Can Eating Chocolate Reduce Stroke Risk? Can Having a Sweet Tooth Lower the Risk of Cardiovascular Accidents?

Anything that can help reduce stoke risk is welcome news; this is a common medical emergency that leads to loss of function and frequently death. If eating chocolate could lower the risk of cardiovascular accidents then it is worth investigating.

What is a Stoke?

A stroke is the common way of describing a Cardiovascular Accident (CVA). A stroke occurs when there is a disruption to the normal blood flow to the brain. This could occur due to a number of reasons including; a blood clot, a narrowing of blood vessels, a hemorrhage. The fact that oxygen can't make it to that part of the brain means that this area will die.

A stoke can cause any number of long-term effects depending on the part of the brain that has been destroyed; if enough damage is caused it will lead to death. The common results of stokes is the loss of function in limbs or slurred speech. If somebody has a stroke they need to be treated quickly because it can cause more damage the longer it is left untreated. Those who are more at risk of cardiovascular accident need to follow all actions recommended by the doctor carefully and have regular checkups.

How Can Eating Chocolate Reduce Stroke Risk?

A study by St Michael's Hospital in Toronto found that those people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a cardiovascular accident. It is believed that there may be anti-inflammatory properties due to flavonoids in cocoa that help reduce stroke risk; researchers are not quite sure how it all works. This was quite a large study involving 44,489 participants and backs up a previous study that found that eating chocolate could almost half the risk of cardiovascular accidents.

Should People Start Eating Lots of Chocolate

This should probably not be viewed as giving people to green light to begin gorging themselves on chocolate bars, but it is good news for those with a sweet tooth. It seems that a lot more research will be needed before any conclusions can be made about how it all works. Cardiovascular accidents are such a huge threat to people that hopefully there will be more studies into this and anything else that can reduce stroke risk.