High blood pressure or hypertension is when the power blood exerts on the arteries within the physique will get too excessive.

Essential hypertension or hypertension entails hypertension that doesn’t have a identified trigger. Non-study creator Dr. Rigved Tadwalkar, a board licensed heart specialist at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, defined to Medical News Today:

“Essential hypertension is a highly prevalent medical condition characterized by elevated blood pressure levels without an apparent underlying cause. It is by far the most common cause of hypertension globally. Essential hypertension stands out as the predominant contributor to cardiovascular diseases, including coronary artery disease, heart failure, and stroke.”

High blood strain could be managed by way of life-style adjustments and sure medicines. However, folks can usually take motion to prevent hypertension from occurring within the first place. In basic, eating a healthy diet, sustaining a wholesome weight, and exercising can assist.

However, researchers are additionally taking a look at how consuming particular meals might help with hypertension prevention. Research like this might result in folks making extra particular wholesome meals selections.

Dark chocolate is one meals with many potential well being advantages that researchers are keen on finding out. Non-study creator and registered dietitian nutritionist Karen Z. Berg defined to Medical News Today:

“For chocolate to be considered ‘dark chocolate’ it has to contain at least 50% cocoa solids, and many dark chocolate is made up of 70% or even 90% cocoa which leaves a lot less room for other additives like sugar. This is why dark chocolate tends to be more bitter than milk chocolate varieties.”

“Cocoa is rich in flavanols, so the higher the percentage of cocoa in your chocolate, the more health benefits are possible. [D]ark chocolate is also a good source of fiber, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and zinc. It is important to note that to get the most benefits, you want to choose more natural forms of cocoa. It is also important to note that the higher the percentage of cocoa you have, the more caffeine it will contain.”
— Karen Z. Berg

Researchers wished to know extra about how darkish chocolate might assist decrease the danger for a number of cardiovascular illnesses. One means researchers can look into doable causality as effectively is to make use of a way referred to as Mendelian randomization.

This methodology entails taking a look at genetic variations to supply proof {that a} explicit intervention has a causal impact and helps get rid of the danger of reverse causation. While not good proof, it permits for security and information assortment that isn’t all the time doable with different research on account of moral issues.

Researchers of this research had been ready to make use of information from publicly out there genome-wide affiliation research. They checked out darkish chocolate consumption and threat for a number of cardiovascular illnesses, together with important hypertension, coronary coronary heart illness, coronary heart failure, stroke, blood clots starting within the veins, and coronary heart assault.

The evaluation outcomes had been promising for the positives of darkish chocolate consumption. Researchers discovered that genetically predicted darkish chocolate consumption might assist decrease the danger for important hypertension. The information additional factors to a doable causal relationship between darkish chocolate consumption and decreased threat for important hypertension.

They additionally discovered a doable affiliation between darkish chocolate consumption and a decreased threat for venous thromboembolism, which is when a blood clot varieties in a vein.

Dr. Tadwalkar famous that the outcomes held promise regardless of the research’s limitations.

“The study’s findings hold significant promise for the prevention of essential hypertension. If future research confirms the causal relationship, it could pave the way for not only dietary recommendations but also dark chocolate-derived bioactive compounds or extracts in the development of novel therapies for the prevention or management of essential hypertension. Ultimately, the study offers exciting possibilities for the future of essential hypertension prevention,” he defined to Medical News Today.

The researchers didn’t discover any associations between darkish chocolate consumption and different cardiovascular illnesses.

Dr. Cheng-Han Chen, a board licensed interventional heart specialist and medical director of the Structural Heart Program at MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center in Laguna Hills, CA, who was not concerned within the research, commented along with his ideas on the research to MNT:

“Of the diseases studied, dark chocolate intake was specifically associated with reduced risk of hypertension, but not any other conditions. While this is a notable finding, its clinical implication is limited.”

“The clinical cardiovascular concern for hypertension would be on its potential impact on rates of resultant conditions such as heart attack and stroke, but no other associations between dark chocolate intake and other cardiovascular conditions were identified. I wouldn’t discourage dark chocolate intake based on this study, but I also wouldn’t recommend increasing dark chocolate intake based on this study alone,” Dr. Chen added.

This analysis additionally presents explicit challenges and limitations.

First, the pattern dimension publicity information was small, which can have impacted the outcomes. Second, they misplaced a few of the single nucleotide polymorphisms summary-level information for stroke and coronary heart failure, which might have affected the outcomes. The analysis additionally utilized information from European ancestry, which means the outcomes can’t be generalized to different populations.

Their analysis didn’t enable for sure analyses, equivalent to wanting on the quantity of darkish chocolate consumption or the danger for cardiovascular illnesses based mostly on components like age or gender. There was additionally some potential bias due to pattern overlap. Finally, there might have been some threat of confounding relating to coronary coronary heart illness information.

Overall, the outcomes level to the potential advantages of darkish chocolate for stopping important hypertension. It additionally opens the door for future analysis on this space.

Dr. Tadwalkar famous the next:

“Several exciting research avenues remain open in the wake of studies like this one. Next steps include unraveling the precise mechanisms by which dark chocolate consumption influences cardiovascular health. This could involve utilizing advanced genetic techniques to understand how dark chocolate intake might influence gene expression patterns relevant to cardiovascular health.”

“Also, further research could delve into the potential impact of dark chocolate on other cardiovascular endpoints, such as atherosclerotic plaque formation and progression, cardiac function and remodeling, as well as blood clotting and fibrinolysis,” he added.