More good news about what this delicious treat can do for your health

It’s probably the advice you hear more often than anything else: Walking is one of the best exercises there is.

But if you have peripheral artery disease, or PAD, that can make walking for your health very difficult.

Well, here’s something that could make it a bit easier. And it’s not a prescription drug, but a substance that’s starting to sound better and better every day.

I’m talking about chocolate. Now, don’t run out and get a case of Hershey bars, because it’s not just any kind of chocolate that was found to help, but the dark variety. The kind high in cocoa.

Researchers on this new study found that this type of chocolate especially helped patients with “intermittent claudication” — a PAD–related condition that causes muscle pains, cramping in the legs and a sense of fatigue after walking short distances. But after taking a dark chocolate break, they could walk considerably further.

However, members of a control group that ate an equal amount of milk chocolate, with lower cocoa amounts, showed no such improvement.

The study involved only a small number of subjects. But its results added to a growing body of good news about dark chocolate’s health benefits.

A program of regular exercise, like walking, is still said to be the most effective way of treating this form of PAD. So if indulging in a little dark chocolate makes that a bit easier, it might just be the best “drug” you can take!

Sources:
“PAD: Dark chocolate may make walking easier” Salynn Boyles, July 2, 2014, Medpage Today, medpagetoday.com