Olive oil consumption linked to reduced stroke risk
By Jennifer LaRue Huget, Washington Post
New research suggests that consuming lots of olive oil is associated with a reduced risk of ischemic stroke.
A study published on-line Wednesday in the journal Neurology looked at olive-oil consumption among more than 7,600 people ages 65 and older in three French cities who had taken part in what’s known as the Three-City Study. After controlling for diet, lifestyle and stroke-risk factors, they found that “intensive” olive-oil users (those who used it for cooking and dressing their food) had a 41 percent reduced risk of ischemic (the kind caused by an artery blockage) stroke during the five-year follow-up period than those who reported using no olive oil at all.
The association did not hold true for hemorrhagic stroke (the kind caused by a ruptured blood vessel in the brain), in part because not enough of those strokes occurred among the people in the study to make a statistically valid connection.
