Silver leaf chocolate bar in women’s palm trees.
Two months ago, I wrote on recent research indicating that Drinking coffee could be good for your health– resulting from a statistically significant decrease in mortality. (Warnings: health benefits occur if we drink coffee in the morning, instead of spreading it throughout the day.)
I am now happy to announce that two other articles – chocolate and placebos – can also be good for your health.
An international group of researchers based in Boston and China has studied more than 190,000 people for 25 years on average, Monitoring of chocolate consumption and the incidence of type 2 diabetes. They discovered that after “adapting to personal risk, lifestyle and food factors”, participants who consumed 5 portions or more chocolate per week had a rate of type 2 diabetes 10% than those who consumed little or no chocolate. (For the purposes of the study, a portion was defined as 1 ounce of chocolate.)
Interestingly, the benefit was limited to those who consumed mainly decrease chocolate, which experienced a huge decrease of 21% of the development of type 2 diabetes. There was no significant health service for those who consumed milk chocolate. In addition, they noted that “increased consumption of milk, but not dark, chocolate was associated with long -term weight gain”.
The exact mechanism is not entirely understood, but an explanation probably is that dark chocolate is particularly high in the compounds called flavonoids which “have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects and could help open blood vessels. “”
Researchers also gain greater appreciation of the health benefits of the humble placebo – used by tradition as a “drug” witness in randomized clinical trials. As indicated by Washington Post Writer Marlene Cimons, clinicians find that patients with intractable pain can benefit from the so-called “open use” of the placebosIn which patients are fully informed that the pill they take is a placebo. Multiple studies have shown that placebos can help with certain conditions that do not regularly meet more traditional therapies, including back pain, depression, irritable colon syndrome and menopausic heat puffs.
A recent study published in 2024 showed that the open injection of saline solution in the superficial tissues of the lower back could Help patients with back pain. As part of the protocol, patients were treated in an empathetic and sustained environment, designed to improve emotional comfort: “Participants have transformed into a medical dress and a subcutaneous injection described as a saline without active medication was administered on the site of the largest back pain.” The researchers found that a single injection of saline solution “led to significant improvements in the intensity of pain, mood and sleep to 1 month after treatment in relation to the usual care.” Some patients have undergone lasting advantages for a year.
Again, the exact mechanism of pain relief caused by placebos is not entirely understood. A research document in 2024 indicates that relief is probably modulated by cells in a part of the brain called Rostral anterior cingular cortex (Racc). Researchers suggest that doctors can improve pain relief by targeting this particular neuronal route with selective drugs or neurostimulation.
I love the fact that dark chocolate, coffee and placebos have all been demonstrated to help people in a measurable way. Obviously, they are all areas likely to continue research. As a possible exploration avenue, I leave others to discover if placebo chocolates (or placebo coffee) can offer similar health benefits that real thing!