Can Dark Chocolate Reduce High Blood Pressure?

In a purely-medical Pajamas Media piece Dalrymple looks at a study on the effects of dark chocolate:
They produced a mathematical model of what would happen to their own patients at risk of cardiovascular disease if they took dark chocolate for medicinal purposes over a prolonged period. They worked out how many would have been expected to have fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events (strokes and heart attacks) if they took no therapeutic chocolate; then they worked out how many would have fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events if they took dark chocolate, on the presumption that the beneficial effects of that chocolate on high blood pressure and low-density lipoproteins persisted.
They came to the conclusion that, if compliance was 100%, a regime of dark chocolate taken for 10 years by 10,000 people at high risk of cardiovascular disease would prevent 15 fatal cardiovascular events and 70 non-fatal ones. If compliance was only 90 percent, the figures would be 10 and 60 respectively.
Of course, one must remember that this was a virtual trial, not a real one. As Goethe said, grey is theory, but green is the tree of life: in other words, full of surprises. It is possible that dark chocolate does not continue to exert a beneficial effect upon the risk factors for cardiovascular disease beyond 18 weeks. It is also possible that harmful effects of dark chocolate consumption would become evident after 18 weeks.

2 thoughts on “Can Dark Chocolate Reduce High Blood Pressure?

  1. Joshua McGill

    There are many ways on how to lower or reduce high blood pressure. Some say dark chocolate would do, some say it don’t. I think it depends on the patient itself but the most safest way to lower blood pressure is to eat vegetables and do regular exercise.

    Reply
  2. Shawn Williams

    I would seriously give dark chocolate a shot if I were suffering from any cardiovascular diseases. I always read about the benefits of dark chocolate on the health. Of course, it has to be taken at the right amount without overdoing it. Unfortunately to carry it out on live subject experiments, there would be too many variables to actually determine the effectiveness of dark chocolate. It is interesting that the article mentions that it is simply a simulation. What were the variables considered? I hope more alternatives medicines are being analysed and discovered. I thoroughly dislike taking tablet medications, and it is about time that we discover the cure for cancer.

    Reply

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