How To Reduce Women’s Stroke Risk?

When a person has high blood pressure, he or she is at a higher risk of getting a stroke or heart disease. In order to keep blood pressure within normal range, hypertensive patients often have to take their prescribed medications and adopt a healthy lifestyle including healthy diet and regular exercise.

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom reported that a diet rich in citrus fruits like oranges and grapefruits might lower women’s risk of getting a stroke.

The findings, which were published in the April 2012’s issue of ‘the Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association’, revealed that women who ate the most citrus fruit had a 19 percent lower risk of having an ischemic stroke than those who ate the least. Ischemic stroke occurs when a person’s blood flow to the brain is blocked, sometimes by clogged arteries.

Many other previous studies have examined the benefits of eating fruit in general and research has shown that compounds known as flavonoids, found in fruits, vegetables, dark chocolate and red wine, might benefit health.

The researchers believed that not all flavonoids appear to have the same effect on stroke. That is why their study looked at different types of fruit.

69,622 women were followed for 14 years. They reported their food intake including details on fruit and vegetable every 4 years. When analyzing the participants’ diets, the researchers looked at 6 main subclasses of flavonoids (flavanones, anthocyanins, flavan-3-ols, flavonoid polymers, flavonols and flavones).

There was no association found between overall flavonoids consumption and stroke risk, but flavanones in citrus were found to link to lower stroke risk. According to researchers, flavanones might reduce risk of stroke through several mechanisms. These include improving blood vessel health and preventing inflammation.

Some previous studies, however, reported contradicting results. For instance, one study discovered the link between increased consumption of white fruits such as apples and pears and lower stroke risk, but found no link for yellow and orange fruits.

As such, researchers felt that more studies are necessary to ascertain and understand the relationship between flavonone consumption and stroke risk.

While flavanones can also be found in citrus juices, researchers do not encourage people to drink more juice because these fruit juices tend to have plenty of sugar. Instead, eat more fresh citrus fruits.

Why Certain Foods Cannot Be Mixed With Heart Medications?

Since I was young, I used to hear from people that Chinese Herb can never be taken with Western medications as this could result in disastrous consequences. Frankly, I have no idea on how this would happen.

Recently, I came across an article cautioning people not to mix certain foods with Western medications, to prevent possible harmful effects to the body. Of course, the authors mentioned several types of drugs that should not be mixed with certain foods, but what listed below is pertaining to heart medications.

According to the author, mixing certain foods and drugs, even though it seems perfectly harmless, can be bad for some people. The nature of certain foods, beverages and even dietary supplements may just change the effects of the medications or prevent the drugs from working properly.

Medications taken orally are, like foods, absorbed through the lining of the stomach or small intestine. When both are taken together, the food in the digestive tract might raise or lower the absorption of the medication. People who are prescribed with drugs for heart disease should take note of the followings.

For those on certain cholesterol-lowering drugs, like atorvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin, grapefruit should not be consumed with the drugs since this could raise their potency.

As explained by the author, components in the fruit do prevent the body from breaking down the medication, which would cause the drug to accumulate in high amounts in the body. This can be very dangerous as such health complications as liver damage or rhabdomyolysis may be triggered. The latter is a rare condition in which severe muscle and kidney damage occurs.

For the similar reason, patients prescribed with calcium channel blockers, drugs that help control high blood pressure, should not take their drugs with grapefruits.

Some foods may alter the chemical actions of a drug in a way that its therapeutic effect on the body is lost. For example, foods like liver and green leafy vegetables that are high in Vitamin-K are capable of clotting blood. If people take too much of them, the effectiveness of certain anti-coagulants (blood thinning drug) would be reduced.

Oatmeal is generally considered as a heart-healthy food that could help reduce bad cholesterol. However, people who are on digoxin should not eat too much of it. Digoxin is a drug that is used by doctors to treat various heart diseases. In fact, fiber in oatmeal and other cereals can affect the absorption of these medications when patients consume in large quantity.