OT: Studyvitamin C, lower stroke risk

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>Study links vitamin C, lower stroke risk

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> Sunday, 8 October 2000

> Study links vitamin C, lower stroke risk

> By Lee Bowman

> SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

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> People with high blood levels of vitamin C have significantly

>reduced risk of stroke, according to a long-term study.

>

> The 20-year study involving more than 2,000 men and women in rural

>Japan, found that those with the lowest levels of vitamin C in their blood

>had a 70 percent higher risk of stroke than those with the highest levels

>of the vitamin.

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> " To my knowledge, this is the first prospective study to make the

>correlation between vitamin C in the bloodstream and incidence of stroke, "

>said Dr. Tetsuji Yokoyama, a research associate in epidemiology at the

>Medical Research Institute of Tokyo Medical and Dental University. He was

>lead author of the report in the October issue of Stroke, a journal of the

>American Heart Association.

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> " The risk of stroke was inversely related to vitamin C in the

>bloodstream and frequency of vegetable consumption. "

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> Higher concentrations of vitamin C in the blood provided benefits

>even in patients with other risk factors, such as high blood pressure,

>heavier alcohol consumption, smoking or lower physical activity. However,

>those risk factors did diminish the benefits somewhat. Smoking and alcohol

>may interfere with the absorption of vitamin C.

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> The researchers examined strokes based on fruit and vegetable

>consumption.

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> " The risk of all types of strokes was 58 percent lower among those

>who consumed vegetables six to seven days per week, compared to those who

>only consumed them up to two days a week, " Yokoyama said.

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> Although vitamin C levels also rise with vitamin C supplements, it

>was rare for people in the Japanese community to take vitamin pills when

>the study started in 1977, so the researchers could not measure what effect

>they might have.

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> Over the course of two decades, there were 196 strokes among the

>subjects, 109 due to a blocked artery supplying the brain, and 54 caused by

>a burst artery in the brain. Another 33 were of an undetermined type.

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> Since the risk of both types of stroke was reduced for those with

>high vitamin C levels, Yokoyama said the mechanism at work probably extends

>beyond vitamin C's known antioxidant effects. While that could explain why

>there's less build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries, it's unclear why

>the vitamins would protect against ruptured blood vessels.

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> " One explanation may be that vitamin C may be a marker for higher

>intake of other nutrients which may protect against stroke, " Yokoyama said.

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> Whether vitamin C levels matter enough to warrant widespread

>screening of people for disease risk, the researchers can't yet tell. But

>they're preparing a new database on the same population looking at their

>experience with heart attacks.

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