You have to eat at least a couple of tablespoons of dark chocolate a day to see some benefit -- and it's still not as effective as a single baby aspirin, which is usually prescribed to heart patients.So.... Never mind. Why I read the nutrition news.... I don't know.
Matching aspirin would require eating several bars of chocolate a day, which could lead to other problems, such as obesity and diabetes -- to say nothing of tooth decay.
"I would never tell people to go ahead and eat chocolate because chocolate travels with a lot of friends, like fat and sugar," said epidemiologist Diane Becker, who led the study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
IN THE COMMENTS: Lots of first hand experience with heart attacks. (Why isn't there any first heart experience with hand attacks?)
Posts
39 comments:
Some of you already know that I had a Myocardial infarction (MI)
(e.g. heart attack) 18 months ago.
LESSON LEARNED
With the onset of chest pains, take 4 "baby aspirin" or 1-2 regular and chew (not
swallow) them in the mouth to get immediate blood thinning. Swallowing them slows that process.
If you aren't having an MI, no harm, if you are, it could save your life.
Mmmm. I'm a chocolate eating fool. This is good to know!
Wine is good for you.
Chocolate is good for you.
Now if only smoking were good, too.....
Christopher Hitchens says smoking is good for your digestion, is very social, and helps with concentration, at least.
Don't worry about that chocolate causing tooth decay jazz. There's these things called toothbrushes and Listerene.
I popped 3 full-stength apsirins and used up a bottle of nitro tablets (under my tongue) while having mine and waiting for the paramedics to arrive (which only took 3 minutes, fortunately).
In case anyone doesn't know this already, aspirin is good for strokes, too, BTW.
Wow, I gotta start keeping aspirin around the house. I didn't know it works that quickly. I hope you guys are okay after your heart attacks.
Good advice, Sarge and Ronin.
Some of us of...uh..."a certain age" may think we're indestructible and have great circulatory systems, but just look at what happened to Glen Reynolds' wife in the prime of her life.
Anyway, it's great news that chocolate is good for you!
We know the health benefits of drinking red wine. Now comes this.
Why is it that if I drink red wine and eat chocolate I wake up with a splitting migrane the next day?
Just too much health food?
I am diabetic(type 2).
I do enjoy some of the "sugar-free" chocolates, at least those that contain some chocolate liquor.
I wonder if that counts?
Hope there's value in Breyer's Dove Chocolate Covered Sugar-Free Ice Cream Bars. If so, I'll increase my intake by , oh . . . 5 or 6 a day if that helps.
Everything in moderation. Why is that such a hard concept for people to grasp.
dtl,
Why is it that I feel that, if you like chocolate, you know the absolutely best places in Manhattan to get it?
If you are a chocolate lover - I are one - I would greatly enjoy your reviews on anything chocolate . . .
Everything in moderation. Why is that such a hard concept for people to grasp.
It's not hard to grasp. It's just hard to do. That's the catch with the wine-is-good-for-you thing. They always add, IN MODERATION. Who can drink just one glass of wine?? I'm almost done with one bottle tonight, and ready to open the second. I guess whatever good I was doing with the first glass I've already wiped out. :(
To tell you the truth, I think it's all just a crap shoot and what medical problems one gets is mostly determined by your genes.
DTL is right - everything in moderation. The key to a long life. (And if you can't be moderate about something, don't have it around).
LoafingOaf I'm doing fine, thank you. Had 2, one at 44 and the other at 46. The first was probably brought on by medications for something else, and the second by a bout with pneumonia (obtained by reporting for jury duty, as no other co-factors involved.
In RE: genes - a lot to be said for that, but I'm the exception to prove the rule, apparently. Average age at death for one side of the family going back 12 generations is 78, and the other side is 77. Go figure.
I hasten to add that my migranes are *NOT* hangovers. Uh...unless I'm starting to get hangovers on a couple of glasses of cabernet. Now THAT would be a really dreadful effect of aging, if you ask me.
I console myself with the knowledge that I get "classic" migranes—photophobia, auras, etc., and that chocolate almost always plays a role. If this is another effect of aging, it's almost as bad as the first, damnit.
I wonder how long it will be before I'm drooling in my oatmeal?
Except that aspirin doesn't make me break out in zits the way chocolate does. My son bought a batch of chocolate cookies last week. They were so yummy. But for the past two days, my face has been exploding like Vesuvius. (Yes, I still break out in zits at age 53, which is really weird. I never thought I'd get gray hair, wear bifocals, and have acne all at the same time!)
