Consuming green leafy vegetables may be a novel way to reduce stress and lower the risk of experiencing a stroke, a study has found. Intracerebral haemorrhage - bleeding within the brain - takes a high toll on working-age people in Nigeria and Ghana, with high blood pressure accounting for more than 90 percent of this often-lethal type of stroke. According to the findings, people who ate more green leafy vegetables had 64 per cent lower risk of experiencing a stroke.

Researchers studied 682 patients (average age 53.7 years) who experienced brain bleeds. Bleeding strokes accounted for 32.2 per cent of all strokes in the study. Of the bleeding strokes, 93.9 per cent were determined to be related to high blood pressure, 7.2 per cent to structural abnormalities such as a bulging weak area of a blood vessel, and much smaller percentages to other medical conditions or medication use.

The research was presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2018. Comparing patients with high blood pressure-related brain bleeds to similar people in the same communities without stroke, the researchers found that the risks were 2.33 times as high in people with diabetes. They found that risks were 2.22 times as high in people who reported more stress at home and work, 1.69 times as high in people with abnormal cholesterol levels and 10.01 times as high in tobacco smokers.