Study Claims Trans Fat Intake Increases Risk of Stroke in Women

A study has claimed that trans fat consumption among healthy postmenopausal women is associated with an increased risk for ischemic stroke, although extended aspirin use seemed to mitigate that risk. Sirin Yaemsiri, et al., “Trans Fat, Aspirin, and Ischemic Stroke in Postmenopausal Women,” Annals of Neurology, March 2012. Researchers relied on data from 87,025 women ages 50 to 70 years who were enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, identifying 1,049 cases of ischemic stroke during the 663,041 person years of follow-up.

The results evidently suggested that “women in the highest quintile of trans
fat intake had a 39 percent greater incidence of ischemic stroke than women
in the lowest quintile.” Moreover, this risk was apparently amplified among the
group of non-aspirin users, where those in the top quintile of trans fat intake
had a 66 percent higher incidence of ischemic stroke than those in the lowest
quintile. Among aspirin users, however, “the positive associations between
trans fat and ischemic stroke were substantially attenuated,” according to the
study.

“Our findings were contrary to at least two other large studies of ischemic
stroke,” said one author in a March, 1, 2012, University of North Carolina
press release, “However, ours was a larger study and included twice as many
cases of ischemic stroke. Our unique study base of older women may have
increased our ability to detect the association between trans fat intake and
ischemic stroke among non-users of aspirin.”