Dark chocolate can save lives?

Scientists in Australia have announced that eating dark chocolate every day can be beneficial in fending off the chances of suffering heart attacks or strokes.

The study, which took place at the Monsah University in Melbourne used a mathematical model to analyse the likelihood of patients falling to such diseases following this dark chocolate addition to the diet.

2,013 people took part in the study, and they were all people who were considered high risk for the heart disease. This was either down to dangerously high blood pressure or a metabolic syndrome. However, officially diagnosed heart disease sufferers were not included as part of the study, and neither were people with diabetes who may find that continuous sugar intake from eating too much dark chocolate would be more detrimental to their health.

+MORE HEALTHCARE GLOBAL

• New cases of gonorrhoea up by a quarter in 2011
• Aspirin and ibuprofen can help prevent skin cancer
• Blood test shows patients' response to cancer treatment

Individuals who were already taking blood pressure – lowering medication were also omitted from the experiment as the existing treatment would interfere with the subsequent, direct effect of just the chocolate.

From the study, the scientists found that eating some dark chocolate daily could prevent 70 non-fatal and 15 fatal heart attacks or strokes out of every 10,000 people within a ten-year timeframe.

Admittedly this may not seem like a major amount, but as is the case with every new preventive measure, some individual’s bodies take to the chemical changes more effectively than others’.

The findings also assumed a 100 percent compliance rate, but even when this was dwindled to 80 percent, the results showed a 55 percent reduction in non fatal and 10 percent fatal heart attacks.

The cost of not eating healthily and letting your blood pressure reach dangerously high levels obviously goes far beyond monetary value, but the researchers have predicted that by eating a bit of dark chocolate every day, that people will be reducing the risk of heart disease for as little as £25 per year.

The findings will be published in the British Medical Journal, but a spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation remained cautious over the findings, with a concern that people may use it as an excuse to stop eating healthily across other food groups. She reminded people that fruit, vegetables and exercise were still more effective methods of staying healthy.