A recently completed study suggests that consuming enough vitamin C could help to protect an individual for a stroke.
New research was presented this week that showed the risk of a hemorrhagic stroke – more deadly yet rarer that the ischemic stroke – is less amongst people who consume normal levels of vitamin C, compared to those who have a depleted level of the vitamin.
One of the researchers in the study said the results showed that vitamin C deficiency needed to be considered a risk factor for hemorrhagic stroke, as was high blood pressure, being overweight and drinking alcohol.
The researchers said additional research was needed to determine specifically how the vitamin helps to reduce the risk of stroke.
For this study, the researchers tested the vitamin C levels in blood from 65 people who had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and the vitamin C levels in the blood of healthy individuals who had not had a stroke.
Amongst all participants, 45% had vitamin C levels that were normal and 45% were suffering from depleted levels of vitamin C. In 14% of the people tested, the level of vitamin C was so low it was considered deficient.
However, the researchers found that those people who had normal levels of vitamin C were the individuals that did not suffer a stroke, while those with depleted vitamin C had suffered a stroke.
Since the findings have not yet been published in a journal that is peer reviewed, they should only be considered as being preliminary. In 2008, a study showed that people that had the highest levels of vitamin C in their blood had a lower risk factor for stroke of 42%, than those people with the lowest levels of vitamin C in their blood.
A study done in 1995 resulted in similar findings. In that study, elderly people that had the lowest levels of vitamin C had the highest risk of dying due to a stroke.
Deficiency of vitamin C can also cause anemia, which is a lowered ability for the body to fight against infections, gingivitis, heal wounds, joint pain, and gingivitis.