Cocoa doesn’t just warm the heart... it protects it, too!

DRINKING cocoa could bring sweet relief to people struggling to walk due to a common artery disease, a study has found.

Those who drank a mug of flavanol-rich cocoa three times a day for six months were able to walk significantly further in a test at the end of the study period.

Researchers think the cocoa may have improved blood flow to calves and improved muscle function, allowing participants to go the extra distance.

A fifth of people over 60 in the UK have some degree of peripheral artery disease or PAD, which is a narrowing of the arteries that reduces blood flow to the legs. The symptoms often strike when walking and include pain, tightness, cramping and weakness.

Study author Professor Mary McDermott, at Northwestern University in Chicago, said: ‘If our results are confirmed in a larger trial, these findings suggest that cocoa, a relatively inexpensive, safe and accessible product, could potentially produce significant improvements in calf muscle health, blood flow, and walking performance for PAD patients.’

Study participants were randomly assigned to drink either a mug of flavanol-rich cocoa or a placebo three times daily over six months. Walking performance was measured at the beginning of the study and at six months for the 44 PAD patients, all of whom were aged over 60.

They completed the six-minute walking test twice – at two and a half hours and 24 hours after drinking the beverage – as well as a treadmill test. The participants also had the bloodflow to their legs measured using an MRI scan, and those who consented had a calf muscle biopsy to evaluate muscle health.

The cocoa drinkers were able to walk up to 46 yards further in the final six-minute walking test at the end of the study.

But patients who drank the placebo beverage suffered a 26-yard decline in distance at the end of the six-month period. Commenting on the study, Dr Naomi Hamburg, of the American Heart Association, said: ‘ We know that exercise therapy helps people with PAD walk further, and this early study suggests that cocoa may turn out to be a new way to treat people with PAD.’

The study was published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation Research.