More dark chocolate benefits

It seems like I'm running an ad for dark chocolate, but there just seems to be a lot of good news lately from studies of it. Perhaps there's an evolutionary survival reason why we humans seem to love the stuff..."Flavanol-rich" cocoa products (otherwise known as dark chocolate) may help to reduce blood pressure a little bit in people with high blood pressure, according to the results of a meta-analysis (a study that puts together the results of other studies rather than collecting new date) by a team led by Karin Ried from the University of Adelaide in Australia and reported in the June 28 issue of BMC Medicine.

Interestingly the chocolate did not reduce blood pressure in people with normal blood pressure, only those with high blood pressure.

The size of the effect in people with high blood pressure was about 5 and 3 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) for diastolic and systolic blood pressure respectively. MmHg are the usual units in which blood pressure is measured. Controlling both systolic and diastolic blood pressure is important for prevention of heart disease and stroke. Reducing blood pressure by 5 mm Hg is a clinically important effect which lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke measurably.

Again one must be cautious about these results because if one ingested the chocolate with a lot of extra sugar, such as in a hot chocolate or cocoa drink, its effects might be counteracted by the increased calories.

Also in interviews reported by Medscape, the authors were careful to caution that flavanol-rich chocolate did not significantly reduce mean blood pressure below 140 mmHg systolic or 80 mmHg diastolic.

Modifiable factors in stroke risk

The INTERSTROKE study, an international study of stroke risk factors was recently published in the Lancet, and shows as you might have expected the modifiable risk factors which play the greatest role in stroke risk. The number one factor is high blood pressure, which can be reduced by reducing salt intake and exercising more, and if that doesn't work, taking medications to reduce blood pressure. Smoking, abdominal obesity (fat around the middle!), diet, and reduced physical activity were other factors which together with high blood pressure accounted for 80% of ischemic stroke risk (ischemic stroke means a stroke that happens because of a reduction of oxygen flow to the brain, usually due to a clot in a blood vessel), and 90% of the risk of having a hemorrhagic stroke (due to bleeding into the brain) in the study.
Additional risk factors for a clot-type stroke included diabetes, alcohol intake, psychosocial factors, the ratio of apolipoproteins B to A1, and other heart diseases (arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter, previous heart attack, and valve disease). Hypertension, smoking, abdominal obesity, diet, and alcohol intake were the most important risk factors for a stroke due to bleeding into the brain. '

Anything new here? No! But it's interesting to note that these results were the same all around the world.