Mark
The full description:
Some of you already know that I had a Myocardial infarction (MI)
(e.g. heart attack) on (a while ago now, this is an old email) Saturday. Short version is that I'm home and fine.
Slightly longer version. On Saturday morning I was laying on the
couch reading for several hours. after a while, my left shoulder joint
began to ache and my left arm felt tingly as though it was asleep. I was
resting on my left elbow so I got up, and after a few minutes the symptoms
went away. I went through the rest of the day I fixed dinner, we ate and
while I was watching the news in the same left elbow position, the symptoms
returned. After a few minutes they did not decrease and I felt a bit clammy.
I took 3 81mg baby aspirin and some Aleve on general principles.
LESSON LEARNED
With the onset of chest pains, take 4 "baby aspirin" and chew (not
swallow) them in the mouth to get immediate blood thinning. Swallowing them
slows that process. I swallowed 3, but it's a lot better than nothing :)
http://www.detnews.com/2002/health/0203/19/c01-439181.htm
I went up stairs with my cell phone and got Sadie out of the shower
and told her that I might be having a heart attack. she told me, CALL 911.
I did.
Medics showed up and hooked me up to a toy EKG and couldn't find
anything, though my pulse was elevated and my BP was very high.
LESSON LEARNED: My heart attack symptoms were not the classic sharp
pain in the left center of the chest. I felt:
1. pain in my should joint. non-standard
2. weakness in my left arm. standard, but confusing with the
apparent shoulder joint pain
3. clamminess. standard, but the last symptom to arrive. It was
this one, considering that I wasn't exercising that set me off on the 911
call.
I didn't not feel:
4. I Never had shortness of breath.
5. Only late in the process, after I had been convinced that it was
a heart attack, could I sense a diaphragm tightness.
http://www.heartpoint.com/mi.html
They put me into the ambulance and took me to the Innova Springfield
ER across from CALIBRE. Apparently along the way things got more
interesting. I had some big EKG issues and they had to shock me. Sadie was
along for the ride.
Got there, ER doc started me on nitroglycerine drip (pipe enlarger),
saline, heparin (blood thinner) and a few more things I guess. He told me
that I should be transported to Innova Fairfax Hospital. Now this might be
a little cross-corporate revenue sharing, but my regular doc says that if
you have heart problems around here you go straight to one of GWU,
Washington Hospital Center or Innova Fairfax. Anyway they called Fairfax
and a transfer ambulance and eventually I was on my way.
LESSON LEARNED: Go to a high quality, high volume hospital for your
heart work. Nothing beats practice. one of GWU, Washington Hospital Center
or Innova Fairfax. My guidance is for folks South of the river. there may
be other good places North, like Johns Hopkins, but my Doc was giving me
Virginia burbs advice.
BTW: I didn't have my health insurance card or wallet with me and
all the first 24 hours care was on faith that somebody was eventually good
for it. Since then, folks have called for account info :)
Two asides here.
1. The ER Doc says, you should get a stint put in, it's one of the
options, don't quibble, do it.
2. The transfer medics screwed around a bit after they got there
and the ER doc came over and told them, "what the hell is he still doing
here"....Apparently the ER Doc wanted me gone.
The ride to Fairfax was uneventful.
When we got there, a security guard was waiting for us and we rolled
in through doors and right into the Cath Lab where a team of folks shot me
up with dye to see what vessels were blocked. Apparently I had one large
artery blocked. They numbed my leg and ran a tube up my femoral artery and
put a stint in. Think little metal mesh "Chinese handcuff" sits in the
artery and hold the thing open.
Anyway, I came out of the lab and up to cardiac ICU where some folks
watched me that night. I should have gone off ICU that next day, Sunday,
but there weren't beds in the lower level area. So 2 nights in ICU and one
in the lower level PCCU. Out on Tuesday.
LESSON LEARNED: Make sure you get pajama bottoms early. I had the
damn top robey thing and didn't learn about the bottoms till day 3.
The graduation test was an echo-cardiogram to see what heart muscle
I had lost. Apparently I graduated with high honors. The tech said "no
appreciable loss" and the Doc said that I had complete function in the area
effected.
So, I'm home, working with exercise, diet and lifting constraints,
that will decrease over the next few months.
Brent - I do know the best places for chocolate in New York.
My fave is Jaques Torres, who has a branch in Soho as well as Dumbo in Brooklyn.
http://www.mrchocolate.com/default.aspx
Their "wicked" hot chocolate is to die for.
I also like MarieBelle in Soho.
