Posted on 01/21/2006 5:38:37 PM PST by Lorianne
A cocoa-swilling tribe in Panama inspired research that found a compound that may help to treat high blood pressure.
There are few things patients might actually be happy to see their doctors prescribe but chocolate is surely one of them. And now that scientists have shown that a chemical found in cocoa improves vascular function, that sweet day may come.
The discovery comes thanks to a tribe in Panama, whose members consume up to a sinful four cups of cocoa a day and maintain strikingly healthy blood pressures, even as they age. The researchers believe the secret of the Kuna Indians is likely to form the basis of new drugs.
The research will be published in the January 24 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Essentially, it shows that a subgroup of a chemical class called flavanols improves circulation.
The scientific community has long suspected flavanols might reduce the risk of cardiovascular problems by improving insulin resistance and glucose tolerance. Flavanols are also believed to increase the ability of blood vessels to widen and bring a subsequent reduction in blood pressure.
However, these suspicions were founded on disease distribution data, which doesn’t formally demonstrate a cause and effect.
Now the team from the University of California at Davis, the Heinrich-Heine University of Duesseldorf, Germany, and Harvard Medical School has pinned down the effects of a flavanol in cocoa called procyanidin.
“We think it improves the lining of the blood vessels,” Carl Keen, distinguished professor of nutrition and internal medicine at the University of California at Davis, told RedHerring.com.
Mr. Keen and his colleagues reached this conclusion after administering cocoa and pure flavanols to healthy, young, male Kuna Indians volunteers, who live on the San Blas islands off the coast of Panama.
Biggest Cocoa Fans
The island-dwelling Kuna are probably the world’s biggest cocoa fans, consuming three to four cups daily. The community is unusual because its members experience only minimal increases in blood pressure as they age. Hypertension and other cardiovascular diseases are rare on the islands.
But when the Kuna move to the suburbs of Panama City, their cocoa consumption slips to an average of less than four cups a week and they suffer cardiovascular problems like other ethnic groups.
The study results showed men with high levels of procyanidin in their blood due to their large cocoa consumption had better blood flow than those who drank beverages containing few flavanols.
They also had higher levels of nitric oxide, a chemical which relaxes the smooth muscle in blood vessel walls, in the blood—and twice as much nitric oxide in their urine.
Furthermore, procyanidin caused vascular tissue to relax in laboratory tests.
“Some would say that you have to do a large clinical trial to be sure of the effect—so a purist would say this isn’t 100 percent proof,” said Mr. Keen. “But anytime that you see this type of improvement in something that’s considered a biomarker, most experts would agree it’s right.”
Pharmaceutical Application
“I would be aghast if you don’t see a pharmaceutical application directly using the compound we’ve identified or some variant of it,” he added. “The effects are very dramatic—they’re as good as other pharmaceutical products that you see to improve vascular health.”
Unfortunately, there is little cardiovascular benefit to consuming mass-produced chocolate three to four times a day. Most commercial cocoa products have been through a food processing treatment called “dutching” which destroys most of the flavanols.
“We will likely also see chocolate manufacturers using this information to design new products,” added Mr. Keen.
The study was supported by funds from Mars, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, and Biomedicinisches Forschungszentrum of the University of Duesseldorf.
I'm sorry, I don't find this very funny.
Tax-a-chussetts, huh? (Snicker, snicker)
bump
That's right, you can't say 'chocolate' any more, you racist! It's 'powder of color' now.
That's not funny!
You've got a few things to learn ...
>>
Why do Chocolate people suffer so much hypertension?
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No, no, no. You have to grind them up, boil them and drink them, silly.
Now - if we can just find a tribe in New Guinea that maintains low cholestral from drinking 3 glasses of merlot per day I'm home free.......
what is BP
You mean the Oompa-Loompas? Didn't they crave the cocoa bean?
Blood pressure = BP.
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