Older women who eat foods with higher amounts of potassium may be at a lower risk of stroke and death than women who consume less potassium-rich foods.

In a recent study published in the journal Stroke, researchers studied more than 90,000 post-menopausal women, ages 50 to 79, and looked at how much potassium the women consumed (by food, not supplements) and measured the number of strokes and deaths.

Results showed that women who ate the most potassium were 12 percent less likely to suffer strokes and 10 percent less likely to die than those who consumed less potassium. Findings show that potassium not only lowers risk of stroke in post-menopausal women, but also death.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, women should at least consume 4,700 mg of potassium every day, whilst the World Health Organization recommends 3,510 mg or more.

Eating more potassium-rich foods, such as bananas, is probably a good idea for women; but remember, too much of anything is not good either.

 

Journal Reference:
Arjun Seth, Yasmin Mossavar-Rahmani, Victor Kamensky, Brian Silver, Kamakshi Lakshminarayan, Ross Prentice, Linda Van Horn, and Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller.Potassium Intake and Risk of Stroke in Women With Hypertension and Nonhypertension in the Women’s Health Initiative. Stroke, September 2014.