Protect your brain from stroke damage with this remarkable supplement
Teardrops on the city
The change was made uptown (again).
We lost the Big Man.
If you’ve rocked to the music (and poetry) of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band over the years, you know what a huge loss this is.
For 40-some-odd years, Clarence “Big Man” Clemons provided the gorgeous soaring saxophone parts that have been such an important element in the E Street sound.
I’m a Jersey girl so I’ve been a fan before they even left the Garden State. I am so lucky that I got to see Big Man four times on their 2009 tour — including their 3-hour penultimate show in Baltimore (I never get to use that word!).
My husband has seen them about 50 times…all over the world.
So in mid-June, when we heard that Clarence had suffered a massive stroke, we panicked. Two emergency brain surgeries were followed with the promising news that he seemed to be recovering.
Then, before the week was out, this larger-than-life man with the beaming smile was suddenly gone. My husband woke me in the middle of the night to tell me the news. And then serenaded me back to sleep with Tenth Avenue Freeze Out.
I immediately thought of Clarence when I came across two remarkable new stroke studies this week. It is too late for Bruce’s buddy, but it may not be too late for you or someone you love to avoid the same fate.
A gifted molecule
Safe to say, most people aren’t aware that there are eight forms of vitamin E — four tocopherols and four tocotrienols.
But most HSI members ARE aware that it’s important to look for a “full spectrum” of the four tocopherol forms when shopping for an E supplement.
As for the tocotrienols, Dr. Spreen points out that they’re harder to come by in the diet (the two best sources are palm oil and barley). As supplements, they tend to be a little expensive, but well worth it.
Dr. Spreen: “There has been considerable peer-review research concerning the benefit of tocotrienols in more than just cardiovascular disease, to include aging, Alzheimer’s disease, breast disease and others.”
A while back, I told you how six months of tocotrienol supplementation at 240 mg per day improved blood flow through carotid arteries in more than 90 percent of subjects who had carotid artery blockage.
That protective effect on the two arteries that supply blood to your brain might play at least a small role in the results of two recent stroke trials from Ohio State University researcher Chandan K. Sen, M.D.
When a stroke occurs, a toxic compound accumulates and causes cell death. But in one of the Ohio studies (which tested mice), tocotrienols activated genes that produce an important protein that, in Dr. Sen’s words, “has the effect of dredging out the toxin.”
In the second study, using dogs, 200 mg of mixed tocotrienols taken daily for 10 weeks produced three results after a stroke:
1) Less brain damage than in dogs that received placebo
2) Less loss of neural connections
3) Better blood flow to the damaged brain area
On that third item, Dr. Sen said that in dogs that received tocotrienols, an emergency response system appeared to “wake up” when normal blood circulation was challenged.
Dr. Sen: “Here, a natural nutritional product is simultaneously acting on multiple targets to help prevent stroke-induced brain damage. That is a gifted molecule.”
It’s a HUGE gift — especially given that a mix of tocotrienols also supports heart health, while providing so many other benefits as well.
Sources:
” Natural Vitamin E a-Tocotrienol Protects Against Ischemic Stroke by Induction of Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 1″ Stroke, Published online 6/30/11, stroke.ahajournals.org
“Tocotrienol vitamin E protects against preclinical canine ischemic stroke by inducing arteriogenesis” Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism, Published online 6/15/11, nature.com
“‘Gifted’ natural vitamin E tocotrienol protects brain against stroke in 3 ways” Ohio State University press release, 7/5/11, tocotrienol.org
