Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

The coronavirus pandemic has made many of us very aware of the importance of maintaining and improving our health.

Make that your silver lining.

Because the more positive change we can make to our diet lifestyle, the better.

Today, we begin a four-part series on strokes.

Here's a fun fact. Did you know that more than 90% of stroke risk is attributable to modifiable risk factors?

Strokes.

One of the leading causes of death and disability in the world, the most common cause of seizures and the elderly,

and the second most common cause of dementia, frequent cause of major depression.

In short, stroke is a burdensome, but preventable brain disorder.

According to the Global Burden of Disease, the largest study of risk factors for human disease in history,

funded by the Bill Monday Gates Foundation, more than 90% of the stroke burden is attributable to modifiable risk factors.

Though some are easier to modify than others, for example, about 10% of all healthy years of life lost due to stroke,

maybe due to ambient air pollution.

Technically, that's a modifiable risk factor. You can just move out of the city to some place with cleaner air,

but perhaps easier to just quit smoking, which accounts for 18% of the stroke death and disability,

about as much as diets high in sodium.

Diet's high in salt are as bad as smoking when it comes to stroke burden,

but not as bad as inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption.

Yes, there's also other things like sedentary lifestyles, which is not as bad as not eating enough whole grains,

but of the 89% of the stroke death and disability that's attributable to modifiable risk factors,

fully half, appears to be due just to not eating enough fruits and veggies.

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