it's funny how you'll listen to songs again and find a few stanzas more relevant then ever...always liked the Eagles, (along with Iggy Pop and God knows what else) and this popped up at me the other day...
Take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
And take it easy
Sorry for the corny lyrics...anyway, saw this article and thought of a few people here who might have high blood pressure issues, Jim and Tator maybe? I might be confused...anyway, here it is...
A nibble a day of dark chocolate helped lower blood pressure without packing on the pounds, German researchers said on Tuesday.
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Prior studies have shown foods rich in cocoa like dark chocolate offer heart benefits, but researchers have worried the added sugar, fat and calories would cancel out any good the chocolate might do.
Now it seems just a 30-calorie (0.126 kilojoule) bite of dark chocolate -- equivalent to 6.8 grammes or a quarter ounce -- can lower blood pressure without weight gain or other negative side effects.
"Regular intake of small amounts of dark chocolate can help to lower blood pressure," said Dr. Dirk Taubert of University Hospital of Cologne, Germany, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Dark chocolate contains polyphenols -- a group of chemical substances that are believed to carry health benefits.
Taubert and colleagues studied 44 adults aged 56 to 73 with hypertension but no other health problems between January 2005 and December 2006.
Participants were randomly selected to receive a single, 30-calorie square of dark chocolate containing 30 mg of polyphenols or a 30-calorie square of white chocolate that had no polyphenols.
After 18 weeks, the dark chocolate group experienced a 3 point drop in systolic blood pressure -- the top reading -- and a 2 point drop in diastolic blood pressure -- the bottom reading -- without changes in body weight, cholesterol or blood sugar.
"At first glance, this reduction may seem very low, but on a population basis, that means if everyone would experience this blood pressure reduction, the risk of cardiovascular death would be reduced by about 5 percent," Taubert said in a telephone interview.
"Chocolate may be helpful for reducing blood pressure and therefore, the risk of heart attack and stroke," he said.