Cocoa improves blood flow to calves
Q: I’m trying to keep up my daily walking exercise, but I have peripheral artery disease that makes it hard. These days I eat right, don’t smoke and take my statin and high blood pressure medications, but I still get cramping and pain sometimes. Any suggestions? Andrea K., Jacksonville, Florida
A lot of folks 50 and older — as many as 12 million — have to deal with the discomfort of PAD (peripheral artery disease). It’s caused by plaque-filled blood vessels that obstruct blood flow (usually to legs and feet), starving muscles of oxygen and triggering weakness and cramps. Risk factors for developing PAD include smoking, high blood pressure and/or Type 2 diabetes. Left untreated, it can lead to amputation or stroke. But caught early and managed with lifestyle changes and medications, symptoms can be eased or even reversed.
Here’s a great new way that may help you walk away from PAD. A recent study from Northwestern University tracked 44 people, 60-plus with lower-extremity PAD and found that they reported significantly fewer symptoms after drinking a beverage made with half an ounce of flavanol-rich, unsweetened cocoa three times a day for six months.
The research, published in the journal Circulation, found that the cocoa, which contains the flavanol epicatechin, improved blood flow to their calves and increased capillary density in their muscle tissue. A muscle biopsy revealed that the flavanol actually repaired damaged mitochondria in the muscle cell. As a result, the participants were able to walk up to one half a football field farther in a six-minute walking test, compared with those who drank the beverages without cocoa. Touchdown!
We know that’s a lot of cocoa to drink every day. But you can also munch on 1-2 ounces of a 70% cacao chocolate bar for half a day’s dose. Or look for other foods rich in epicatechin, such as apples and whole broad beans. Strawberries, peaches and raspberries have a smaller, but possibly helpful, dose.
Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer at the Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute. Submit your health questions at www.doctoroz.com.