During stroke
recovery, proper nutrition is essential. A healthy diet can help you maintain a
healthy weight – which can help reduce your risk of a second stroke – and provide your body with the fuel it needs to heal
itself.
These
essential vitamins for stroke recovery can be found in supplements, or they
can be found in whole foods – which is a much better way to go.
The
purpose of this article is to inform you of vitamins that can help promote
health and wellbeing.
We
ABSOLUTELY recommend running new supplements by your doctor first because they
can interfere with any medication you’re taking.
For example, ginko biloba is an herb that is widely used to
help prevent ischemic stroke because it’s a natural blood thinner. Meaning,
complications can arise if you’re already on blood thinning medication.
Be
safe and be sure to run everything by your doctor. We cannot stress this
enough!
Now,
onto the top 3 vitamins.
1. Coenzyme Q10
(CoQ10)
CoQ10
is powerful antioxidant that helps protect your tissues from the damage that
toxic molecules, also known as free radicals, cause. Bodily stress caused
by these free radicals is believed to play a role in many diseases, including
cardiovascular disease, a precursor to stroke.
Supplementation
with CoQ10 can reduce your risk of developing cardiovascular disease and
therefore reduce your risk of a second stroke. Also, low CoQ10 levels have been associated with greater tissue
damage to the brain during stroke.
CoQ10
can be found in most liver organs like heart, liver, and kidney… But if you’re
not too keen on organ meats (and if you’re not, we don’t blame you) then you can
also find smaller amounts of CoQ10 in spinach, broccoli, and cauliflower.
2. Vitamin B3 (Niacin)
This
one is simple: Vitamin B3 can help you recover brain function after stroke. Sweet! And if that isn’t
reason enough to love this B vitamin, it also helps boost ‘good’ cholesterol levels, which are typically very low in
stroke survivors.
You
can find vitamin B3 in tuna, chicken, turkey, and salmon. For some meatless
options, you can also find vitamin B3 in peanuts and brown rice – just in
lesser quantities.
3. Fish Oil
Fish oil is a
great source of EPA and DHA – two omega-3 fatty acids that are
excellent for a healthy brain.
Fish oil can
help you in two ways.
First, fish
oil can help lower elevated triglyceride levels, which are a stroke risk factor. Second, the DHA in
fish oil helps promote healthy brain function.
This makes fish
oil helpful for both stroke prevention and stroke recovery.
Other Important Vitamins (and One
Non-Vitamin)
Other
important vitamins that can help boost stroke recovery are:
Omega
3’s are essential for healthy brain function because they’re an essential fat
and, well, your brain is made of 60% fat! Vitamin B12 plays a strong role
in both brain and nerve health while vitamin D plays a strong
role in brain and muscular health.
Probiotics are
interesting because they aren’t a vitamin or a mineral. Instead, probiotics are
bacteria that comprise your microbiome, which consists of 100 trillion
little microbes that live inside your gut. Your microbiome has a nervous
system of it’s own called the enteric nervous system where it communicates with your brain through the
gut-brain axis.
When
this communication is impaired, all sorts of health problems can arise,
including depression and impaired brain function.
Source: Flintrehab.com, July 2015
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