Cocoa, Flavanols and Cardiovascular Risk
Posted by Clark Venable on 11/29/2004
Cocoa, Flavanols and Cardiovascular Risk:
""The Kuna Indians in Panama, living in their indigenous island home in the Caribbean, do not show the typical rise in blood pressure with age, and hypertension is very rare.[34] In a study that began with the search for protective genes, the observation that migration to Panama City led to a loss of the protection against hypertension made it clear that an environmental factor was involved. Examination of their diet uncovered the fact that they drank large volumes of a flavanol-rich cocoa.[2] Subsequent in vitro studies suggesting that cocoa extracts can induce endothelium-dependent relaxation[4] led to studies in healthy volunteers,[9] and in patients with vascular risk or disease.[1] In the studies of Heiss et al. ingestion of flavanol-rich cocoa led to an increase in flow-mediated vasodilation of the brachial artery following five minutes of ischaemia, a response that correlated with biochemical evidence of increased nitric oxide bioavailability.[8] In the normal volunteers studied by Fisher et al. flavanol-rich cocoa induced striking dilatation of the vessels of the finger, which was reversed completely by an arginine analogue that blocks nitric oxide synthesis (figure 1).[9]""
and
""Endothelial dysfunction with a consequent reduction in nitric oxide production has achieved a central conceptual role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease, diabetes mellitus and hypertension. Recent evidence that flavanol-rich cocoa activates vascular nitric oxide synthesis in the intact human raises an interesting possibility of a therapeutic potential.""
Potentially very good news for Hershey foods, what, what?
[Via Medscape Headlines]
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