Deans' stroke musings: Carbohydrate Intake Linked to Vascular Brain Injury, Reduced Cognition

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Carbohydrate Intake Linked to Vascular Brain Injury, Reduced Cognition

Do you really think your competent? doctor has enough functioning brain cells to get the dietician to implement this and create EXACT PROTOCOLS on this? I don't.

Do you prefer your doctor and hospital incompetence NOT KNOWING? OR NOT DOING?

To calculate your daily carb intake, start by finding your total daily calorie needs, then determine your target carb percentage (typically 45-65% of calories), multiply the calories by that percentage, and finally divide that number by four, since there are four calories in every gram of carbohydrate. You can use online macro calculators or consult a registered dietitian to get a personalized goal based on your weight, age, activity level, and health status.

I'm certainly not doing this, my cognition is just great.

Carbohydrate Intake Linked to Vascular Brain Injury, Reduced Cognition

Higher carbohydrate intake was linked to increased risk for vascular brain injury and poorer cognitive scores, underscoring the potential role of dietary interventions in the prevention of brain injury and cognitive decline. Elevated carbohydrate consumption is associated with vascular brain injury and reduced cognitive performance among middle-aged adults, according to findings published in EClinicalMedicine. Researchers analyzed data from 9886 adults from Canada, Poland, India, and China to examine the relationship between macronutrient intake and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-detected markers of vascular brain injury and cognition. Participants had no history of cardiovascular disease or dementia. Their mean age was 58.1 years, 55.1% were women, 89.7% lived in urban settings, and 76.7% had completed postsecondary education. Macronutrient intake was assessed using country-specific food frequency questionnaires. Participants in the highest third of carbohydrate intake had increased likelihood of covert brain infarcts (odds ratio [OR], 1.40; 95% CI, 1.11-1.78), high white matter hyperintensities (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.20-1.89), and composite vascular brain injury (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.24-1.75) compared with those in the lowest third. These individuals also scored lower on cognitive assessments, with reduced z-scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (-0.059; 95% CI, -0.10 to -0.014) and the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (-0.044; 95% CI, -0.082 to -0.0056) compared with those in the lowest third. In contrast, higher total fat intake was associated with lower prevalence of covert brain infarcts (OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.60-0.94) and composite vascular brain injury (OR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.65-0.91). Monounsaturated fatty acids demonstrated consistent protective associations across all vascular injury markers and, along with polyunsaturated fatty acids, were associated with better Digit Symbol Substitution Test performance (0.054; 95% CI, 0.016-0.092) than those in the lowest third. Our results support the need for additional prospective observational studies or long-term and large prospective trials to assess whether macronutrient consumption can improve cognition and reduce incident vascular brain abnormalities, supporting the utility of dietary interventions as a potential pathway to prevent brain injury and cognitive decline.

Study limitations include a cross-sectional design, potential dietary measurement error, and limited power to detect country-specific associations.

“Our results support the need for additional prospective observational studies or long-term and large prospective trials to assess whether macronutrient consumption can improve cognition vascularbrain abnormalities, supporting the utility of dietary interventions as a potential pathway to prevent brain injury and cognitive decline,” the study authors concluded.

Disclosures: This research was supported by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Population Health Research Institute. Multiple study authors declared affiliations with biotech, pharmaceutical, and/or device companies. Please see the original reference for a full list of disclosures.