 | |  | |  |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
from Medscape
November 17, 2006 (Chicago) — Subjects enrolled in the Genetic Study of Aspirin
Responsiveness (GeneSTAR) inadvertently helped Johns Hopkins University researchers
measure chocolate's inhibition of platelet function and show that eating chocolate slows
clotting time. The findings may explain how chocolate and cocoa-containing foods exert a
cardioprotective effect.
Subjects in the GeneSTAR study were instructed to exercise, stop smoking, and avoid food
and drink known to contain flavenoids, which interfere with platelet activity. These foods
include grapefruit, caffeine-containing substances, wine, and chocolate and other cocoa-
containing substances.
A group of 139 healthy individuals did not eliminate chocolate from their diet.
Senior investigator Nauder Faraday, MD, associate professor of anesthesia and critical care
medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, told Medscape that
"chocolate was just one of those things this group couldn't give up."
The subjects were ejected from GeneSTAR proper and were not randomized in the aspirin
assessment phase of the study. But Dr. Faraday and colleagues took advantage of the
subjects' noncompliance to assess chocolate's previously demonstrated role in
cardiovascular risk reduction, using the same platelet function analyzer test employed in
the GeneSTAR study.
The investigators measured agonist-induced platelet activation in the presence of shear
and calculated time to closure in the system by a platelet plug. Platelet activation was also
assessed on urinary excretion.
Chocolate consumption caused a significant increase in time to closure, but remained
within the normal range, the investigators announced here this week at the American
Heart Association 2006 Scientific Sessions.
"Chocolate, even in small amounts, was an independent factor in inhibition of platelet
activation," Dr. Naraday said. It extended closure time, regardless of age, sex, smoking
status, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol level, fibrinogen levels,
or von Willebrand factor.
"The magnitude of the effect was quite small," Dr. Naraday emphasized. Chocolate had
the same type of effect as aspirin, but by a factor of 5 to 10 times less, according to the
assay used in the GeneSTAR study, he said.
Elliott Antman, MD, professor of medicine at Harvard University in Cambridge,
Masssachusetts, told Medscape that he found the results intriguing. "It might help explain
the tremendous variability among patients to platelet inhibition, particularly as seen in
response to aspirin."
Dr. Naraday pointed out that "any time you shift the balance away from thrombosis, you
set up a situation with the potential for increased bleeding time and other risks, but I don't
think this is a big problem with eating chocolate!"
Dr. Faraday's study is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the
National Institutes of Health. Dr. Antman reports no relevant financial relationships.
AHA Scientific Sessions 2006: Abstract 4101. Presented November 14, 2006.
Finally, proof of what women knew all along, chocolate does
help with our Monthly cycles. Let the guys keep their aspirin,
we will keep our CHOCOLATE. The darker the better!
November 17, 2006 (Chicago) — Subjects enrolled in the Genetic Study of Aspirin
Responsiveness (GeneSTAR) inadvertently helped Johns Hopkins University researchers
measure chocolate's inhibition of platelet function and show that eating chocolate slows
clotting time. The findings may explain how chocolate and cocoa-containing foods exert a
cardioprotective effect.
Subjects in the GeneSTAR study were instructed to exercise, stop smoking, and avoid food
and drink known to contain flavenoids, which interfere with platelet activity. These foods
include grapefruit, caffeine-containing substances, wine, and chocolate and other cocoa-
containing substances.
A group of 139 healthy individuals did not eliminate chocolate from their diet.
Senior investigator Nauder Faraday, MD, associate professor of anesthesia and critical care
medicine at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, told Medscape that
"chocolate was just one of those things this group couldn't give up."
The subjects were ejected from GeneSTAR proper and were not randomized in the aspirin
assessment phase of the study. But Dr. Faraday and colleagues took advantage of the
subjects' noncompliance to assess chocolate's previously demonstrated role in
cardiovascular risk reduction, using the same platelet function analyzer test employed in
the GeneSTAR study.
The investigators measured agonist-induced platelet activation in the presence of shear
and calculated time to closure in the system by a platelet plug. Platelet activation was also
assessed on urinary excretion.
Chocolate consumption caused a significant increase in time to closure, but remained
within the normal range, the investigators announced here this week at the American
Heart Association 2006 Scientific Sessions.
"Chocolate, even in small amounts, was an independent factor in inhibition of platelet
activation," Dr. Naraday said. It extended closure time, regardless of age, sex, smoking
status, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, total cholesterol level, fibrinogen levels,
or von Willebrand factor.
"The magnitude of the effect was quite small," Dr. Naraday emphasized. Chocolate had
the same type of effect as aspirin, but by a factor of 5 to 10 times less, according to the
assay used in the GeneSTAR study, he said.
Elliott Antman, MD, professor of medicine at Harvard University in Cambridge,
Masssachusetts, told Medscape that he found the results intriguing. "It might help explain
the tremendous variability among patients to platelet inhibition, particularly as seen in
response to aspirin."
Dr. Naraday pointed out that "any time you shift the balance away from thrombosis, you
set up a situation with the potential for increased bleeding time and other risks, but I don't
think this is a big problem with eating chocolate!"
Dr. Faraday's study is funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the
National Institutes of Health. Dr. Antman reports no relevant financial relationships.
AHA Scientific Sessions 2006: Abstract 4101. Presented November 14, 2006.
Finally, proof of what women knew all along, chocolate does
help with our Monthly cycles. Let the guys keep their aspirin,
we will keep our CHOCOLATE. The darker the better!
Chocolate Has Anti-thrombotic
Effects Similar to Aspirin