Although you might be interested to know that vegetables could boost your heart health, it’s likely that you’ll be excited to know that chocolate could, too. Not only that, but British researchers have found that chocolate has a “previously unreported” beneficial effect on insulin resistance. This is great news for all the dessert lovers out there — especially those who are pre-diabetic.
For their study, the British research team systematically reviewed the effects of chocolate, cocoa, and flavan-3-ol (the potent antioxidant found in chocolate) on major cardiovascular disease risk factors.
The researchers searched most of the major medical databases, including Medline, EMBASE, and Cochrane. They looked for randomized controlled trials of chocolate, cocoa, or flavan-3-ol. They contacted authors for additional data to make sure their findings were valid and thoroughly researched.
The researchers found 42 clinical trials that met their search requirements. It was at this point that they made the discovery about insulin resistance being improved by chocolate or cocoa. This effect was primarily due to significant reductions in serum insulin.
As for their initial goal of linking chocolate and cocoa to improved heart function, the researchers found that blood flow was improved, and diastolic blood pressure and arterial pressure were reduced. They also found evidence that chocolate played a moderate role in LDL (“bad”) and HDL (“good”) cholesterol regulation.
As for amounts of chocolate consumed, it seems that blood flow was improved regardless of how much was consumed, whereas the larger the dose of flavan-3-ols, the greater the effects on systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
The researchers concluded that they found consistent benefits of chocolate or cocoa on blood flow and previously unreported promising effects on insulin. They suggest that there needs to be larger, longer-duration, and independently funded trials to confirm the potential cardiovascular benefits of cocoa flavan-3-ols.
Although there was no mention in this clinical trial of different types of chocolate, previous medical research has suggested that dark chocolate contains the most antioxidants.
To learn more about dark chocolate and its potential to lower blood pressure, read the article Dark Chocolate As Good As Blood Pressure Lowering Drugs.
Recently, we received a confession from someone who used to have unbearable foot and back pain.
It was so bad that he could barely get out of bed in the morning.
But after years of suffering and trying multiple solutions with little or no results, he tried something completely different.
One of his colleagues put him touch with a doctor who helped engineer and manufacture a new product to eliminate foot, leg and back pain.
Once skeptical, this person (who has asked that we keep him anonymous, as he is somewhat well-known in certain circles) now readily confesses that this new breakthrough product not only helped his pain, but may have saved his life.
So, what is this miracle breakthrough? Well, if you suffer from foot or back pain, it could very well be the answer to your prayers.