A small Australian study looking at whether patients find chocolate acceptable as a long-term treatment for lowering blood pressure has found that a substantial number of patients prefer to take tablets.
Dr Karin Ried, from the University of Adelaide, and colleagues found that dark chocolate was superior to placebo in reducing blood pressures of more than 140mmHg systolic or more than 80mmHg dia-stolic.
Daily flavanol dosages, the compounds responsible for the blood-pressure lowering action of chocolate, ranged from 30mg to 1g and interventions ran for two to 18 weeks, but data were insufficient to provide confident answers on optimal dosage and time frame, the researchers said.
They found that half of the participants allocated to the chocolate treatment found it hard to eat 50g of 70 per cent cocoa chocolate every day and 20 per cent considered it an unacceptable long-term treatment option, whereas all participants found it easy and acceptable to take a capsule each day for blood pressure.
Dr Ried said there was an issue about consuming a food item voluntarily or having to eat it on a daily basis over a per-iod of 12 weeks. “In particular, half a block of dark chocolate (50g) is not an insignificant amount. Participants in our trial reported a strong taste and concerns about fat/sugar content as reasons for unacceptability of chocolate as a long-term treatment option.”
The researchers are also interested in the blood-pressure lowering properties of garlic. In a 12-week trial involving 50 people, the research team found that those with systolic blood pressure above 140 who took aged garlic extract capsules had an average systolic blood pressure 10.2mmHg lower than the control group, who took a placebo.
“This reduction is clinically significant, as a drop in systolic blood pressure by 5mmHg reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease by 8-20 per cent,” Dr Ried said.
BMJ 2010;341:c4176
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