Natural Vitamin E Can Protect Brain After Stroke
A stroke occurs when blood supply to part of the brain is either blocked by a blood clot or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts(diverting blood into the spaces around brain cells, or neurons). Brain damage often results–leaving stroke survivors with a range of different disabilities.
New research concludes that a specific type of vitamin E (called TCT) could keep brain cells from dying after a stroke.
TCT is not widely found in the typical American diet but it is common in foods that make up a typical Southeast Asian diet. Some food sources of TCT are rice bran oil, wheat germ, barley, and oats.
Researchers have identified an enzyme called cPLA2 that TCT targets to protect neurons after a stroke.
Blocked blood flow associated with stroke causes an excess of glutamate to be released. Normally, glutamate is beneficial and important for memory and learning. If it is produced in large amounts (in response to the brain trauma of a stroke), it triggers reactions that lead to the destruction of neurons and causes stroke damage.
The amount of TCT necessary to achieve these brain cell protecting effects is small (about 10 times lower than the average amount of TCT circulating in the bodies of humans who regularly consume vitamin E).
