Vitamin C Benefits, Reduce Stroke Risk

Your mother always told you to make sure you were getting enough vitamin C. At the first sight of a cough or cold, you were encouraged to eat orange slices, packed full of vitamin C. And now, according to a new study, vitamin C benefits may be more than your mother's thought. Research presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology suggest that one of vitamin C benefits is that it may also protect you from stroke.

Vitamin C Benefits for Stroke Risk Reduction

The study revealed that that risk of hemorrhagic stroke (more deadly, but rarer, than ischemic stroke) is found to be lower among people who have normal vitamin C levels, compared to people with depleted vitamin C levels.

“Our results show that vitamin C deficiency should be considered a risk factor for this severe type of stroke, as were high blood pressure, drinking alcohol and being overweight in our study,” study researcher Dr. Stéphane Vannier, M.D., of Pontchaillou University Hospital in France, said in a statement. Dr. Vannier continued, “more research is needed to explore specifically how vitamin C may help to reduce stroke risk. For example, the vitamin may regulate blood pressure.”This is not the first time vitamin C benefits have been linked to a decreased risk of stroke, though. In 2008, a study by University of Cambridge researchers revealed that people with the highest blood levels of vitamin C had a risk of stroke 42 percent lower than people with the lowest blood levels of the vitamin.For this recent study on vitamin C benefits, researchers tested the vitamin C levels of 65 people--45 percent had normal vitamin C levels, another 45 percent had depleted vitamin C levels, while 14 percent of participants had vitamin C levels that were so low they were considered deficient. Some of the participants had experienced an intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke, while some had never experienced a stroke.Researches on vitamin C benefits show that participants 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. Adult men are recommended to get 90 milligrams of vitamin C a day, while adult women are recommended to get 75 milligrams of vitamin C a day.To make sure you're receiving enough vitamin C benefits from your diet, eat plenty of oranges, broccoli and peppers.