We Expect People To Thank Us For This
We here at the Crabitat are justly famous for our timely reporting of the most important news, relentless follow through and all around fabulous advice. Not that we'd brag or anything. But this one story, we believe, should earn us many, many thanks from people, particularly women. Because this is probably the most important medical news in all history!
Chocolate can help reduce the risk of a heart attack.
It turns out chocolate, like aspirin, affects the platelets that cause blood to clot, Diane Becker of the Johns Hopkins University's School of Medicine and her colleagues discovered.
"What these chocolate offenders taught us is that the chemical in cocoa beans has a biochemical effect similar to aspirin in reducing platelet clumping, which can be fatal if a clot forms and blocks a blood vessel, causing a heart attack," Becker said in a telephone interview.
The 139 so-called chocolate offenders took part in a larger study of 1,200 people with a family history of heart disease. The study looked at the effects of aspirin on blood platelets.
Before they got the aspirin, the volunteers were asked to stay on a strict regimen of exercise, refrain from smoking and avoid caffeinated drinks, wine, grapefruit juice and chocolate.
Chocolate and the other foods are known to affect platelets.
"We knew they would offend," Becker said. "Some people said to us, 'I can do anything but I can't stay off my chocolate.'"
"If people said, 'I will try my very best,' we said, 'OK do your very best, but it is crucial that you don't eat chocolate for 24 to 48 hours before you come in for testing.'"
….
The blood of the chocolate eaters was slower to clot than the blood of the volunteers who resisted chocolate, Becker told a meeting of heart experts in Chicago.
In a urine test, the chocolate lovers had lower levels of a platelet waste product called thromboxane.
So all those times you heard that chocolate was bad for you: right out the window! Go ahead! eat up. Pay no attention to the doctors who are now saying the fat and sugar content of the chocolate may outweigh the benefits.
They're just trying to keep it all for themselves.
By bird dog, Tuesday, 14 November , 2006 @ 7:05 pm
I think we end up with a wine and chocolate diet. Not bad.