Ingesting Vitamin C could reduce one's risk of having a hemorrhagic stroke.
A research team looked at 65 patients who had suffered a intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke (a common type of stroke when blood vessels rupture within the brain), an American Academy of Neurology news release reported.
The team compared the patients who suffered strokes with 65 healthy patients who had not suffered a stroke. The vitamin C levels of the participants were determined through a blood test. Forty-one percent of the study subjects had normal levels of vitamin C while 45 percent had depleted levels; 14 percent were vitamin C deficient.
The researchers found people who had suffered a stroke tended to have depleted vitamin C levels while those who had not were more likely to have normal levels of the vitamin.
Vitamin C can be found in "oranges, papaya, peppers, broccoli and strawberries," the news release reported.
"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 author Stéphane Vannier, MD, with Pontchaillou University Hospital in Rennes, France, said in the news release. "More research is needed to explore specifically how vitamin C may help to reduce stroke risk. For example, the vitamin may regulate blood pressure."
Vitamin C has other benefits such as creating collagen ("a protein found in bones, skin and tissues"). In the past vitamin C has also been linked to heart disease.
"Hemorrhagic stroke is less common than ischemic stroke, but is more often deadly," the news release reported.
Symptoms of a stroke can include: trouble walking; trouble speaking and understanding other people speak; paralysis or numbness in regions such as the face, leg, or arm; vision problems; and a sudden sever headache, MayoClinic reported.
