Olive Oil Lowers Stroke Risk in Study

Making liberal use of olive oil in your diet may reduce your risk of having a stroke, new research finds. The study looked at olive oil use by 7,625 French people. All of them were age 65 or older. About 37% used it in cooking and in salad dressing or on bread. Researchers called them “intensive” users. Other people used olive oil less (40%) or not at all (23%). During the 6 years of the study, 148 strokes occurred. About 1.5% of the “intensive” olive oil users had strokes, compared with 2.6% of the others. That’s equal to a 41% lower risk of stroke. The journal Neurology published the study. HealthDay News and Reuters Health news service wrote about it June 15.