In a recently published study, researchers from Taiwan concluded that eating a vegetarian diet rich in nuts, soy, and vegetables may lower a person’s risk of having a stroke.
The study, which appears in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, investigated the link between a person’s diet and the occurrence of two different types of stroke.
These were hemorrhagic stroke, in which blood from an artery bleeds into the brain, and ischemic stroke, which results from a blocked blood vessel.
In the United States, about 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke each year, and it is the second leading cause of death globally.
A stroke can result in disabilities, and affected individuals are more likely to develop dementia in the future.
The American Heart Association (AHA) estimate that by 2030, almost 4% of adults in the U.S. will have had a stroke.
Vegetarianism and veganism have become increasingly popular in both the United Kingdom and the U.S.
While many people opt for a plant-based diet for environmental and animal welfare reasons, they also often perceive these diets as being better for their health.
A study that the BMJ published last year investigated strokes in more than 48,000 meat eaters and vegetarians in the U.K. The study authors reported that although vegetarians had lower rates of ischemic heart disease than the meat eaters, they were more likely to have a stroke.
They concluded that there could be some factors associated with animal food consumption that might prevent a stroke.
In the recently published study, the researchers recruited two cohorts of volunteers from Buddhist communities in Taiwan, totaling more than 13,000 participants.
At the start of the study, the researchers medically examined the participants and asked them about their diet, smoking habits, alcohol intake, and physical activity.
The researchers then tracked the volunteers’ health using the National Health Insurance Research Database. They followed the first group of volunteers for an average of 6 years and the second g