Chocolate Lovers Have Lower Risk of Stroke
Oct-12-2011

The news keeps getting sweeter: eating chocolate has been linked to lower blood pressure, a reduced risk of heart disease and now, in a new study, a lower risk of stroke in women.
Even better, the more chocolate women indulged in, the lower their stroke risk, Swedish researchers found. For every 50-gram (1.8-oz.) increase in chocolate consumption per week, participants' overall stroke risk dropped 14%. The protective effect appeared to kick in at 45 g (1.6 oz.) of chocolate a week, with women in the highest consumption group - who ate a median of 66.5 g (2.4 oz.), or between one and two chocolate bars a week - enjoying a 20% lower risk of stroke than those who ate the least.
When broken down by type of stroke - ischemic, which occurs when a blood vessel supplying blood to the brain is blocked by a clot, versus hemorrhagic, which occurs when a blood vessel in the brain weakens and bursts - the protective benefits of chocolate varied. Each 50-gram-per-week increase in chocolate consumption was associated with a 27% drop in hemorrhagic stroke risk, compared with a 12% lower risk of strokes caused by clots. Why the effect was greater with one type of stroke wasn't clear, the authors wrote.

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