By Kathryn Doyle
Reuters Health

Postmenopausal females who read more potassium into their diets are lower the probability that to have a stroke or die as opposed to those that do not get the maximum amount of, in line with a new study.

Potassium-rich diets have been connected to lower blood pressure before, nevertheless will be the first-time potassium has long been linked to stroke risk, said senior author Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller of the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of medication in The big apple.

Her team analyzed data from your Women\’s Health Initiative study 90,137 postmenopausal women, ages 50 to 79. At one and several years after enrollment, the girls filled in dietary questionnaires.

Overall, they stayed while in the study for an average of 11 years.

The researchers used the dietary questionnaires and potassium values for common foods to ascertain the fact that women consumed typically 2,611 milligrams of potassium every day.

According to Fda standards labels, adolescents and adults must be consuming no less than 4,700 mg of potassium daily. Bananas, avocados and also other vegetables and fruits are excellent reasons for potassium. A medium-sized banana has about 420 mg of potassium, while a cup of avocado has 708 mg.

The researchers then divided the women into four groups determined by potassium consumption, from people that got a lot less than 1,926 mg daily, minimally potassium, to the people who got over 3,194 mg everyday, quite possibly the most.

Each year, out of every 1,000 women inside study, three suffered a stroke and nearly 12 died from a cause.

Women who ate probably the most potassium were 12 percent not as likely to suffer a stroke and 10 percent more unlikely to die within the study period than others who ate minimally, reported by translates into Stroke.

\”Potassium is a component cellular function,\” Wassertheil-Smoller said. \”It affects endothelial cells which line arteries and, so perhaps it might provide more circulation of blood to critical areas C that may be one thought, but we don’t really know.\”

The effect was strongest for girls without bring about, that is surprising, Wassertheil-Smoller told Reuters Health by email.

\”This and former observational studies cannot prove that must be potassium that lowers stroke risk,\” said Susanna C. Larsson of your Institute of Environmental Medicineat Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

Larsson was not mixed up in the new research.

\”It could be other nutrients or combinations of nutrients in potassium-rich foods which might be protective,\” she told Reuters Health by email.

Maintaining well being weight, being physically active, not smoking, and consuming alcohol moderately cuts down on the risk for stroke, Larsson said.

\”The loss of stroke risk of a high dietary potassium intake is pretty modest compared to other modifiable risks which include smoking,\” she said.

Potassium in food might be more advantageous than potassium in supplements, Wassertheil-Smoller said.

The relationship between potassium and stroke is probable the exact same adult males, although men normally eat both more calories and more potassium daily, she said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture as well as the Institute of Medicine recommend 4,700 mg of potassium daily whatever age or sex, as the World Health Organization recommends about 3500 mg daily, but a majority of individuals in the U.S. don\’t meet either of people goals, she said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1ol13Ej Stroke, September 4, 2014