Message: Women, you are at a higher risk of stroke! Whole grains can protect you.

As a part of the famous Nurses’ Health Study, over 755000 women (who are at greater risk of stroke then men are) were followed up for 12 years; 352 had ischemic stroke over these years. The risk of having stroke has been calculated after excluding the factors influencing cardiovascular health (both positively and negatively) such as smoking, drinking alcohol, exercising, consuming saturated fat and trans-fats, diabetes, heart disease or vascular diseases. The results showed that the highest intakes of whole grains – but not refined grains – was associated with the lowest risk of ischemic stroke.
This protective effect may be due to multiple factors and their combination (see synergetic effects) such as antioxidants, minerals, phytochemicals, and fibers, which are removed during grain processing and not present in refined grains. Out of constituents characteristic for the whole grain, folate, vitamin E, magnesium, potassium, and fibers are considered most probable protectors.

Source:

JAMA. 2000 Sep 27;284(12):1534-40

In 1980s, 65% of all East Boston residents over the age of 65 were recruited in the study of neuroprotective effects of vitamins C and E. None of the people taking vitamin C or vitamin E developed Alzheimer’s disease when followed up in 4.5 years while among vitamin C non-users, 85% developed the disease. Among vitamin E non-users, 14% developed Alzheimer’s (1)

I was shown that supplementation with vitamin E and/or vitamin C might be useful in maintaining brain acetylcholinesterase (footnote a) activity at the normal level and serotonin (footnote b) concentration for some extent under the condition to induce experimental dementia in experimental animals (2)

High intake of vitamin E from food (tocopherol), but not from supplements (which usually contain alpha-tocopherol), is shown to reduce incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. The most common alpha-tocopherol alone may not be sufficient in the protective effects (3)

Sources

1. MC Morris et al, Vitamin E and Vitamin C Supplement Use and Risk of Incident Alzheimer Disease. Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders, 1998 – V12 – 3
2. LEE Lilha et al., Effect of supplementation of vitamin E and vitamin C on brain acetylcholinesterase activity and neurotransmitter levels in rats treated with scopolamine, an inducer of dementia, Journal of nutritional science and vitaminology, 2001, vol. 47, no5, pp. 323-328
3. MC  Morris et. al., Relation of the tocopherol forms to incident Alzheimer disease and to cognitive change. Am J Clin Nutrition, Vol. 81, No. 2, 508-514, February 2005

Footnotes

a) Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is an enzyme that degrades  the neurotransmitter acetylcholine at neuromuscular junctions and cholinergic synaptic transmission in the brain.

b) Serotonin is a neurotransmitter found in the central nervous system. It is best known as a “happiness hormone” though it’s no hormone but monoamine.

Combined deficiency in vitamins C and E is a risk factor for neuronal death and brain necrosis.

Vitamin C easily crosses the blood brain barrier and its transport into the brain is mediated by glucose transporters. Vitamin C concentrations in the brain exceed those in blood by 10-fold. In humans, hypovitaminosis C correlated with brain damage in patients with head trauma (Stroke. 2001;32:898-902). The vitamin C has important functions in the brain, for example, protecting neuronal membranes from oxidative damage acting as a scavenger of free radicals.

Another free radical scavenger Vitamin E (-tocopherol) inhibits the amyloid peptide characteristic for Alzheimer’s disease known to induced cell death (Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Volume 186, Issue 2, 31 July 1992, Pages 944-950).

The results of a study of Guinea Pigs’s fed either on normal or vitamin-deficient diets showed that while moderate deficiencies of vitamins E or C didn’t result in serious brain changes, their combined moderate deficienciescaused degenerative changes in the guinea pig brains in only 5 days after vitamins were removed from the feed.

Interestingly, the deficiencies in either E or C vitamins had only moderate consequences, but their combination caused severe brain lesions – inflammation, cell death with necrosis and apoptosis and animals’ death (Nutr. 136:1576-1581, June 2006).