A recent study has suggested that eating tomatoes and tomato-based foods could help lower the risk of stroke.
Tomatoes can potentially reduce the risk of stroke due to the presence of antioxidant lycopene in high level.
The study also found that those people having high level of lycopene in blood were likely to have 55 percent less chance of having stroke in comparison to people with the lowest amounts of lycopene in their blood.
The study involved 1,031 men in Finland between the ages of 46 and 65. The level of lycopene in their blood was tested at the start of the study and they were followed for an average of 12 years. During that time, 67 men had a stroke.
Among the men with the 25 out of 258 people having lowest levels of lycopene in their blood had a stroke. However, 11 out of 259 with the highest levels of lycopene had a stroke. When researchers looked at just strokes due to blood clots, the results were even stronger. Those with the highest levels of lycopene were 59 percent less likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest levels.
"This study adds to the evidence that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of stroke," said study author Jouni Karppi, PhD, of the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.
"The results support the recommendation that people get more than five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, which would likely lead to a major reduction in the number of strokes worldwide, according to previous research," Karppi added.
The study also looked at blood levels of the antioxidants alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol and retinol, but no association between the blood levels and risk of stroke were found.
The details of the study have been published in the print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
-With inputs from ANI
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