For dark chocolate lovers, there is no reason today to stay away from it, after using it as a medicine to treat the most common diseases important for heart and vascular health.  


 

A study in “News Medical” magazine revealed a promising relationship between consuming dark chocolate and reducing the risk of developing high blood pressure, a discovery that may have far-reaching effects on cardiovascular health and opens up a new, delicious way to improve heart health.

The study results indicated that regular consumption of dark chocolate significantly reduces the risk of developing essential hypertension, providing valuable insights into preventing it in the general population.  

The study reported that scientists used a "Mendelian randomization approach" to explore the causal relationship between dark chocolate consumption and cardiovascular disease, which uses measured variation in genes of known function, to examine the causal effect of modifiable exposure on disease in observational studies.

In their study, the researchers also explored the relationship between dark chocolate consumption and the risk of 12 cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, atrial fibrillation, non-rheumatic valvular diseases, non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, and essential hypertension. Previous reports have indicated that flavanol compounds found in dark chocolate have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, and are believed to be major contributing factors to a healthy cardiovascular system.