Chocolate pill for blood flow
Cold extremities? Here’s how cocoa flavanols can help
COLD hands, warm heart: that’s how the saying goes, but if you are constantly suffering from cold extremities at this time of year, your body could be telling you that your circulation and blood flow need a little extra help.
The good news? A company from Cambridge has created a chocolate-based supplement to offer exactly that.
When you have poor circulation, your blood doesn’t flow freely around the body.
An unhealthy diet, lack of exercise and habits such as smoking can lead to a narrowing and stiffening of the arteries. If you have poor circulation, organs such as your heart and brain may not get the nutrients or oxygen they need to function properly.
This can lead to cold extremities, muscle cramps — and cardiovascular problems, if left unaddressed.
One way to improve circulation is to change your diet and get plenty of exercise.
Another way is to increase the amount of nitric oxide your body naturally makes. Nitric oxide facilitates the relaxation of artery walls. This allows your blood to flow more easily and get oxygen and nutrients to the important organs.
Cer tain foods, such as avocados, spinach, garlic and chocolate, help our bodies to produce nitric oxide. Dark chocolate is packed with cocoa flavanols. Research by the Royal Society of Chemistry has shown that they assist the production of nitric oxide, which triggers the arterial wall muscles to relax.
A Cambridge supplement company has created a product that contains these flavanols.
Dubbed ‘ the chocolate pill’ in national media, it has been officially recognised by the European Food Safety Authority, following studies which show that the highly purified cocoa flavanols contribute to the flexibility of blood vessels and help to maintain healthy blood flow.
To get the recommended amount of cocoa flavanols from dark chocolate it would mean eating 400g every day, which is 2,429 calories (kcal) and 329 per cent of the daily allowance of fat. The capsules contain equivalent flavanols to 400g of 70 per cent cocoa dark chocolate.
‘We believe this is the way forward,’ said Professor Alf Lindberg, former secretary to the committee of the Nobel prize for medicine, and now a member of the company’s medical board.
‘Maintaining the elasticity of blood vessels is very important. Even slightly elevated blood pressure in midlife is linked to increased health risks.
‘ We support the huge amount of research that has gone into this supplement and are delighted it is the first cocoa flavanol product officially allowed to claim it benefits blood vessel elasticity.’