Eating foods rich in magnesium really matters when it comes to reducing your chance of stroke. A new study finds that the risk of one particular type of stroke is lower in those whose diets contain more of the nutrient magnesium.
The most commonly seen type of stroke, known as an ischemic stroke (where one of the blood vessels in the brain is blocked by a clot causing damage to cells), saw a reduction in risk of 9% for every 100mg of magnesium consumed each day.
Regularly eating foods rich in magnesium also offered a modest reduction in the chances of all types of stroke. For every 100mg of magnesium each day, subjects reduced their chance of suffering a stroke by 8%.
To study stroke and magnesium, the Swedish team examined data from seven already published studies on magnesium and stroke. These projects were conducted between '98 and 2011, with over 240,000 adults over 34 years old.
The subjects were followed for from 8 to 15 years, and during this period, 6,500 of them had a stroke. The average intake of magnesium in the participants was from 242 to 471 milligrams a day.
As a point of reference, the U.S. dietary guidelines call for a magnesium intake of 420 mg per day for men over 31; 320 mg a day for women of the same age.
The researchers found that subjects who had greater volumes of magnesium in their diet also had a reduced risk of stroke. This held even after the team accounted for other factors that might impact the results - blood pressure, age, diabetes, smoking, high cholesterol levels, how active a subject was, vitamin supplementation and other factors in the diet, alcohol consumption and even other family members with heart disease. And still the magnesium levels were related to stroke risk.
No one knows why this might be. The Swedish research team believes that the mineral may be helpful in bringing down blood pressure. A diet with lots of magnesium has also been found to bring a lower diabetes risk, and since diabetes is also a stroke risk factor, this may well play a role.
And while no one is ready to call for magnesium supplements to bring down stroke risk, added magnesium rich foods to your diet can only help you. If you're at a greater risk for stroke, you'll certainly want to make an effort to get more natural magnesium in your diet.
The best places to get magnesium...
- Whole grains - one cup brown, long grain rice, one cup raisin bran cereal
- Green leafy veggies like spinach
- Nuts - one ounce of dry roasted almonds or cashews
- Beans - half cup cooked soybeans, blackeye peas
The latest research comes with an accompanying editorial that suggests it is time to conduct a large trial to see if taking magnesium supplements might be helpful for adults at risk of stroke and/or heart disease. Keep your eyes open for such research, and its results - in the meantime, continue to eat healthily and enjoy lots of good for you foods.
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