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Big study will test chocolate extract pills for heart health; multivitamins, too
• It won't be nearly as much fun as eating candy bars, but a big study is being launched to see if pills containing the nutrients in dark chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and strokes.
• The pills are so packed with nutrients that you'd have to eat a gazillion candy bars to get the amount being tested in this study, which will enroll 18,000 men and women nationwide.
• "People eat chocolate because they enjoy it," not because they think it's good for them, and the idea of the study is to see whether there are health benefits from chocolate's ingredients minus the sugar and fat, said Dr. JoAnn Manson, preventive medicine chief at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
• The study will be the first large test of cocoa flavanols, which in previous smaller studies improved blood pressure, cholesterol, the body's use of insulin, artery health and other heart-related factors.
• A second part of the study will test multivitamins to help prevent cancer. Earlier research suggested this benefit but involved just older, unusually healthy men. Researchers want to see if multivitamins lower cancer risk in a broader population.
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Today in History
The Associated Press
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• Today is Monday, March 17, the 76th day of 2014. There are 289 days left in the year. This is St. Patrick's Day.
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• Today's Highlight in History:
• On March 17, 1776, British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War.
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• On this date:
• In 1762, New York's first St. Patrick's Day parade took place.
• In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was proclaimed the first king of a united Italy.
• In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt first likened crusading journalists to a (Continued on page 24)
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