Vitamin C: Low Cost Stroke Prevention and Recovery

Vitamin C is well known for boosting your immune system and helping you avoid the flu.  But did you know that it helps in stroke recovery and prevention?

How?

It doesn't just help keep your skin healthy through aiding collagen production.  Or just help lubricate your joints through aiding cartilage production (can help with arthritis or joint pain). 

It also helps in the building of essential fats in your body.  Including the fats you need for stroke recovery.

How?

The rebuilding of nerve pathways in your brain requires new fats to be laid around those nerve pathways.  The more good fats around a nerve pathway, the easier it is for your brain to fire that signal.  Vitamin C aids in this myelination, the laying down of fatty sheaths around nerves.

Many studies have found that taking vitamin C can directly help prevent stroke.

Vitamin C can also reduce stroke risk by lowering high blood pressure.  Researchers found that taking 500mg a day (a different study to the one above) lowered high blood pressure by 9% with long term use.  It doesn't lower normal blood pressure levels, only high.

Vitamin C also helps regulate cholesterol in the body.  It helps cholesterol be recycled and excreted instead of deposited in your arteries.  The appropriate dose of vitamin C can actually lower blood cholesterol levels.  It can prevent atherosclerosis to the same degree statins do.

Vitamin C also makes the arteries more slippery on the inside, so it is harder for cholesterol to stick to the walls of the arteries and form plaque.  It also softens arterial plaque by reducing the oxidation of cholesterol.  This means a piece of plaque is less likely to break off and cause a stroke or heart attack.

It is suggested that taking enough vitamin C each day will bring "bad" cholesterol levels down.  It is also suggested that everyone should consume 1000 to 2000 mg of vitamin C each day to regulate cholesterol.

When taking vitamin C, be aware of these medication reactions:
Vitamin C can interfere with Warfarin or Coumadin.  You might be able to take a low dose to still get some benefits.  But you'll have to speak to your doctor.

Aspirin reduces the effect of vitamin C.  If you are taking aspirin you need a higher dose of vitamin C to get the same benefit.  Again, check with your doctor.

You should be able to take vitamin C while taking statins.  If you have had negative effects from statins, or want to avoid those effects (the majority show after 2 years of taking statins), vitamin C is considered a safer alternative.  Its ability to lower cholesterol was known about long before statin medications were created. 

In fact, some medical doctors actually prescribe Vitamin C to their patients.

To check interactions between Vitamin C and any other medications, click this page about vitamin C.

For best results combine taking vitamin C with eating vitamin C rich foods, and aim to get at least 1000mg each day if you have normal cholesterol levels or blood pressure.  If either of these are high, aim for at least 2000mg.

Vitamin C containing foods include:

• Orange Juice and other citrus fruits
• Oranges and other citrus fruits
• Grapefruit and grapefruit juice (check with doctor if taking Warfarin or Coumadin)
• Cranberry and Cranberry juice (check with doctor if taking Warfarin or Coumadin)
• Strawberries
• Tomato
• Sweet Red Pepper (Capsicum)
• Broccoli (check with doctor if taking Warfarin or Coumadin)
• Potato

It also helps stroke recovery by aiding the rebuilding of nerve pathways in the brain.

Do you want more great stroke recovery tips?  Then sign up for our free eCourse, "7 days to a Better Stroke Recovery" by entering your information below.

This article contains suggestions regarding medications, diet and supplements.  Your decisions are entirely up to you.  By reading this article you indemnify www.strokeadvice.com, Aliece Willcocks, Leo Willcocks, and any other contributors of any liability arising out of your use of this information.  Always do your own research before making any decision regarding medications, vitamins, diet, or any decision relating to your health.