Vitamins are critical to good health

Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) erroneously called a mini-stroke, is often a precursor to a full-on stroke. It’s more appropriate to call it a ‘warning stroke’. 

After my own experience with a TIA, what I call a bump on the brain, the 2nd in my 67 years, I decided to immediately go into action to regain as much as I could; it’s imperative that I be able to walk with crutches again as I rely on the walking as another way to stay toned. Wheeling around when I’m in the city gets me where I need to go quickly, but I spent years learning how to walk and I’d hate not to be able to efficiently do it again. Tenacity propels me forward.

For years, I’ve been taking a range of vitamins and minerals, a morning round and a bedtime round. Notable among them are magnesium, C, D, Zinc and B Complex. I had taken a course of B12 years ago to treat implications of carpal tunnel syndrome. At diagnosis of CTS, surgery was recommended but I couldn’t risk anything at all going wrong with my hand, so I opted out. The B12 aka methylcobalamin wasn’t going to hurt. As it turned out, it resolved the issue totally and I’ve not had another episode of CTS.

When I learned B12 was indicated to heal the brain after stroke or TIA, I decided I’d just go ahead and take as directed. I informed my doctor of the plan. Living with CP among other issues affecting mobility and general health, it was critical that the residual effects of the TIA be banished from my body as soon as possible.

All B vitamins are crucial for overall brain health, but vitamin B12 may be the most important. That’s because it may help improve general cognitive and motor function, and possibly help prevent a second stroke, doing this by repairing and protecting the health of neurons, the basic cells of the brain. This has enormous implications for stroke recovery. Vitamin B12 can help patients regenerate neurons and improve neural communications, allowing survivors to improve various stroke side effects, such as impaired movement.

I took B12 for a week following the TIA and found that it has helped. I will continue to take it throughout my life with an every other month for 7 days schedule. As an infant, my brain was insulted by cerebral palsy; the TIA was my senior citizen warning. Nutrition and supplementing will hold me in good stead and it is my hope that I won’t have to join those in the ‘I take 10 doctor drugs a day’ group. Far too often script meds are contraindicated and some actually compete with each other, not always in a good way. So far, I’m a single script drug user. I hope I am able to maintain that status for many years to come.

In addition to boosting overall brain function, vitamin B12 also promotes axonal growth after a brain injury. Axons are the part of a neuron that connects it to other neurons, where the electrical impulses that a neuron sends travel.

Without axons it would be impossible for any of the billions of neurons in the brain to communicate with each other. After a stroke, many of these axons are destroyed when blood flow is cut off, leading to loss of function. With CP, it’s very often an infection that causes the deficits to brain development. My late father, a doctor, felt that it was, indeed, an infection within weeks of birth that set the stage for my  own diagnosis of CP when I was just over a year old old.

Since I’ve had brain building and repairing vitamins and minerals on board for decades, I am confident that my brain will be sufficiently protected from future insult. In the meantime, my goal is to work on getting back in step so that I may do the occasional walk-about outside with my crutches. Walking in the house is going well and I’m back to doing all those kitcheny things I enjoy so much. I continue to focus on foods that will contribute to brain health. I’m all about the fish, and my home made yogurt, of course. 

As with all things, consult with your physician before undertaking any protocol you read about. What might work for one person may not be appropriate for you.

Carla MacInnis Rockwell is a freelance writer and disability rights advocate living outside Fredericton, NB with Miss Lexie, a rambunctious Maltese and Mr. Malcolm, the boisterous Havanese. She can be reached via email at Carla MacInnis Rockwell