If you’ve suffered from a TIA, perhaps you’re wondering if the DASH diet will help prevent another one of these mini-strokes, which can mean a massive stroke in the near future.
If you don’t have high blood pressure (a major risk for TIA), yet you had a TIA anyways, you should realize that there are other risk and causative factors for a transient ischemic attack.
Also, just because you’ve never had high blood pressure doesn’t mean you aren’t on course for getting it with your current eating habits and/or excess body weight.
Thus, high blood pressure or not, the DASH diet will help protect against another TIA.
A TIA “abruptly weakens the function of the brain for a period of time before everything is reversed back to normal,” says Sashini Seeni, MD, a family medicine practitioner with DoctorOnCall, an online doctor and pharmacy.
A TIA results from “an anomaly — in the form of either an embolism, endothelial plaque or blood clots,” says Dr. Seeni.
“These anomalies will eventually (and momentarily) disrupt the blood flow — by blocking its route — that supplies oxygen and other nutrients to the brain.
“Soon the affected part of the brain will not be able to function properly, thus resulting in a momentary symptom of stroke.”
How can the DASH diet help prevent another TIA?
DASH (dietary approaches to stop hypertension) was created to lower blood pressure without drugs via research that was sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Seeni explains, “It includes approaches such as high intakes of whole grains, fruit and vegetables. Optimal consumption of fish, poultry and legumes. And most importantly, low intake of calories [for those who are overweight], fat and salt.
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“Lowering salt intake helps prevent not only TIA per se, but also the potential of a recurrent attack– and it is able to do so for a number of reasons.”
• It helps blood pressure (a major risk factor for stroke).
• It helps increase insulin sensitivity throughout the body, thus regulating blood sugar levels (a major risk factor for stroke).
• It helps prevent blood vessel deformity that causes plaque, blood clots and embolism formation (a major cause of stroke).
• It helps decrease oxidative stress levels in the circulatory system (a significant risk factor for stroke).
DASH in a Nutshell for Protecting Against a TIA
• Eat more vegetables and fruits (4-5 daily servings of each).
• Eat low-fat or zero fat dairy (2-3 daily servings).
• Eat more grains (7-8 daily servings).
• Reduce intake of saturated fat, trans fat and dietary cholesterol.
• Increase intake of nuts, dry beans and seeds (4-5 servings/week).
• Increase intake of poultry and fish; decrease beef.
• Limit sodium and table salt.
• Limit sugary foods and drinks.
DASH Guidelines for Adherence
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• No matter what, have a green or fruit salad every day.
• Add a serving of vegetables at dinner.
• Make at least one snack a day fruit.
• Cut your usual amount of salad dressing and butter in half.
• Limit meat to six ounces daily.
• Declare two dinners a week as vegetarian.
• Add chopped nuts to omelets and rice.
• Add mushrooms and peppers to rice.
• Keep low fat/zero fat yogurt, unsalted plain popcorn, raisins, nuts and fresh fruit on hand for snacking.
“By controlling one of the main causes that triggers TIA — high sodium levels — we may reduce the probability of future attacks,” says Dr. Seeni.
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