: Bleeding in the brain caused by the rupture of a blood vessel in the head.

Greg Arnold is a Chiropractic Physician practicing in Danville, CA. You can contact Dr. Arnold directly by emailing him at mailto:PitchingDoc@msn.com or visiting his web site at www.CompleteChiropracticHealthcare.com

Reference:
1. “Impact of Stroke” posted on the American Stroke Association Website www.strokeassociation.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=1033
2. Brown DL, Boden-Albala B, Langa KM, Lisabeth LD, Fair M, Smith MA, Sacco RL, Morgenstern LB. Projected costs of ischemic stroke in the United States. Neurology. 2006;67:1390 –1395.
3. Poole KE. Reduced vitamin D in acute stroke. Stroke. 2006 Jan;37(1):243-5
4. Spence JD. Vitamin Intervention For Stroke Prevention trial: an efficacy analysis. Stroke. 2005 Nov; 36(11):2404-9. Epub 2005 Oct 20
5. Larsson SC. Folate, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and Methionine Intakes and Risk of Stroke Subtypes in Male Smokers. American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published on February 12, 2008. doi:10.1093/aje/kwm395
6. Umesawa M. Dietary Calcium Intake and Risks of Stroke, Its Subtypes, and Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese. The JPHC Study Cohort I. Stroke. 2008 Jul 17. [Epub ahead of print]
7. Lenore Arab, Weiqing Liu, and David Elashoff. Green and Black Tea Consumption and Risk of Stroke. A Meta-Analysis. Stroke published February 19, 2009, 10.1161/STROKEAHA.108.538470
8. Larsson SC. Dietary fiber and fiber-rich food intake in relation to risk of stroke in male smokers. Eur J Clin Nutr advance online publication, March 25, 2009; doi:10.1038/ejcn.2009.16
9. ATBC Cancer Prevention Study Group (1994). The alpha-tocopherol, beta-carotene lung cancer prevention study: design, methods, participant characteristics, and compliance. Ann Epidemiol 4, 1–10.c
10. “Subarachnoid Hemorrhage” posted on www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000701.htm
11. “Soluble Fiber Tipsheet” posted on www.nhlbi.nih.gov/chd/Tipsheets/solfiber.htm
12. “Intracerebral Hemorrhage” posted on www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000796.htm
13. “Solube and insoluble fiber” posted on www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/19531.htm