There is a study going on right now that is studying the effects of chocolate on 150 post menopausal women with type 2 diabetes who are taking statins to lower their cholesterol levels. I found this out by reading an article at gimundo.com, a website that reports GOOD news everyday, can you imagine? Here’s what it said.
Volunteers Needed to Eat Chocolate
“One new health research project based at Norwich, England’s University of East Anglia should have no problem finding volunteers: All study participants will receive a full year’s worth of free Belgian chocolate.
The study is intended to settle the long-running debate on whether the flavonoids in chocolate really can improve women’s health, as several trials have claimed.
In the study, a group of female volunteers will be divided into two groups. Members of one group will be given a special chocolate bar high in flavonoids, while participants in the other group will be given normal chocolate bars as placebos. The women will be given medical exams six times over the course of the study to measure the amount of plaque in their carotid artery, which correlates to their risk of heart disease.
“We hope to show that adding flavonoids to their diets will provide additional protection from heart disease and give women the opportunity to take more control over reducing their risk of heart disease in the future,” researcher Aeidin Cassidy told The Times.
So where do we sign up? It’s not quite that simple – the study is open only to post-menopausal women with type-2 diabetes who are currently taking statins to lower their cholesterol levels, and we’ve got a feeling the 150 open slots were filled the second researchers leaked their plans.
Don’t worry, though – if the results do prove that chocolate can help prevent heart disease, your doctor might just start prescribing you a daily dose.”
I wouldn’t run out an start buying chocolate bars this minute because if you notice they are studying the effect of flavonoids in hoped up amonts, using special chocolate bars! Maybe they think people who love sugar will be more like to take their medicine if it is delivered in the form of candy, like mommy used to do. I can be a chocolate hound about once a month, but I love the real thing, so I decided to see what a chocolate company had to say about chocolate.
“It is believed that chocolate triggers acne and overloaded cholesterol in the bloodstream, while some believe that chocolate is an aphrodisiac and also generates a chemical substance called endorphin which reduces pain and produces a sense of well being. In fact, chocolate contains more than 300 known chemicals and scientists have been working on each chemical and chemical combinations to figure out what are the stimulant effects after consuming chocolate and to prove if the reputation of chocolate are beyond question.
Caffeine, a substance in coffee and tea, is the most famous of chocolate’s chemical ingredient yet it can be found only in small quantities. Theobromine is the primary alkaloid found in cocoa and chocolate and is a weak stimulant contained in slightly higher amounts. Tryptophan, an essential amino acid that is a precursor to serotonin which is a significant neurotransmitter concerning with mood control. Phenethylamine ( a so-called love chemical) is an endogenous alkaloid and monoamine. It is quickly metabolized by the enzyme MAO-B, impeding important concentrations from getting to the brain. Pharmacologist Ryan J. Huxtable described chocolate as “more than food but less than a drug”.
According to a medical research, chocolate strongly delivers pleasure to consumers while melting in one’s mouth as it, bit by bit, lowers the temperature in the human body and generates an increase in brain activity and heart rate. The effect usually lasts for some time after the activity has ended. The research has shown that chocolate input causes a release of serotonin in the brain, which produces feelings of happiness, also indicates that addicts of the drug heroin are more likely to have a greater liking of chocolate possibly because of chocolate triggers dopamine release in human’s brain system of reinforcement.
Likewise, cocoa or dark chocolate carries certain beneficial effects on human health. Dark chocolate, with its high quantities of cocoa, is full with the flavonoids epicatechin and gallic acid, which are believed to hold cardioprotective properties. Cocoa causes an important antioxidant action, shielding against LDL oxidation. Two thirds of total fat in chocolate comes from a type of saturated fat known as stearic acid and mono unsaturated fat known as oleic acid. Stearic acid does not raise the level of LDL cholesterol in our bloodstreams, unlike other saturated fats.
Chocolate is reputed to being an aphrodisiac which is related to simple, sensual pleasure of its consumption. It has been said that serotonin and other chemical substances contained in chocolate especially phenethylamine are mild sexual stimulants. However, there’s no official research claiming that chocolate really serves as a type of aphrodisiac.
