Use Mediterranean diet to stop frailty

Frailty — the loss of muscle strength and grip strength, a slow walking speed, loss of 10 pounds in the past year and a low level of physical activity — can devastate you. It’s much too common among older adults and is associated with greater risk of becoming ill, falling, requiring hospitalization and an increased risk of dying in the next three years.

But you can fight — and bite — back. According to a major review of published studies, the Mediterranean diet protects against frailty.

Researchers from University College London found that folks who were the greatest consumers of a Mediterranean diet were less than half as likely to become frail over a four-year period as folks who strayed the furthest from that diet.

Choose a diet that eliminates highly processed foods and emphasizes plant-based foods, including fruits and vegetables, 100 percent whole grains, legumes and nuts. You also want to consume healthy oils like extra-virgin olive oil, and use animal protein (mainly fish) as a side dish. That will protect your cardiovascular system, help control your weight, keep your brain clear and allow you to stay physically active and strong as you age.

Women and stroke

Every year in the U.S.

55,000 more women than men experience those cranial vascular events known as ischemic strokes.

That discrepancy caught the attention of researchers at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Their research, published in Stroke, uncovered women’s unique risk factors.

After looking at hormone levels, hormone therapy, hormonal birth control, pregnancy and time of menarche and menopause, they found that the following were all associated with an increased risk of stroke:

Getting your period before age 10.

Experiencing menopause before age 45.

Having low levels of the hormone dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS).

Taking oral estrogen (without aspirin), or a combined oral contraceptive (again, without aspirin).

Only a fraction of women who have one or more of those risk factors will have a stroke. But if any of them apply to you, you should embrace healthy behaviors that will reduce your risk of high blood pressure and stroke. That means seven to eight hours of sleep nightly, 10,000 steps daily, seven to nine servings of fruits and veggies daily, no red or processed meat or highly processed foods and only 100 percent whole grains.

Email questions for Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen to youdocsdaily@sharecare. com.