Dark chocolate 'can reduce risk of brain damage after stroke'

You can waive the debt, the next time you gorge on chocolate, and a new study that claims it can reduce the risk of brain injure from stroke. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered that a compound called epicatechin, which is usually found in dark chocolate, actually protects the brain against stroke by defensive neurons.

They based their conclusions on experiment in mice and hope that the effects can be simulated in humans.

In their testing, the researchers gave the mice a dose of epicatechin and then induced a stroke in rodents by cutting the blood supply to the animal's intelligence.

While most treatment for stroke in humans should be given in a 2:58-hour window to be effective, showed epicatechin limiting further neuronal spoil when given to mice 3.5 hours after a caress.

Since six hours after a stroke, but the compound offered no protection to brain cells.



Sylvain Doré, an connect professor of anesthesia and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says that his study showed that epicatechin stimulates two previously entrenched routes known to protect nerve cells in the brain from smash up.

When a stroke hits, the brain is ready to protect themselves, because these pathways are activate.

In mice that lacked discriminating activity in these fields, the study found that epicatechin had no significant defensive effect, and their brain cells died after a stroke.

In the end, "says Doré he hopes his investigate on these courses can lead to insight in reducing acute stroke damage and may protect against chronic degenerative neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's illness and other age-related cognitive disorders.

The quantity of dark chocolate people should drink in order to exploit the protective effect is still unclear when Doré has not been studied in scientific trials.

People should not take this research as a free pass to go out and eat large amounts of chocolate, which is high in calories and fat. Not all dark chocolate is created equal, he warns. Some have more bioactive epicatechin than others, says a Johns Hopkins discharge.

The study appears online in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and M