(19-11-12) The Dessert That Could Lower Your Blood Pressure

by Victor Marchione, MD

Cocoa, found in chocolate, is a delicious and tasty ingredient that most
people associate with dessert. But, cocoa is also a healing food. It contains
some pretty potent antioxidants called flavanols. Flavanols have been shown to
increase the formation of endothelial nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is critical to
the health of your cardiovascular system. It plays a direct role in
vasoconstriction and vasodilation, which help regulate your blood pressure.
While previous studies have shown that cocoa-rich foods may reduce blood
pressure, recent trials have had conflicting results.
Researchers at the National Institute of Integrative Medicine, in Melbourne,
Australia, decided to get to the bottom of the issue. They noted that high
blood pressure is an important risk factor for heart disease, attributing to
about 50% of cardiovascular events worldwide and 37% of cardiovascular related
deaths in Western populations. They set out to determine the effect of flavanol-
rich chocolate or cocoa products on blood pressure in people with or without
hypertension.
The research team searched all of the major medical databases, and found 20
studies that met their inclusion criteria. After analyzing the 20 studies
involving 856 mainly healthy participants, the researchers found a
statistically significant blood pressure-reducing effect of flavanol-rich cocoa
products compared with control. Adverse effects, including gastrointestinal
complaints, and distaste for the trial product were reported by five percent of
patients in the active cocoa intervention group, and one percent of patients in
the control groups.
The researchers concluded that flavanol-rich chocolate and cocoa products may
have a small but statistically significant effect in lowering blood pressure in
the short term. They suggest that more trials investigating the effect of cocoa
products are needed to determine whether or not blood pressure is reduced on a
long-term basis by daily ingestion of cocoa.
So far, so good on the cocoa front. There are a few people who may react
negatively to chocolate consumption because of an allergy, sensitivity, or a
reaction to the caffeine in chocolate. For the rest of us, this study is a
green light to go ahead and keep eating chocolate-in moderation, of course!


Source: Ried K et al., "Effect of cocoa on blood pressure," Cochrane Database Syst
Rev. 2012 Aug 15;8:CD008893.

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