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People with plenty of potassium-rich foods in their diet may be less likely to suffer a stroke, a new meta-analysis found.
The research review found that as potassium intake went up, the risk of stroke went down, researchers reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The study
For the new study, Dr Lanfranco D'Elia of the University of Naples Medical School in Italy and colleagues pooled data from 11 international studies that followed 247,510 adults for up to 19 years.
In most of the studies, participants filled out diet questionnaires at the outset, and researchers kept track of who developed heart disease or suffered a stroke over the ensuing years. In a few studies, the researchers measured participants' potassium levels from urine samples.
Clear link
Individually, the studies came to conflicting results. But with the results combined, D'Elia's team found that for every 1,640mg increase in daily potassium intake, the odds of suffering a stroke declined by 21%.
There was no strong link overall between potassium intake and heart disease risk, though a few individual studies did find that people with higher intakes had a lower risk.
The 21% reduction in stroke risk would translate into as many as 1.15 million fewer stroke deaths worldwide each year, D'Elia's team estimates. But whether potassium is actually the reason for the lower stroke risk is not clear.
In most of the studies, researchers tried to account for other factors in stroke and heart disease risk. But people who get a lot of potassium could still have lifestyle habits or other characteristics - like better education or higher incomes - that might explain the lower stroke risk.
Still, D'Elia and his colleagues write, boosting potassium intake, especially by eating more fruits and vegetables, is in line with existing recommendations for preventing or managing heart disease and stroke.
Most healthy adults need about 4,700mg of potassium per day. - (Reuters Health, March 2011)
