Following A Healthy Lifestyle Can Avert Stroke

Giving up smoking, moderate alcohol consumption as well as a good balanced diet can avert strokes in women, a new study has found. The study started in 1993 with over 37,600 women as participants.

All women were asked to describe their lifestyle habits and were rated on a "health index score." The scores ranged from 0 to 20. Generally, the higher the score, the healthier the woman.

The women were followed for a decade during which only 450 of them suffered strokes. The researchers found that around 4.7 percent of the women who had health scores between 17 to 20 had a lower risk of suffering strokes as compared to women who had low-end scores.

"Our findings show the importance of healthy behaviors in the prevention of total and ischemic stroke," the study authors concluded.