Chocolate and Coffee Both Affect the Heart

Consumption of one seems to relax arteries, other hardens them

Chocolate lovers may be rejoicing, but coffee drinkers will be left drowning their sorrows in a cup of decaffeinated java, thanks to several recent studies.

Chocolate loosens the arteries, which helps keep your heart healthy, and cocoa has the same effect in older adults, according to two studies presented at an annual meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in New York City .

But another study reported at the same meeting found that caffeinated coffee may help the process that leads to hardening of the arteries.

For the chocolate study, researchers gave 17 healthy volunteers 100 milligrams of dark chocolate one day and a placebo the next, or vice versa. The investigators then measured "wave reflection," which is a measure of the surge of blood that is ejected by the heart.

"The more reflected wave comes back, the stiffer the arteries," Dr. Charalambos Vlachopoulos from the Hippokration Hospital in Athens , Greece , told HealthDay . Stiff arteries are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

"We found that wave reflection was decreased three hours after eating chocolate, but not the placebo," he said. That means chocolate relaxed the arteries.

That doesn't mean you should eat chocolate with abandon, Vlachopoulos said, but "a little chocolate might be OK." The benefit probably stems from the fact that chocolate contains flavonoids, powerful antioxidants that help promote heart health.

For the cocoa study, 27 people were given specially processed cocoa that contained the natural flavonoids normally destroyed in processing. Thirteen of the study volunteers were over age 50, and 14 were under 50. Blood flow to one finger was measured after the cocoa was consumed.

"In older people, the flow nearly doubled," Dr. Naomi Fisher, an endocrinologist from Harvard Medical School , told HealthDay .

The coffee study, which also was done at the hospital in Greece , included 17 healthy volunteers who consumed either a cup of regular coffee with 80 milligrams of caffeine or a decaffeinated cup of coffee with less than 2 milligrams of caffeine.

After drinking regular coffee, the volunteers' endothelial function decreased, and when that happens, the arteries begin to harden, the study's author, Dr. Konstantinos Aznaouridis, a cardiologist, told HealthDay .

"We don't yet know the effects of chronic consumption," he said, adding that other studies have produced conflicting results about the effects of caffeine on the health of the heart. In fact, even the American Heart Association's Web site says there's no solid evidence linking caffeine, coffee and heart disease.

"It's too soon to tell people to quit drinking coffee," Aznaouridis said.

It may also be too soon to start eating chocolate for your heart.

"Don't think these studies are saying, 'Go ahead, get a box of Whitman's Samplers and enjoy yourself,'" Dr. Daniel Lackland, an epidemiologist from the Medical University of South Carolina, told HealthDay .

"All of these studies contribute to our knowledge, but the results are all very acute…[and they] don't answer the question of whether it causes or prevents disease in the long run," he said.