EATING FATS AND STROKES IN WOMEN

An interesting paper was presented at the just concluded American Stroke Association International Conference on Stroke 2010, by Dr Sirin Yaemsiri ( sounds Thai ) from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She did a food survey on 87,230 post menopausal female subjects, paying attention to the amount of fats they consume each day. These females were age 50-79yrs and they were followed up for about 8 years. In the 8 years, there were 1,049 cases of ischemic strokes.
She was able to correlate the cases of inchemic strokes to the fat intake per day. Those who took 7 gms or more of trans fats per day had a 30% increase incidence of ischemic strokes. Those who ingested 86grams or more of total fats per day had a 40% increase in stroke.
The trend is obvious, more fats means more likely hope of stroke in 8 years. Although this paper is on post-menopausal females, I am sure that it reflects males as well. It is well known that females, pre-menopause had a low incidence of strokes, but they catch up quickly after menopause. It is also important to note that this study is about ischemic strokes and not hemorrhagic strokes, which seem to corre-late better with hypertension.
I have always been very worried about strokes, even more so than heart attacks as stroke can really incapacitate you, until you lose all your freedom and become totally dependant on others, making you a liability. That is why, many of us fear strokes, more then we fear death.
If eating less fats can reduce my chance of a stroke, in my later years, by 40%, then I must do it. Else all my retirement plans would have been in vain.
I am sure many of you feel the same way too.