Vitamin C Linked With Lower Risk of Hemorrhagic Stroke

Lisa Franchi February 18, 2014

New research revealed that the risk of hemorrhagic stroke, which is more deadly, but rarer than ischemic stroke, is lower among people who have normal vitamin C levels compared with those with lower vitamin C levels.

The research, presented at the American Academy of Neurology, showed that vitamin C deficiency should be considered a risk factor for this severe type of stroke. For the study, the researchers tested vitamin C levels in the blood of 65 people who had experienced an intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke, and in healthy people who had not suffered a stroke. Among all the participants, 45 per cent had normal vitamin C levels and 45 per cent had depleted vitamin C levels. Meanwhile, 14 per cent of people had vitamin C levels considered as ‘deficient’.

The researchers found that the ones who had normal vitamin C levels were the ones who hadn’t had a stroke, while the ones with depleted vitamin C levels were the ones who had had a stroke.

This is not the first time that vitamin C was linked with lower stroke risk, although the researchers said their results are still preliminary. In 2008 for instance, research by the University of Cambridge showed that people with the highest blood levels of vitamin C had 42 per cent lower risk of stroke than those with the lowest levels of the vitamin. Another study, published in 1995 in the British Medical Journal found that elderly people with the lowest vitamin C had the highest risk of dying from stroke.

Vitamin C is considered the “mother of all vitamins” because of its wide-ranging roles to the human health. It is needed for about 300 metabolic functions in the body. Almost all animals and plants manufacture their own vitamin C, except humans and a few animal species.

Vitamin C deficiency has been linked to anaemia, infection, gingivitis, joint pain, delayed recovery from wounds, and much more. The good thing is that vitamin C is never hard to find. It can be found in many fruits and vegetables, including oranges and citrus fruits, papaya, guava, broccoli and peppers.

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Vitamin C Linked With Reduced Stroke Risk