Meanwhile, one of the most well-known effects from chocolate is acne, which keeps many women away from being chocolate eaters. The University of Pennsylvania and the US Naval Academy conducted experiments which showed that consumption of chocolate had nothing to do with the developing of acne. Acne is not a result of chocolate itself but milk mixed in the chocolate.
Even if some substances in chocolate are harmless to human, they are toxic to animals such as horses, dogs, cats and parrots. The is hazardous to them as these animals cannot perfectly metabolize chemicals in chocolate, should they be fed chocolate, the theobromine will be in their bloodstream for up to 20 hours and may cause these animals to have epileptic seizures, heart attacks, internal bleeding and finally death.”
NEVER GIVE CHOCOLATE TO YOUR PET!
Red Wine is another sinful pleasure many of us like to indulge and in it is a substance called resveratrol which is supposed to help with the cure of type 2 diabetes, but don’t go out and start chugging red wine just yet, because it has been found that at least for mice they have to drink a thousand glasses a day before it has any diabetes curing effect. What red wine HAS been proven to help with is dementia one of the most common forms is Alzheimers disease:
“The study tracked a group of 1,500 women in Gothenberg, Sweden, for a period of 34 years, measuring their drinking habits over that period of time in relation to their health. According to the results, which were reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology, women who regularly drank wine along with other forms of alcohol were 40 percent less likely to develop dementia than non-wine drinkers.
For women who skipped the beer and hard liquor, sticking exclusively with wine, the results were even more promising: Their risk of developing dementia in later life dropped by 70 percent.
Researchers believe that wine’s affect on mental well-being may be associated with the drink’s antioxidant properties, which could have a positive impact on blood vessels, though”the people who drink wine might have other characteristics that we simply can’t measure,”
But moderation is still the key because study participants on average consumed only one glass of red wine per week and not one a day as we are so often told to consume.
What really seems to show promise in all areas is a reduced calorie diet which has been studied in animals and humans alike and has been proven to increase life span and reverse the effects of aging.
Effects of Calorie Restriction (CR) on Humans:
In human subjects, CR has been shown to lower cholesterol, fasting glucose, and blood pressure. Some consider these to be biomarkers of aging, since there is a correlation between these markers and risk of diseases associated with aging. Except for houseflies (below), animal species tested with CR so far, including primates, rats, mice, spiders, Drosophila, C. elegans and rotifers, have shown lifespan extension[citation needed]. CR is the only known dietary measure capable of extending maximum lifespan[citation needed], as opposed to average lifespan. In CR, energy intake is minimized, but sufficient quantities of vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients must be eaten.[citation needed]
A small-scale study in the US at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis studied the effects following a calorie-restricted diet of 10-25% less calorie intake than the average Western diet. Body mass index (BMI) was significantly lower in the calorie-restricted group when compared with the matched group; 19.6 compared with 25.9. The BMI values for the comparison group are similar to the mean BMI values for middle-aged people in the US. All those on calorie-restricted diets experienced reductions in BMI after starting their diet. Their BMIs decreased from an average of 24 (range of 29.6 to 19.4) to an average of 19.5 (range of 22.8 to 16.5) over the course of their dieting (3-15 years). Nearly all the decrease in BMI occurred in the first year of dieting. It was found that the average total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels for calorie-restricted individuals were the equivalent of those found in the lowest 10% of normal people in their age group. It was found that the average HDL (good) cholesterol levels for calorie-restricted individuals were very high—in the 85th to 90th percentile range for normal middle-aged US men. These positive changes in calorie-restricted individuals were found to occur mainly in the first year of dieting. [It] was found that the calorie-restricted group had remarkably low triglyceride levels. In fact, they were as low as the lowest 5% of Americans in their 20s. This is more remarkable when it is noted that the calorie-restricted individuals were actually aged between 35 and 82 years. Both systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels in calorie-restricted group were remarkably low, about 100/60, values normally found in 10-year-old children. Fasting plasma insulin concentration was 65% lower and fasting plasma glucose concentration was also significantly lower in the calorie-restricted group when compared with the comparison group.” The comparison group’s statistics aligned approximately with the US national average on the dimensions considered.
Seems the best way to overall health is moderation in all things!
