Written by Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS. In a large study in Japan, those with highest intake of calcium had a 29% smaller risk for all types of stroke.
In the United States alone, someone has a stroke every 45 seconds and someone dies of stroke every three minutes. As the third cause of death among Americans (cancer and heart disease are the leading causes), stroke costs our healthcare system $57 billion each year (1).
Now a new study (5) has found that calcium, known mostly for bone health, may also help support heart health as it pertains to stroke.
A previous study of Japanese-American men showed that increase milk consumption was associated with a reduced risk of stroke (8). Building on these findings, over 41,000 Japanese men and women age 40 to 59 years participating in the Japanese Public Health Center study (9) and without a history of CVD or cancer completed a food frequency questionnaire concerning 147 foods. The researchers followed the participants from 1990 to 2003, looking at the incidence of stroke and coronary heart disease in relation to calcium intake.
The researchers that, compared to those with the lowest intake of calcium per day (233 mg per day), those with the highest intake of calcium per day (753 mg per day) had a 29% reduced risk of all forms of stroke (ischemic stroke, intraparenchymal hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage) and a 27% reduced risk of ischemic stroke. When looking at calcium intake from dairy, those with the highest intakes of calcium from dairy (116 mg per day) had a 30% reduced for all forms of stroke and ischemic stroke compared to those with the lowest dairy calcium intake (0 mg per day). No benefits were seen with calcium intake and heart disease.
For the researchers, “Dietary calcium intake, especially calcium from dairy products, was found to be associated with a reduced incidence of stroke among middle-aged Japanese.”
Source: Umesawa, Mitsumasa, Hiroyasu Iso, Junko Ishihara, Isao Saito, Yoshihiro Kokubo, Manami Inoue, and Shoichiro Tsugane. “Dietary calcium intake and risks of stroke, its subtypes, and coronary heart disease in Japanese.” Stroke 39, no. 9 (2008): 2449-2456.
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.
Posted August 22, 2008
References:
- “Impact of Stroke” posted on the American Stroke Association Website.
- Umesawa M. Dietary Calcium Intake and Risks of Stroke, Its Subtypes, and Coronary Heart Disease in Japanese. The JPHC Study Cohort I. Stroke. 2008 Jul 17. [Epub ahead of print]
- Abbott RD. Effect of dietary calcium and milk consumption on risk of thromboembolic stroke in older middle-aged men: the Honolulu Heart Program. Stroke. 1996;27:813– 818.
- Tsugane S, Sobue T. Baseline survey of JPHC study– design and participation rate: Japan Public Health Center-Based Prospective Study on Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases. J Epidemiol. 2001;11(suppl): S24–S29.