Here's a good list:
http://nymag.com/nymetro/urban/strategist/everything/chocolate/10186/
Aspirin is a drug. Shame on the Althouse blog.
Silly me, I like using things in the manner for which they were intended. Aspirin was never intended to be a vitamin.
The risks are potential ruin to the lining of the stomach, stomach upsets, bleeding problems....
People take aspirin for blood clots. It stops the blood from clotting, but think about it:
If you cut yourself, don't you WANT the blood to clot, in that case?
Yet, you've been popping Aspirin like vitamins, you're increasing your chances of bleeding to death.
Bloody noses. There are times when you need the blood to clot, Aspirin interferes with that.
Aspirin is a billion dollar industry, and they've been very clever on getting Doctors (kick-backs) and adversting promotion.
There are plenty of NATURAL substances which increase bloodflow. Cayenne pepper, fish, or better fish oil caspules....soy, beans of all kinds, spicy foods.
Don't be fooled by the Aspirin racket.
Peace, Maxine
Drill Sgt: And my indications were not on the left but on the right side (and always will be in my case, according to the cardiologist). Go figure. In fact, had I not had fee-for-service medical insurance but HMO coverage, the Internist probably would not have been allowed to refer me to the cardiologist the first time, due to the unusual right-side symptoms and an apparently clean EKG. But he could. So he did. Three days later, I lasted less than 2 minutes on a treadmill before symptoms started appearing. While waiting for the cardiologist, the nurse kept popping in what seemed like every 30 seconds to check on me. When he arrived, the cardiologist graciously offered me a choice: "You can have your heart attack at home or in the hospital. But, I'd prefer you have it in the hospital." How could I refuse so polite a suggestion? (I aged a year while there, too: in at 44 out at 45. Funniest part of meeting the cardiologist was when he said "You look great for 55!" And I said, "But I'm 44! I was born in '55.")
I recently received a free bag of Adora Dark Chocolate, a disc of which contains half a days worth of calcium, vitamin D, and vitamin K.
It tastes like any other dark chocolate, but I feel very healthy eating it because it's a vitamin.
MAXINE: There are plenty of NATURAL substances
The words "natural" and "unnatural" are pretty much meangingless. Everything is part of nature. What makes aspirin "unnatural" compared with your fish oil capsules?
But I'd only take aspirin on a regular basis if a doctor told me to.
Wow, as someone with a family disposition to heart problems (Mom's male relatives all die around 50), this is fascinating reading. But I'm the youngest of 3 brothers, so I call my brothers the canaries in the coalmine. They're still alive.
And I eat chocolate every day!
This is, of course, just another excuse for women to eat chocolate, as if one were needed.
That said, the answer is to eat the more expensive chocolates without most of the bad stuff in it. And, of course, just like red wine, do it in moderation.
Since I can't eat chocolate in moderation (despite being a guy), I will forgo this, as I do red wine. Actually, I can drink wine in moderation, but drinking wine is social for me, and living alone, I refuse to drink alone, and, thus, no one glass of red wine.
I knew Maxine would tear you a new one for this post!
"I'd only take aspirin if my doctor told me to"
Because Doctors never have agenda's right? Doctors never push the latest and greatest drug for reasons other than your own well-being, right? And aspirin isn't a billion dollar industry, right?
Look, if I felt a stroke coming on (and there are signs), or if I felt a pounding headache (which I never get) that wouldn't go away...
....I might take two or three aspirin.
In an emergency, which is in keeping with the manner aspirin was intended.
That was the intended use. Natural, or unnatural, It was never intended to be popped like candy.
Chocolate is a bean from the ground. Coffee is a bean from the ground. Those things speed the blood flow. I think there are better alternatives to even those. Like black beans----that's a dark bean without nearly the caffeine, or fat of chocolate.
Fish is brain food, why? .....it speeds blood to the brain, which is why it prevents stroke (fish has mercury though) so the fish-oil capsules are better.
Aspirin is big business now, but remember there's a dark side to everything. Anything that has the power to help you, might also have the power to harm you.
But, nobody thinks about that. What happens when you need your blood, to, in fact, clot....and it won't because you've now been popping aspirin like candy....on the advice of your oh-so-trusted doctor.
I was brought up to question Doctors at every turn...which is why they (and others) can't stand me.
Go make some dark black bean soup...that's a dark bean, add some red pepper flakes, and finish with a few fish oil capsules......that'll do the same exact thing as aspirin without the drug-like risks, and without the fat or caffeine of chocolate and coffee, and it certainly tastes a whole lot better than....Aspirin!
