Taking vitamin E could increase the risk of a particular type of stroke, experts have warned. A review found the vitamin increased the risk of suffering a haemorrhagic stroke (where bleeding occurs in the brain) by 22 per cent compared to people not taking it. Haemorrhagic strokes are the least common type and occur when a weakened blood vessel supplying the brain bursts and causes brain damage. The overall risk was small, accounting for one extra haemorrhagic stroke for every 1,250 people taking vitamin E.
The review, from experts at Harvard Medical School in Boston in the U.S., also found vitamin E could actually cut the risk of the most common type of stroke by 10 per cent. This type of stroke, ischaemic, accounts for 70 per cent of all cases and happens when a blood clot prevents blood reaching the brain.
Experts found vitamin E could cut the risk, equivalent to one ischaemic stroke prevented per 476 people taking the vitamin. However, they warned that keeping to a healthy lifestyle and maintaining low blood pressure and low cholesterol have a far bigger effect on cutting the risk of ischaemic stroke than taking vitamin E. (Daily Mail)
