Two medical researchers in China even provided a full list of foods participants reported that resulted in the lowest stroke rates.
Over 30? Eating More of This Could Reduce Long-Term Stroke Risk, Found New Study
Published on Feb. 15, 2025
The National Institutes of Health has reported that scientists first investigated the connection between gut health and brain health in the 18th Century. However only recently have modern researchers begun to unearth the full impact of the gut-brain axis.
Increasingly, those researchers are zeroing in on how the gut microbiome, home to trillions of bacteria, can influence brain function. As we now understand, a complex network of nerves bridges the gastrointestinal tract to the central nervous system, allowing for two-way communication between these important parts of the body. This is why the saying “gut feeling” is quite literal, in a scientific sense.
Now, new research suggests that in some adults, improving gut health with the help of probiotics could be an effective way to protect the brain. One study in particular, published February 2025 in the journal Food & Function, suggests increasing your gut microbiota diversity—the number of good gut bacteria in your digestive tract—could meaningfully reduce your long-term risk of stroke.
To understand the link between gut health and stroke risk, two medical doctors at Shanghai’s Fudan University drew on previously collected data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). In total, they reviewed the demographic and dietary information of 48,677 subjects aged 20 and over, and indexed their diets based on the number of gut-friendly foods they ate. Foods that would have increased a person’s score included:
- Avocados
- Broccoli
- Chickpeas
- Coffee
- Cranberries
- Fermented dairy, including yogurt, cheese, kefir, sour cream, or buttermilk
- Fermented soy or tofu
- Whole grains
Meanwhile, foods like processed meats and refined grains were deemed “unfavorable to gut microbiota,” and influenced lower scores.
While the researchers found no significant association between beneficial gut microbiota scores and stroke risk in participants aged 20 to 29, those aged 30 and over with good gut health had a “consistently” lower stroke prevalence.
It may simply be that people who eat more plants and a wide range of nutrient-rich foods are inherently better positioned to fight off chronic illness or serious medical events, like a stroke.
But, there may also be a more direct explanation: A 2022 study published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology explained another pathway by which poor gut health might spike stroke risk: “An imbalance within the gut microbiota is … associated with the occurrence and development of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, atherosclerosis and metabolic diseases, all of which are risk factors for ischemic stroke,” that team wrote. In other words, poor gut health contributes to high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, high bodyweight, more plaque in the arteries, and other metabolic risk factors, making it more likely that a person could develop a blood clot obstructing crucial arteries in the brain.
Read up on the best prebiotic foods, as well as probiotics, and be inspired to eat for your health.
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