Peace, Maxine
Maxine is obviously a plant by the fish oil industry.
"Anything that has the power to help you, might also have the power to harm you."
That is why, in the socialist paradise, we avoid anything that could help you.
And by the way, when having a heart attack, the best hospital is the closest hospital.
Steves: I like your idea - if has "sports" in the name, it must be good for you! As I was born and raised in California, See's chocolate will probably always be my favorite.
El Presidente: You got that right! The hospital was less than 5 minutes away.
Oh, Maxine, I'm sorry, but much of what you are saying seems so silly that there is no point in trying to respond, except to ask if the aspirin industry is so all-powerful why is it that just about every physician and hospital use or recommend Tylenol in most instances for pain relief? And its a generic drug, Maxine, produced by dozens of manufacturers, which means that the profit margins are not astronomical.
By the way, some of the things you recommend using instead can be quite dangerous and have serious side effects.
I've been swallowing fish oil and Vit. E capsules an hour after lunch in my attempt to follow the "Shangri-La Diet," by Seth Roberts, a UC Berkeley professor of psychology. Even if the diet doesn't work, I figure that the fish oil is good for the heart and brain and Vit E is good for the skin, hair, and nails.
It's probably not enough flavorless calories to work as Professor Roberts describes, but I'm considering getting flax seed oil capsules and taking ten at a time.
Aspirin is available over the counter in several dozen generic forms; before my last vacation, I bought a bottle of 100 tablets for $1.99 at CVS. If it's a billion-dollar industry, it's due to volume, and not margin. The notion of doctors getting kickbacks from the aspirin industry is about as likely as them getting kickbacks from the Mead corporation to keep using hand-written prescription pads (which, incidentally, is a much bigger source of worry to me than the overuse of aspirin).
Yes, Ronin and Steves, I'm a Californian expat living in Massachusetts, and Steves, don't do that to me! I'm having a See's attack right now! I just finished lunch, checked this blog, and was heading back to work, when you had to go and remind me! Arrghh! Ann should not wonder about hand, but about See's attacks. Best American chocolate, hands down.
One reason I look forward to a visit from my mother-in-law is she always brings a two-pound box. Hope she shows up soon.
Steves & Theo: Dark chocolate Bordeaux are my favorite, although buttercreams and raspberry creams are right up there. They used to make a mint cream that was out of this world as well.
BTW, did you folks know who owns See's Candies? Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet's company) bought it years ago as part of their purchase of Blue Chip Stamps (remember them, Theo?). Long-time President Charles Huggins just retired this year. Hope the new one is as committed to preservative-free candies made with all natural ingredients as Huggins was. (They did swith to using vanillin in some candies a few years ago, though.)
MAXINE: Because Doctors never have agenda's right?
I wouldn't go to a doctor I didn't trust. My doctor rocks!
BRUCE: Actually, I can drink wine in moderation, but drinking wine is social for me, and living alone, I refuse to drink alone, and, thus, no one glass of red wine.
I live alone but still think eating dinner without wine or beer is half-assed! Of course I drink more after dinner. Law school made me drink a lot more. And smoke a lot more. And eat more chocolate.
Chocolate recommendation: A German chocolate bar from Wendler called Schticht-Nougat-Barren. A layer of dark, a layer of light, and quite heavenly!
I'm also a fan of Marabou from Sweden, although their boxes of chocolates have declined severely in quality...I think because Kraft bought them. :(
Ronin: I didn't know that about Berkshire Hathaway, either. Thanks for the fascinating bit of corporate history.
Blue Chip Stamps! My God, that deal must be older than dirt. I remember sitting at our Fomica-topped dining table (fake walnut tones, of course) dabbing endless sheets of Blue Chip Stamps on a a sponge (pink cellulose, of course) and pasting them into cheap newsprint booklets (slightly too small, of course) so we could get an All-New Anodized Aluminum Jell-O Salad Mold Set.
James Lileks where are you? Wanna do a Blue Chip Stamp retrospective? You need some more California in your blog.
Anyway, it appears that Berkshire Hathaway and Charles Huggins meant relative stability at See's all these years. However, my wife did return from a trip home (to California, of course) a few years ago, and announced in sad tones that See's had started using—pardon the expression—vanillin (hiss! boo!). I remember literally wiping a tear from my eye. We had a sombre evening where the topic of conversation was the End of California as We Knew It. Now we find out it was all Warren Buffet's fault.
