Chocolate and Hypertension
At last, a good excuse for eating chocolate.
A new study has concluded that eating dark chocolate may in fact help reduce hypertension.
November’s issue of the Mayo Clinic health letter suggests a recent German study found that by eating a small amount of dark chocolate every day, as has the positive effect of reducing your systolic (top). Blood pressure level by almost 3 mm. In addition, and found that also affected the diastolic (bottom) blood pressure level by about 2 mm.
Dark chocolate is rich in flavonoids. Flavonoids are thought to be rich and antioxidants which can help improve the function of the body’s blood vessels.
A study, published in the July 4, 2007 edition of the Journal of the American medical Association, took 44 adults, who had high blood pressure and assign them to eat 6 g of either white chocolate or dark chocolate every day for 18 weeks. The group that ate the white chocolate saw no change in their blood pressure levels.
While the study yet again suggests that chocolate can be beneficial to one’s blood pressure, Mayo Clinic doctors stressed that there is not enough evidence to recommend eating, dark chocolate as a proven remedy for high blood pressure or hypertension.
