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medpundit |
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Tuesday, June 01, 2004Eleven people were given 46 grams (1.6 ounces) of dark, flavonoid-rich chocolate every day for two weeks, while 10 others received dark chocolate with low-flavonoid content. At the end of the trial, the researchers used ultrasound to measure how well blood vessels are able to relax if blood flow increases - called flow-mediated dilation. They examined the brachial artery in the arm. How well this artery dilates indicates how coronary arteries are behaving. In the group eating flavonoid-rich chocolate, blood vessel dilation increased by a tenth, while it fell by as much in the other group. I love chocolate as much as the next person (probably more), but this seems pretty weak. It's a very small study showing very small changes in the caliber of a large vessel in the arm. Any conclusion that it helps the heart is purely speculative. posted by Sydney on 6/01/2004 08:43:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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