SteveS: Yes, Ronin has done his dirty work. I'm spending an evening trying to figure out how to get a pound or two of See's delivered in time for Thanksgiving. And, yes, who cares about the fate of the Republic. I totally agree: Warren Buffet and all the other plutocrats can do their worst. Just don't touch See's.
And if, God forbid, a terrorist attack were to damage any See's facility, that would be reason enough for me to justify a full nuclear response. I have my priorities straight.
We, too, cried all night when we discovered vanillin was being used. (I've always wondered when Blue Chip bought See's.) I think Buffet bought Blue Chip in the late '70's or early '80's.
I wonder if anyone grew up in Southern California and remembers Van de Kamps bakery products in the supermarkets (like Entenmanns is now). They had a bread, salt-rising bread, that my family loved - it wasn't Sunday morning without the odd smell (some might say off-putting smell ;) of salt-rising bread wafting through the house.
Alas, it disappeared in the '70's. Half my family would kill for a loaf of that today.
Here you go ronin
http://www.park2parkla.com/030815/vdklacc/vdklacc_treasures.cfm?p=1
Thanks, Drill Sgt. I didn't know they started out with potato chips. As a child, I remember being surprised when one of my grandfathers talked about Laura Scudder as if she was a real person ("She used to make a good chip....") and then finding out he knew her from the time she first opened her potato chip shop.
(I have to confess that at first I thought you'd found someone making Van de Kamp's salt-rising bread today and was very excited. That reminds me that it's been some time since I did a google-check and that I ought to do so again.)
I wonder who owns the recipes? I do recall when Richard J. O'Neill, former head of the Democratic Party in Orange County, bought the restaurants and, IIRC, the frozen food operation, which is still in existence, undoubtedly with a large corporate owner today.
Sgt: Great link. Wow, does the sight of all that stuff bring back memories! Van de Kamp's was like Knudsen dairy products. It was just part of living in Southern California, and who could imagine it could possibly not be there?
And Ronin: Yes! My mother, especially, doted on Van de Kamp's products. She could bake if she wanted, but Van de Kamp's stuff was always a treat. I think I remember that bread, but I'd have to see a loaf to be sure. Excellent quality it all was, alas, now gone. Remember the revolving blue neon windmills? My grandmother, on the other hand, was a classic Grandmother from Central Casting. She baked apple pies every week, and snorted that Van de Kamp's made "percentage pies."
You know, we should start a Lileks-esque group blog devoted to Southern California nostalgia. Having been away all these years, it's always a shock to go back. It just isn't the summer of '62 anymore, damnit, but it should be. That was the year I discovered Lost Lake (in the Cajon Pass), Sue (in my Social Studies class), and See's candies (in my aunt's living room). All memorable, but See's is the only one that's still available.
I on the other hand am a superior being... A Northern Californian.
My memory is of sour dough, fresh and smelling of yeast.
You carpet baggers stole our water :)
For you Easterners, all land fights in the West are ultimately about water
Theo: I wonder if someone is already doing a Lileks-like SoCal blog. John Stodder might know, but he probably isn't reading this thread any more (if he ever was).
As for Blue Chip: Believe it or not, they are still in business! IIRC, they produce and implement sales incentive and similar other programs for companies.
(I'm glad to see you have your priorities in order with regard to nuclear response ;-)
Drill SGT: Yes, I was born a sinner, but I sin no more, having long since relocated to the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. Now, who's a sinner? Hmmmmm? Are you taking OUR water?
Drill Sgt.: Northern Californian! It's nice to run into another California expat, even if it's only in the Virtual Land of Ann.
You know, I'm in a mixed marriage: My wife if from Oakland, and I was born in LA (Hollywood, to be exact). So, yes, I've heard your exact words from my wife. "You stole our water!" To which I say, "Stuff it! We needed it!" She says, "We had real sourdough bread, not mediocre commercial garbage festooned with kitsch windmills." To which I say, "Yes, but few people on the planet grew up with as much plastic crap as I did. It just doesn't exist any more." To which my wife would say, "Thank God for that." And I reply, "Give me a little kiss. My distant relative, Peter Hardeman Burnett, was the first Governor of California." And my wife says, "My family's been in California for 120 years, and at least they weren't crooks like your colorful crew." I say, "Yes, but they weren't crooks in California. They did that sort of thing elsewhere." It's the fate of married people from either end of California to bicker when it comes to the Golden State.
Ronin: Amazing about Blue Chip. I thought they were long gone. At this point, it would be heaven to move to your part of California. Massachusetts has its charms, but, weird as it was, California will always be Home. And, of course, you can get See's by just walking into a store.
Post a Comment