Another Cocoa Study Shows Positive Effects on Hypertension

Here’s a study from The Journal of the American Medical Association that shows that cocoa, or more specifically, the polyphenols in cocoa, has a positive effect on blood pressure. It points out several important facts:

• It doesn’t need to be a huge quantity of dark chocolate to have an effect
• The dark chocolate must be taken regularly
• It must be taken on an ongoing basis

The study was performed on a rather small population (44 individuals) with untreated prehypertension (120-139/80-89) or stage 1 hypertension (140-159/90-99) without any other risk factors. According to the study, the prevalence of hypertension decreased from 86% to 68%. The participants were given either 6.3 g of dark chocolate containing 30 mg of polyphenols or the same amount of white chocolate which contained no polyphenols for a period of 18 weeks.

The study also points out that blood nitric oxide levels increased in the test participants. Nitric oxide is what triggers the dilation of the blood vessels and reduces blood pressure.

Here’s the link to the abstract of the study:

JAMA — Abstract: Effects of Low Habitual Cocoa Intake on Blood Pressure and Bioactive Nitric Oxide: A Randomized Controlled Trial, July 4, 2007, Taubert et al. 298 (1): 49

In my opinion, the thing about eating chocolate as a “medicine” is that healthy individuals probably wouldn’t feel any different, even though the polyphenols would be of benefit. Individuals with cardiovascular disease could probably measure an improvement and may feel healthier.

I know that has been the case with me.

Black and Blue

One of the things I mention in my disclaimer is to do your own research. One reason for that is ultimately, each of us is responsible for our own health. Your health care provider can’t know everything and can’t keep up with all the research that is constantly presented. You should, of course, tell him/her all prescriptions, herbs and supplements you are taking, but the provider may not know how they all interact.

Herbs, supplements and to some extent, even food interact with each other and with drugs. You need to understand what those interactions and side effects could be. A personal example…

Under the supervision of my cardiologist, I take a prescription anticoagulant (Plavix) along with one full-strength aspirin per day to minimize the possibility of a clot causing another heart attack or a stroke. In researching how I could improve my health, I decided I needed to increase my intake of vitamin C and E. I also was advised by my cardiologist to start taking pharmaceutical-grade fish oil.

In researching the interactions of those vitamins and supplements I found that each is also a “blood thinner.” I found that while taking all of them, I bruised VERY easily. Even the slightest bump would cause a large bruise.

My cardiologist did not indicate that there would be any problem with the supplements I was taking.

I decided to drop the vitamins C and E other than what was in my multivitamin. Fish oil also is a “blood thinner.” So I backed off on the amount of fish oil I take. The bruising seemed to get better.

Maybe I’m a bit of a hypochondriac, but I don’t want to thin my blood to the point that I’m in danger of a hemorrhagic stroke.

Chocolate, besides being a vasodilator, is also a blood thinner. I eat dark chocolate (70% cacao) with blueberries and açai berries on a daily basis for several reasons (the subject of a blog for another day). Again, I had to do some research to learn the known interactions and side effects of everything I take.

Once again, each of us is ultimately responsible for our own health and needs to inform our health care providers
of all supplements we are taking along with the prescription drugs, but also we need to do our own research.

Here are a couple of sites that I’ve found useful for researching interactions and side effects.

http://www.drugdigest.org/DD/Interaction/ChooseDrugs/1,4109,,00.html
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/index.html (layperson’s version of Physician’s Desk Reference)

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