SAN ANTONIO -- Postmenopausal women who eat the most fat have an elevated
risk of ischemic stroke, researchers found.
Those who ate the most total fat -- a median of 95 grams/day -- were 44% more
likely to have an ischemic stroke than those who ate the least -- a median of 25
grams/day (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.90, P=0.02 for trend), according to Sirin
Yaemsiri, MSPH, a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill.
Women who ate the most trans fat -- a median of 7.5 grams/day -- also had an
elevated stroke risk (HR 1.30, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.70, P=0.03 for trend) compared
with those who ate the least -- a median of 1.3 grams/day, Yaemsiri reported at
the American Stroke Association meeting here.
Yaemsiri said the findings support the American Heart Association
recommendations to limit trans fat intake to less than 1% of total energy
consumption.
Commenting on the study, Emil Matarese, MD, director of the stroke center at the
Saint Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, Pa., said, "I think women now need to
recognize that they have risk of stroke just like a man, and it may be too late
if a woman waits until they're menopausal to adjust their diet."
"We need to start early at recognizing what are our risks and eliminating the
excess fat, especially trans fat," he added.
Younger women have a lower stroke risk than men of similar age, a relationship
that reverses after menopause.
Previous studies have shown that fat intake is related to heart disease risk,
but studies looking at the association between dietary fat and ischemic stroke
have been inconsistent, Yaemsiri said.
To explore the issue, she and her colleagues analyzed data on 87,230 women ages
50 to 79 from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study. None had a
history of stroke at baseline.
Dietary fat intake was determined at baseline using a food frequency
questionnaire.
Through a mean follow-up of 7.6 years, there were 1,049 ischemic strokes -- 101
atherosclerotic, 234 cardioembolic, 269 lacunar, and 445 unclassified.
Total fat and trans fat intake were associated with ischemic stroke risk after
adjusting for numerous variables, including age, race, smoking status, physical
activity, alcohol or aspirin use, body mass index, hormone therapy, heart
disease history, income, diabetes, systolic blood pressure, use of
antihypertensives or cholesterol-lowering medications, vitamin E
supplementation, fruit and vegetable intake, total calories, and dietary fiber.
Specific saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, and polyunsaturated fat intake were
not related to stroke risk.
Nor were there significant associations between fat intake and any of the
specific ischemic stroke subtypes.
Yaemsiri said the analysis was limited by the use of self-reported dietary fat
intake and low statistical power for analyzing associations with stroke
subtypes.
Source : MedPage Today
