Effectiveness of cocoa powder on biophysiological parameters in hypertension a community based study

Abstract

Recent globalization is responsible for robust lifestyle changes newlinebecause of psychosocial stressors which in turn exacerbate job newlinecharacteristics such as demands, low job control, effort-reward imbalance, job newlineinsecurity and long work hours which are responsible for the emergence of a newlineglobal epidemic called cardiovascular disease which is responsible for about newline30% of all deaths worldwide Hypertension presents with other cardiovascular comorbidities and it newlinecauses many health risks among the affected population. Thus, other newlinenutritional measures are necessary along with the medical treatment to newlinereduce the cardiovascular complications. Cocoa is present in everyday food newlineproducts, but its beneficial effects are less reported in humans. Researchers newlinehave found that chocolate is only beneficial for lowering cholesterol at low newlinedoses, and then only for people who are at risk for CVDs. In hypertensive newlinepatients, cocoa significantly reduced cholesterol levels (Jai et al, 2010). newlineAccording to one study, continuous ingestion of polyphenol compounds newlinelowered low density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidative sensitivity and had a positive newlineimpact on high density lipoprotein (HDL) concentrations (Albert et al, 2007). newlineHypertension is present in both urban and rural areas. Rural people are newlinestill not aware of the non pharmacological measures in combating newlinehypertension. In developed countries, many research studies had been done newlinewith cocoa on cardiovascular diseases and the results had shown beneficial newlineeffects of cocoa on cardiovascular health. In developing countries like India, newlinethe results of such studies are not reported yet. In order to reduce this newlineresearch gap, the present study was done with cocoa to improve the newlinecardiovascular health of the rural people who were suffering with newlinehypertension. newline