Chocolate ‘lowers cholesterol’

Chocolate is the most widely craved food in the world. But, who says that it’s fattening? A new study has revealed that it lowers cholesterol level. Researchers in the United States have found that eating two chocolate bars daily not only cuts down cholesterol levels, but also controls high blood pressure, the Journal of Nutrition reported in its latest edition. “Eating two dark chocolate bars a day not only lowers cholesterol, it has the unexpected effect of lowering systolic blood pressure,” according to lead researcher Prof. John Erdman of the University of Illinois. For the study, they recruited 49 people with slightly elevated cholesterol and normal blood pressure. Subsequently, the participants were divided into two matched groups, who were given CocoaVia two types of chocolate bars — one with plant sterols and one without. The participants ate one CocoaVia formulation twice daily for four weeks, then switched to the other bar for an additional four weeks. Cholesterol levels, blood pressure, body weight, and other cardiovascular measures were tracked throughout the eight-week study. The researchers attributed the drop in cholesterol levels to the plant sterols that are added to chocolate bars and the drop in blood pressure due to the substantial presence of flavanols.

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M-blood can repair hearts

The monthly discomfort many women see as a curse could pay off someday as Japanese researchers say menstrual blood can be used to repair heart damage. Scientists obtained menstrual blood from nine women and cultivated it for about a month, focusing on a kind of cell that can act like stem cells. Some 20 percent of the cells began beating spontaneously about three days after being put together in vitro with cells from the hearts of rats. The cells from menstrual blood eventually formed sheet-like heart-muscle tissue. The success rate is 100 times higher than the 0.2-0.3 percent for stem cells taken from human bone marrow, according to Shunichiro Miyoshi, a cardiologist at Keio University’s school of medicine, who is involved in the research. Separate in-vivo experiments showed that the condition of rats who had suffered heart attacks improved after they received the cells derived from menstrual blood. Miyoshi said women may eventually be able to use their own menstrual blood.