Cocoa as a solution to hypertension and diabetes

Hypertension and diabetes, two among the chronic health diseases that account for more than 50 per cent of death worldwide can be prevented or controlled by regular consumption of good quality cocoa product.

When taken regularly as beverage without added milk and sugar, natural cocoa powder keeps heart disease, stroke, cancers and age-related neuro-degenerative diseases at bay.
Cocoa prevents hypertension

Chocolate decreased arterial stiffness in healthy young adults. Dr. Vlachopoulos and fellow researchers randomised 17 healthy young volunteers to eat 100g of a commercially available dark chocolate bar rich in flavonoids or a placebo. Those on the chocolate regimen had decreased arterial stiffness but no favourable effects were observed on the placebo.

The findings have several important implications. The heart has difficulty pumping when peripheral arteries are stiff. Stiff arteries can lead to systolic hypertension, which mainly affects the elderly.
These findings were further corroborated in another study, which examined the effects of naturally occurring flavonol-rich foods and beverages for endothelial dysfunction of the ageing. According to Dr. Naomi Fisher, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, this study showed that cocoa has favourable vascular effects.

What in cocoa prevents heart disease?
It is now widely known that cocoa contains high levels of chemicals known as phenolics, which may help to lower the risk of heart disease. The bitter astringent taste of unsweetened cocoa indicates presence of the phenolics found in them. The phenolic compounds in chocolate include f1avonoids, which are well known anti-oxidants that have been chemically proven to reduce oxidation, Scientific evidnce has long indicated that damage done in the body by free oxygen radical (in oxidation) is linked to heart disease, certain cancers, and physical degeneration maladies associated with the ageing process, Anti-oxidants in the blood stream can help to eliminate free oxygen radicals, potentially reducing the risk of developing heart disease, certain cancers, and cerebrovascular disease.

How might the flavonoids in chocolate (or from other sources) prevent heart disease? There is evidence that flavonoids prevent fatlike substances in the blood stream from oxidizing and clogging the arteries. Arteries are the blood vessels that carry blood pumped by the heart to every part of the body. The arteries that carry blood to the wall of the heart itself are most susceptible to the formation of fatty deposits that ultimately hardens them (arteries), making them less able to perform their function.

The fatty deposits in the wall of the arteries are known as atheroma, and the hardening of the blood vessel is known as arteriosclerosis. It is now believed that arteriosclerosis present to some degree in the middle-aged and elderly is caused by oxidation of low-density lipoproteins (LDL) one of the cholesterol types. At first the atheroma causes subtle damage to the artery, but it eventually leads to the formation of advanced plague. The build up of plague can lead to the clogging of the arteries, a condition that is a major cause of heart attack.

Cocoa can help prevent diabetes
The high magnesium in cocoa, and the ability of antioxidant f1avonols to promote nitric oxide production in the body combine to make the body produce more of the hormone (insulin) that helps to utilize glucose. The insulin produced after ingestion of cocoa powder has been shown to be more active, and hence better at preventing high blood glucose levels that precede or indicate diabetes.