Drinking one cup of hot chocolate per day can help you boost your blood circulation and improve your overall health.
Cocoa contains a compound called epicatechin, which improves blood circulation and even help people over 60s, to stay on their feet longer.
One study, done on people with common peripheral artery disease- PAD, showed that people who consumed one cup of cocoa per day, for more than 6 months, had an improved blood flow to their calves which allowed them to go the extra distance.
Patients with PAD have difficulty walking that is as bad as people with advanced heart failure.
„Leg muscles don’t get enough blood supply in PAD leading to injury and in this study, cocoa appeared to be protecting the muscle and improving metabolism. We know that exercise therapy helps people with PAD walk farther, and this early study suggests that cocoa may turn out to be a new way to treat people with PAD. We will need larger studies to confirm whether cocoa is an effective treatment for PAD, but maybe, someday, if the research supports it, we may be able to write a prescription for chocolate for our patients with PAD,“ explains Dr Naomi Hamburg, the chair of the American Heart Asociation’s Peripheral Vascular Disease Council.
The research was done on 44 PAD patients,over the age of 60. The patients were divided into 2 groups. The first group had to drink 3 cups of cocoa per day, and the other, had to take a placebo powder packed without cocoa. The research was done over the course of 6 months. The researchers measured the performances of each patient at the beginning of the study and after 6 months. The participants walked up and down the corridor for 6 minutes.
The results showed that the patients who drank cacao were able to walk up to 42.6 meters further at the end of the 6-month study.
The patients who took placebo, had a 24.2 meter decline in their walking distance, at the end of the study.
Cocoa flavanols, including epicatechin, have therapeutic properties that can really improve the condition of PAD patients. The research team found out that cocoa also improved the patient’s muscle health.