Max
09-04-2002, 12:48 PM
Got bananas? They might help stave off strokes
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By Lee Bowman
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
Could a banana or two a day keep stroke at bay? People with a low amount of potassium in their diets appear to have an increased risk of stroke, according to a new study.
Scientists found that people over age 65 who had the lowest amount of potassium in their diet were 1 1/2 times more likely to have a stroke than those with the highest amounts. Low potassium intake was defined as less than 2.4 grams a day; high levels was more than 4 grams a day, or about the equivalent of 10 bananas a day.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Neurology, involved 5,600 men and women who were free of stroke when they started the study and were followed for four to eight years.
While other studies have noted a link between low potassium levels and stroke risk, the analysis by Dr. Deborah Green of The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, also looked at whether people were taking diuretics, drugs that reduce the amount of water in the body and can also cause reduced potassium levels. The drugs are commonly used to treat high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.
"Diuretics clearly help prevent stroke by controlling high blood pressure, but we wanted to see whether their effect on potassium levels would affect the risk of stroke," Green said.
Of those taking diuretics, the study found that those with the lowest levels of potassium in their blood were 2.5 times more likely to have a stroke than those with the highest levels of potassium in the blood.
The researchers said more studies are needed to confirm their results and determine if increasing potassium in the diet might help prevent strokes. And Green stressed that the results don't mean diuretics create an excessive risk of stroke or that people should stop taking them.
"The question is whether diuretics would be even more effective with adequate potassium intake," she said.
Besides bananas, other good sources of potassium are potatoes, spinach, celery, broccoli, avocados, milk and nuts.
Researchers also looked at a small number of diuretic users who had atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm that increases the risk of stroke. People with that condition, coupled with the lower levels of potassium, were 10 times more likely to develop a stroke than diuretic users who had regular heartbeats and higher potassium levels.
That underscores that potassium intake may be particularly important for some people who have specific risk factors for stroke, said Dr. Steven Levine, a neurologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who wrote a commentary on the new study.
09/04/02
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"Experience teaches that, of all the emotions, fear stands alone in its power to move us, or to capture us in its grip forever. In a world of terrors, there is nothing more fearsome that the unknown...especially when what is unknown is ourselves." Outer Limits(Fear Itself)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Lee Bowman
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
Could a banana or two a day keep stroke at bay? People with a low amount of potassium in their diets appear to have an increased risk of stroke, according to a new study.
Scientists found that people over age 65 who had the lowest amount of potassium in their diet were 1 1/2 times more likely to have a stroke than those with the highest amounts. Low potassium intake was defined as less than 2.4 grams a day; high levels was more than 4 grams a day, or about the equivalent of 10 bananas a day.
The study, published Tuesday in the journal Neurology, involved 5,600 men and women who were free of stroke when they started the study and were followed for four to eight years.
While other studies have noted a link between low potassium levels and stroke risk, the analysis by Dr. Deborah Green of The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, also looked at whether people were taking diuretics, drugs that reduce the amount of water in the body and can also cause reduced potassium levels. The drugs are commonly used to treat high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and kidney disease.
"Diuretics clearly help prevent stroke by controlling high blood pressure, but we wanted to see whether their effect on potassium levels would affect the risk of stroke," Green said.
Of those taking diuretics, the study found that those with the lowest levels of potassium in their blood were 2.5 times more likely to have a stroke than those with the highest levels of potassium in the blood.
The researchers said more studies are needed to confirm their results and determine if increasing potassium in the diet might help prevent strokes. And Green stressed that the results don't mean diuretics create an excessive risk of stroke or that people should stop taking them.
"The question is whether diuretics would be even more effective with adequate potassium intake," she said.
Besides bananas, other good sources of potassium are potatoes, spinach, celery, broccoli, avocados, milk and nuts.
Researchers also looked at a small number of diuretic users who had atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm that increases the risk of stroke. People with that condition, coupled with the lower levels of potassium, were 10 times more likely to develop a stroke than diuretic users who had regular heartbeats and higher potassium levels.
That underscores that potassium intake may be particularly important for some people who have specific risk factors for stroke, said Dr. Steven Levine, a neurologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, who wrote a commentary on the new study.
09/04/02
==============================
"Experience teaches that, of all the emotions, fear stands alone in its power to move us, or to capture us in its grip forever. In a world of terrors, there is nothing more fearsome that the unknown...especially when what is unknown is ourselves." Outer Limits(Fear Itself)