Study: Dark chocolate could be the key to improving blood flow

Study: Dark chocolate could be the key to improving blood flow
(Image credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

As if we needed another reason to love chocolate: Researchers who studied 20 patients with peripheral artery disease found that the polyphenols in cocoa could increase blood flow, thus improving vascular health.

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) affects 20 percent of adults 70 and older in the U.S. and other Western countries, and makes it difficult for people to exercise and walk because of impaired blood flow. For this study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, researchers gave half of the participants 1.5 ounces of dark chocolate with at least 85 percent cocoa, and gave the other half 1.5 ounces of milk chocolate with less than 30 percent cocoa. The goal was to see if dark chocolate made it easier for patients to walk on a treadmill.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.