One of the easiest ways to help prevent a stroke

How would you like to slash your risk of three top killers?

A new study has found that’s actually much easier to do than you might think. It could be as simple as eating some delicious foods that are nothing short of dietary superheroes.

But while these easy-to-find foods are vital to keeping us healthy, it turns out that around half of all Americans don’t seem to be getting enough of them. And if that happens to include you, there are some simple, and very tasty ways to correct that.

The miracle mineral

If you’re wondering what dark chocolate, spinach and almonds all have in common, it’s that they can protect you from suffering a disabling stroke. They can also strengthen that most important muscle of all – your heart — and even help keep type 2 diabetes at bay.

The “secret” is that those foods, and many more, are loaded with magnesium.

I’m sure that magnesium is something Big Pharma would love to have invented. Can you imagine what the TV commercials would be like if there was a drug that could do half of what magnesium can?

And not only can keeping your dietary magnesium levels up help protect your ticker, but it can also keep your internal clock ticking right on time. And that means not lying awake at night counting sheep!

But of all the wonderful things we’ve heard about magnesium, a new study out of China may be the best news of all.

Researchers there looked at 40 studies that included over a million people. And what they found is nothing short of amazing. Those who had the highest magnesium intake were able to significantly cut their risk of heart disease (including heart failure), stroke, type 2 diabetes and even “all-cause mortality.”

In fact, for each 100 mg daily increase in dietary magnesium the chances of getting a stroke dropped by seven percent!

Since magnesium is easily found in so many foods (I’ll give you the top ones below), you might think it’s strange that such large numbers of Americans are deficient in it. But there could be a very good reason for that.

Some of the most commonly-used meds do a number on your body’s store of magnesium. I’m talking about drugs such as: acid blockers like Nexium and Prilosec and even that innocent looking roll of Tums, antibiotics such as Z-Pak and Cipro, blood pressure meds, antivirals such as Tamiflu and corticosteroids.

With so many reasons to be running low, it’s no wonder why people are lacking in this vital mineral!

And if preventing heart disease and diabetes wasn’t enough, last year a study found that those who are low in magnesium had a significantly increased risk of one of the most deadly cancers around – pancreatic cancer.

So, here’s how to get more of this miracle mineral in your daily diet:

• Eat more yogurt or enjoy a glass of kefir, which is a dairy probiotic drink that actually contains more “good” bacteria than yogurt.
• Snack on almonds or pumpkin seeds, and even indulge in some dark chocolate.
• Slice up an avocado for your salad or sandwich.
• Toss some fresh spinach or chard into your greens. You can even cook up something different like spinach cakes.
• Have a banana as a midday pick-me-up.

Even fish such as salmon and mackerel contain good amounts of magnesium.

Another way to get more magnesium from your food is to buy organic whenever possible, since conventional farming practices often reduce the magnesium content of crops.

“High dietary magnesium intake tied to less stroke, diabetes, heart failure” Larry Hand, December 9, 2016, Medscape, medscape.com