Stroke
Diet
& Lifestyle research
Brain Haemorrhage/Apoplexy
Sugar
Everyone knows that sugar rots the teeth, but ever since 1957
(1) it has been connected with arterial disease and heart attacks. This may be due to the
fact that high sugar consumption makes you fat and obesity makes you more vulnerable to
heart disease. however, when sugar is added to an already high fat diet, the blood
cholesterol continues to rise.
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Salt
Excess salt can lead to high blood pressure and, as a result,
lead to arterial disease.(2)
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Animal fat
& cholesterol
For every 1% drop in blood cholesterol, there is a 2% drop in
the risk of cardiovascular disease.(3)
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Alcohol
Alcohol readily changes into saturated fat in the human body
and can cause the amount of fat in the blood to double (4) . It is hardly surprising then
that people who drink a lot of alcohol often have high blood fats.
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Coffee
A report in Food Nutrition News suggested that those people
who drink 5 or more cups of coffee a day are more likely to develop CHD. (5)
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Tobacco
Smoking constricts the blood vessels and it is for this reason
that smokers are more than 5 times more likely to die of CHD than non-smokers. (6)
Interestingly, according to Professor Julian Peto of the Institute of Cancer Research,
half of all smokers only give up after they have CHD.
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Lecithin
Protects against arterial damage by breaking up fatty
deposits. One ounce of lecithin per day has been shown to effectively reduce blood
cholesterol levels. (7)
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Vitamin E
Vitamin E reduces the body's requirement of oxygen and thereby
helps the heart to function when less oxygen is reaching it through narrowed arteries. Dr.
Wilfrid E Shute, Cardiologist at the Shute Foundation for medical Research in Canada
believes vitamin E is a safe remedy for angina pectoris. He has stated "that vitamin
E will save lives from myocardial infarction and from heart failure must now be accepted
by all physicians."
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Vitamin C
Studies have shown that high levels of vitamin C can reduce
blood cholesterol levels (8) . Blood vessels require vitamin C to stay healthy and a
deficiency is commonly seen in patients admitted to hospital with CHD.
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Cadmium
Cadmium is a toxic metal and autopsy examinations of stroke
victims carried out at the University of Tennessee by Dr Isabel Tipton(9) revealed high
cadmium levels in their bodies. Interestingly, vitamin C helps the body eliminate this
metal.
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Vitamin B
A lack of vitamin B (and in particular vitamin B6) has been
shown to lead to artery damage and in Nutrition Against Disease, Roger J Williams states
that a sufficiency of vitamin B complex has a high priority in preventing arterial
disease.
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Folic Acid
When given to patients with hardened arteries, folic acid was
found to dilate the smaller arteries and enable them to carry additional blood. This takes
pressure off other clogged arteries.
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Fibre
Fibre reduces absorbtion of cholesterol from foods and
increases the elimination of bile acids. Long term studies of over 300 middle aged men
revealed that those eating the most fibre had the lowest incidence of CHD. (10) One kind
of fibre is called pectin which is commonly found in fruits and sunflower seeds. Pectin
has been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels and increase the amount of cholesterol
eliminated from the body. (11)
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Magnesium
Patients with angina pectoris and CHD were, in one study,
given magnesium injections which produced dramatic clinical improvements including
normalising blood fat levels. (12)
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Vegetarian diet
Most medical authorities agree that meat is to be avoided in
all cases of CHD. This is because meat is high in saturated fat and cholesterol. In fact
the evidence is now irrefutable; one study in 1985 at the University of Leiden in the
Netherlands showed that a vegetarian diet could halt and even reverse the build up of
plaque on the artery walls (atherosclerosis).(13) Then in 1990 scientists proved that a
vegetarian diet alone (without any drugs) could regress CHD. The study was carefully
controlled, an experimental group of patients matched with a control group. The
experimental group were given a low fat vegetarian diet consisting of fruits, vegetables,
legumes and soya products although they were not restricted in amount or calories. After
one year, nearly 90% of those in the experimental group had reduced the size of arterial
blockages and increased the blood flow to the heart whereas those in the control group
(who had not been eating a vegetarian diet) had worsened.(14)
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Exercise
This is vital for general health and especially important for
the cardio-vascular system. In fact, people who do not regularly exercise are three times
more likely to die from CHD than those who do. (15)
It is therefore apparent that diet, nutrition and lifestyle
should be considered not only in the prevention of CHD but also in remedial treatment. In
fact, one study found that "Nutritional support for the post-stroke patient is an
important part of the recovery"(16)
(1) Prof. John Yudkin - The Lancet 2:155,1957
(2) S D Talbott et al Int. Med 54,257, 1961
(3) P Cox & P Brusseau -The Quick Cholesterol Clean-out (Century)
(4) E T Gale et al Geriatrics 8,80,1953
(5) O Paul Food Nutrition News 351,1,1964
(6) The Food & Health of Western Man - J L Mount (Precision Press) 1979
(7) L.M. Morrison - Geriatrics 13:12,1958.
(8) B Sokoloff et al, J Am Geriatrics Soc 1966,14:1239
(9) Janet Pleshette - Health on your Plate (Hamlyn)
(10) BMJ 19/11/77
(11) D. H. Fisher, Med World News 14/5/65, 6,86
(12)I Bersohn & PJ Oelofse Lancet 1:1020, 1957
(13) Arntzenius AC et al 'Vegetarians have higher plasma alpha-tocopherol relative to
cholesterol than do non vegetarians' New Eng J of Med 28 Mar 1985 312 (13) pp805-11
(14) Ornish D et al 'Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease The Lifestyle
Heart Trial' Lancet 21 Jul 1990 336 (8708) pp129-133
(15) Dr Lars Ekeland, University of North carolina, New Eng. J med 15/11/88
(16) Potential for altered nutritional status in the stroke patient.Buelow
JM; Jamieson
DRehabil Nurs Sep-Oct 1990, 15 (5) p260-3
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Aluminium
A new
retrospective study has shown that exposure to aluminium sulphate
via water supply can cause considerable brain damage. In
July 1988, 20 tonnes of the toxin was accidentally emptied into the
treated water reservoir that served 20,000 people in Cornwall, UK.
Delays in informing the public meant that a considerable number of
people suffered symptoms such as gastrointestinal upsets,
musculoskeletal pains, malaise and impairment of concentration and
memory. Two
years later, 400 people were still suffering from symptoms, which
they attributed to the incident. Doctors
argued that many cerebral symptoms were the result of psychological
trauma. But when researchers compared 55 affected people to a
control group composed of 15 siblings who had not been exposed to
the aluminium, they found that while blood concentrations of
aluminium were comparable in both groups, the exposed group
performed worse in all test parameters including motor skills,
memory, and concentration, suggesting that the heavy metal lodges in
the brain. Test for anxiety - effectively debunking the idea that
the symptoms were psychosomatic. Exposure
to aluminium has been shown to induces cerebral changes similar to
those of Alzheimer's disease. (BMJ,
1999;319:807-11) WDDTY,
November 1999; Vol10, No 8 return to top
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