http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...in_chocolate_dc


Chocolate May Hold Cure for Coughs
Mon Nov 22, 1:44 PM ET

LONDON - An ingredient in chocolate could be used to stop persistent coughs and lead to more effective medicines, researchers said on Monday.

The study found that theobromine, found in cocoa, was nearly a third more effective in stopping persistent coughs than codeine, currently considered the best cough medicine.

The researchers, from Imperial College London (ICL), said the discovery could lead to more effective cough treatments.

"While persistent coughing is not necessarily harmful it can have a major impact on quality of life, and this discovery could be a huge step forward in treating this problem," said Professor Peter Barnes of ICL and Royal Brompton Hospital.

Ten healthy volunteers were either given theobromine, codeine or a dummy pill during the trial, which also involved Royal Brompton Hospital and St Bartholomew's Hospital.

To measure the effect of the different pill the researchers measured levels of capsaicin, which is used in research to cause coughing and as an indicator for the effectiveness of medicines.

The team found when the volunteers were given theobromine, the concentration of capsaicin needed to produce a cough was around a third higher than in the placebo group.

When they were given codeine they needed only marginally higher levels of capsaicin to cause a cough compared with the placebo.

The researchers, writing in the online FASEB Journal, said that theobromine worked by suppressing vagus nerve activity, which is responsible for causing coughing.

They also found that unlike standard cough treatments, theobromine caused no adverse effects on the cardiovascular or central nervous systems, such as drowsiness.

It sure makes me feel better! :lol:

Leave it to you to latch on to this story Kelly. :lol:

I will self-medicate through the holidays

Always makes me feel better! Never be without it. :lol:

I don't know what you mean, Sean :lol:

Well, okay, if it`s for medicinal purposes I can scarf down a Hershey bar every day. :lol:

Hey Kel-
What is the correct dosage? I think I overmedicated today. Is one chocolate turkey worth 2,477 M&M's or what? j:

Chocolate is a health food. Chocolate is derived from cacao beans. Bean =
vegetable. Sugar is derived either from sugar beets or cane, both
vegetables. And, of course, the milk/cream is dairy. So eat more
chocolate to meet the dietary requirements for daily vegetable intake.

(Eat chocalate with raisins, nuts, cherries, etc for additional nutrients... )
:lol:

On a serious note, more and more health benefits of chocolate are discovered everyday. It is one of your richest sources in anti-oxidants.

Hey, can we have a smilie with a chocolate in the hand? ;)

I thought Beans were Legumes!!! And as much as I love chocolate I still have a cough. :o

Green beans is usually considered as a vegetable. Many dieticians do not split hairs about the legumes, they often count them as veggies, but restrict the intake, or add them to the starch protions for their low glycemic index.

Cocoa beans are the seeds from a berry.

Who cares, chocolate rules! :lol:

I wonder if my Doctor will give me a prescription for Hershey's Kisses? :lol:

Sure, Searambler ... Take one, as needed ... Dr. OkieMan (not really a doctor) ...

You know its funny Kelly that you brought this topic up. I was getting a manicure last week and brought Sarah with me and she went into a coughing fit while we were there from sinus drainage. Coughing so bad that I almost left. The Vietnamese women that worked there ran to the back of the shop and brought out a box of chocolates and told me to give some of them to Sarah and it would stop her cough. I thought they were nuts. But I'm here to tell you it really works. She stopped coughing within 5 minutes. Not one peep out of her. Pretty amazing.

I feel a cough coming on-send Vietnamese chocolate. Of course,I also need a manicure. :blink:

Wow really? That is great Michelle!








Woooooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooooo that'll shut certain people up when I HAVE to have some chocolate j:

That is good that they have found out about it helping with coughs. I will atest to its medicinal power, it helps with upset stomachs. Not acidic stomach or really sick like the flu stomachs, more like yucky feeling like something you ate was not agreeable. I used chocolate to get through my first pregnancy when stomach was upset.

Oh yeah, if your girl wants a chocolate bar because it is that time of the month, give it up. She will feel better and you will be great in her eyes, for a moment, maybe, just before you run, quickly.......... :lol: