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VITAMIN C MAY REDUCE STROKE (COMA and TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY) DAMAGE

Note: October, 2009) This is just anecdotal, but I was just told by a student whose sibling is being treated for a consussion at a Harvard University hospital, that doctors there now routinely give 500mg of vitamin C twice a day to people hospitalized with comas.

There is increasing evidence that taking 500 mg of vitamin C twice a day and 400 iu of vitamin E once a day will dramatically decrease damage that occurs as a result of stroke. A primary cause of damage during a stroke is the change of blood supply to part of the brain. The blockage of blood flow initially decreases oxygen supply to those cells. When blood flow is restored, it is the reoxygenation of the cells that causes the brain cells to die. Antioxidants protect those cells from destruction, protecting the brain. It is likely that much of the harm to older people and from brain-damaging accidents that results from strokes could be prevented if everyone took the basic dosage of vitamins C and E described by Nutrition Investigator.

From Journal of Clinical Nutrition Pg 3158S "Ascorbic acid is oxidized to dehydroascorbate (DHA) outside cells and then transported intracellularly by the facilitative glucose transporters. Inside the cell, DHA is quickly reduced back to ascorbate, where it serves as an antioxidant to protect the cell from oxidation. Another mechanism for the cell to accumulate vitamin C is through the sodium-ascorbate cotransporter system, which allows vitamin C to be directly transported into the cell. Studies in mice show that vitamin C crosses the blood-brain barrier in the form of DHA through the glucose transporters. The therapeutic importance of this finding is that DHA injections provide significant neuroprotection in a stroke model in mice. ..[PROTECTS THE BRAIN]  P 3159S  In the brain, vitamin E plays an important role in protecting neurons and acetylcholine receptors from free radical damage and prevents apoptosis in neural cells. In glioblastoma, vitamin E may help increase apoptosis and activates capsase-3 enzyme activity.