A stroke prevention measure you can sink your sweet tooth into

Can you have your cake and prevent stroke too? A good question with the holidays upon us. And the answer? You can if your cake is made with healthy fats and other ingredients, especially raw (unsweetened) organic chocolate.

Chocolate, as you probably have read, is rich in antioxidant compounds called flavonoids which are heart & blood vessel friendly. Its ability to lower one’s risk of having a stroke was demonstrated in a study carried out at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto (The results of which were presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting in Toronto, that took place April 10-17, 2010.) The researchers found that people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who ate none.  This study, BTW, had 44,489 participants! (Which may say as much about how easy it is to find test subjects willing to wolf down chocolate as it does stroke prevention)

Interestingly, in a second study conducted by the same research group, 1,169 people who’d had a stroke ate 50 grams of chocolate once a week. They were found to be 46 percent less likely to die then stroke patients who did not eat chocolate!

OK, so now you have good cause to eat a healthy dose of raw (organic) chocolate. If you’d like to learn about other leading edge stroke prevention and treatment measures, check out Strokedoctor.com

Good Health & Happy Holidays from Dr. Steenblock and his staff!