Chocolate a medicine?

[Kellym]

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.

[boissee]

It sure makes me feel better!

[Sandecker Fan]

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

[rowan]

I will self-medicate through the holidays

[loren1]

Always makes me feel better! Never be without it.

[Kellym]

I don't know what you mean, Sean

[Tommy]

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

[rowan]

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

[Lat]

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... )


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?

[tonym5]

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

[Lat]

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!

This post has been edited by Latimeria on Nov 26 2004, 09:06 AM

[Searambler]

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