Second-hand smoke raises spouse’s stroke risk

Nonsmokers married to smokers have a greatly increased chance of having strokes, according to a study. Being married to a smoker raised the stroke risk by 42 per cent in people who have never smoked compared to those married to someone who never smoked, the researchers said. This jumped to 72 percent for former smokers married to a current smoker, according to the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The study involved 16,225 people aged 50 and up who had never had a stroke. They were followed for an average of nine years. It looked at health consequences for the spouses of smokers and found that people who breathe in secondhand smoke also have a higher risk of lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory tract infections and heart disease, among other conditions.

Low-fat diet not to curb diabetes risk
Maintaining a low-fat diet does not appear to reduce the likelihood that postmenopausal women will develop diabetes, according to a study. However, among women on a low-fat diet who lost weight over the 8-year study, fewer of them developed diabetes, the researchers report. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and colleagues looked at the effects of eating a low-fat diet on diabetes risk in over 48,000 women ages 50 to 79 years who were free of diabetes when they entered the Women’s Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial. The women were randomly assigned to continue eating their usual diet (the control group), or to go on to a low-fat diet (20 percent of calories from fat) with increased amounts of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, during the study period from 1993 to 2005. By the end of the study, diabetes developed in 7.1 percent of women on the low-fat diet and 7.4 percent of those in the control group — not a significant difference from a statistical standpoint. However, among women on the low-fat diet, the investigators found there was a trend toward greater reduction in diabetes risk with greater decreases in total fat intake and weight loss. Further analysis showed that most of this effect was attributable to weight loss. Women in the low-fat diet group lost about 1.9 kilograms or 4.2 pounds more weight over the course of the study than women in the control group.

Fish diet may protect against clogged arteries
A diet rich in oily fish, which contains omega 3 fatty acids, may be why middle-aged men in Japan have fewer problems with clogged arteries than white men and men of Japanese descent in the United States, a study has found. The research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found that Japanese men living in Japan had twice the blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids and lower levels of atherosclerosis compared to middle-aged white men or Japanese-American men living in the United States. Atherosclerosis is the buildup of plaque inside the arteries. Over time, they harden and narrow the arteries and can lead to serious problems like heart attacks and stroke.