Johns Hopkins Health Alert
More Reasons to Eat Dark Chocolate
Can eating dark chocolate help lower your blood pressure? Studies reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association suggest the answer is "yes!"
Cocoa-rich dark chocolate may be as good at lowering blood pressure as some medications, according to two studies. But tea -- green or black -- doesn’t seem to have any significant effect.
A meta-analysis looked at 10 trials that studied the effects of polyphenol-rich tea and cocoa on blood pressure levels. The tea studies revealed no significant effect on blood pressure. But the cocoa studies found that people who ate 50–100 g of dark chocolate a day for two weeks had an average blood pressure decrease of 5/3 mm Hg.
In the second study, cocoa lowered blood pressure in 44 adults with untreated pre-hypertension or mild hypertension who received 6 g a day of dark chocolate or a matching amount of polyphenol-free white chocolate for 18 weeks.
Those eating dark chocolate had an average drop in blood pressure of 3/2 mm Hg, without any change in weight or cholesterol levels. This is one dietary change most people won’t have trouble making.
But beware: Chocolate is high in calories and eating too much can cause weight gain, which could undo cocoa’s blood pressure–lowering effect. So stick with the 6-g dose (0.25 oz) used in the second study; it was nearly as effective and contains only 30 calories.
[These studies were reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine (Volume 167, page 626) and the Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 298, page 49).]
Posted in Hypertension and Stroke on September 30, 2008
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Besids that I have high blood presue, which has been controled by medication, I also have atrial Fibrilation. My Doctors sedgestion to completely avoid Alchool, Coffee, salt and smoking of course which I have not light a cigarette since 1963, I followed his instructions to the letter and I haven't had an atrial fibrilation incident for the last 11 months. All, chocolats, have "Caffein" if that's so, is the 0.24 oz a day will interfere with my atrial fibrilaton's situation?
Posted by: Nick M. Nomikos | November 20, 2009 2:14 PM
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please if you tell me how to or remove fat from around the liver beside diet,the liver is healthy if there is nature remedies.thank-you
Posted by: loulou | October 5, 2008 8:45 PM