Sweet Benefits

Chocolate—sweet, rich, and delicious—is good for more than curing a broken heart. The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, is cheaper than therapy and you don't need an appointment.

·       Here are nine healthy benefits that chocolate can provide:

Healthier Heart

A Germany study found that a square of dark chocolate a day lowers blood pressure and reduces risk of heart attack and stroke by 39 percent. The primary reason is that the flavonoids in dark chocolate increase the flexibility of veins and arteries.

Weight Loss

Danish researchers found that dark chocolate is more filling than the lighter kind of chocolate, and therefore lessens the craving for sweet, salty and fatty foods, which are the kind that you would want to stay away from if you are on a diet to lose weight.

Happier Kids

A Finnish study found that women who ate chocolate daily during pregnancy reported that they were better able to handle stress, and their babies were happier and smiled more.

Diabetes Prevention

In an Italian study, participants ate dark chocolate once a day for 15 days, and saw their potential for insulin resistance drop by nearly half. The explanation is that chocolate's flavonoids increase nitric oxide production which in turn helps control insulin sensitivity.

Stress Reduction

When people feel stressed, they tend to reach out for something sweet. Swiss scientists found a significant reduction of stress hormone level in very anxious people who ate an ounce and a half of dark chocolate every day for two weeks. So dark chocolate is better than ice cream after a breakup.

Sun Protection

Researchers in London gave their test subjects 3 months of chocolate containing high levels of flavanols, and found their subjects' skin took twice as long to develop the reddening effect that indicates the beginning of a sunburn. Subjects who ate conventional low-flavanol chocolate didn't get the same sun protection.

Higher Intelligence

Researchers from Oxford University and Norway tested 2,000 people over the age of 70, and found those who consumed flavanol-rich chocolate, wine, or tea, scored significantly higher on cognitive tests than those who didn't. Another study from the University of Nottingham found that drinking cocoa rich in flavanols boosted blood flow to key parts of the brain for 2 to 3 hours, which could improve performance and alertness in the short term, such as a test.

Cough Relief 

Researchers found that chocolate quieted coughs almost as well as codeine, thanks to the theobromine that it contains. Chocolate also does not have the negative side effects as Codeine which makes people feel sleepy and dull. Chocolate certainly tastes better too.

Diarrhea Relief 

People in South America where cacao is originally cultivated have been known to treat diarrhea with chocolate. Scientists at the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute found that cocoa flavonoids bind to a protein that regulates fluid secretion in the small intestine, potentially stopping the diarrhea.

Source: http://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/benefits-of-chocolate

 http://seniorific.com/news/2014/feb/11/9-health-benefits-chocolate/#ixzz3HVE8S8zA

Sick alcohol & beverages

Many of us like to unwind in the evening with a nice glass of something. But the odd glass can quickly add up to two or three. And the more you drink, the greater the risk to your health. Drinking can have serious consequences.

Anemia

Heavy drinking can cause the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to be abnormally low. This condition, known as anemia, can trigger a host of symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, and lightheadedness.

Cancer

Habitual drinking increases the risk of cancer. Scientists believe the increased risk comes when the body converts alcohol into acetaldehyde, a potent carcinogen. Cancer sites linked to alcohol use include the mouth, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box), esophagus, liver, breast, and colorectal region. Cancer risk rises even higher in heavy drinkers who also use tobacco.

Cardiovascular disease

Heavy drinking, especially bingeing, makes platelets more likely to clump together into blood clots, which can lead to heart attack or stroke

Heavy drinking can also cause cardiomyopathy, a potentially deadly condition in which the heart muscle weakens and eventually fails, as well as heart rhythm abnormalities such as atrial and ventricular fibrillation. Atrial fibrillation, in which the heart's upper chambers (atria) twitch chaotically rather than constrict rhythmically, can cause blood clots that can trigger a stroke. Ventricular fibrillation causes chaotic twitching in the heart's main pumping chambers (ventricles). It causes rapid loss of consciousness and, in the absence of immediate treatment, sudden death.

Cirrhosis

Alcohol is toxic to liver cells, and many heavy drinkers develop cirrhosis, a sometimes-lethal condition in which the liver is so heavily scarred that it is unable to function. But it's hard to predict which drinkers will develop cirrhosis. "Some people who drink huge amounts never get cirrhosis, and some who don't drink very much do get it," Saitz says. For some unknown reason, women seem to be especially vulnerable.

Dementia

As people age, their brains shrink, on average, at a rate of about 1.9% per decade. That's considered normal. But heavy drinking speeds the shrinkage of certain key regions in the brain, resulting in memory loss and other symptoms of dementia. 

Heavy drinking can also lead to subtle but potentially debilitating deficits in the ability to plan, make judgments, solve problems, and perform other aspects of "executive function," which are "the higher-order abilities that allow us to maximize our function as human beings," Garbutt says.

In addition to the "nonspecific" dementia that stems from brain atrophy, heavy drinking can cause nutritional deficiencies so severe that they trigger other forms of dementia.

Depression

It's long been known that heavy drinking often goes hand in hand with depression, but there has been debate about which came first -- the drinking or the depression. One theory is that depressed people turned to alcohol in an attempt to "self-medicate" to ease their emotional pain. But a large study from New Zealand showed that it was probably the other way around -- that is, heavy drinking led to depression.

Seizures

Heavy drinking can cause epilepsy and can trigger seizures even in people who don't have epilepsy. It can also interfere with the action of the medications used to treat convulsions.

Gout

A painful condition, gout is caused by the formation of uric acid crystals in the joints. Although some cases are largely hereditary, alcohol and other dietary factors seem to play a role. Alcohol also seems to aggravate existing cases of gout.

High blood pressure

Alcohol can disrupt the sympathetic nervous system, which, among other things, controls the constriction and dilation of blood vessels in response to stress, temperature, exertion, etc. Heavy drinking -- and bingeing, in particular -- can cause blood pressure to rise. Over time, this effect can become chronic. High blood pressure can lead to many other health problems, including kidney disease, heart disease, and stroke.

Infectious disease

Heavy drinking suppresses the immune system, providing a toehold for infections, including tuberculosis, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases (including some that cause infertility). People who drink heavily also are more likely to engage in risky sex. "Heavy drinking is associated with a three-fold increase in the risk of contracting a sexually transmitted disease," Rehmn says.

Nerve damage

Heavy drinking can cause a form of nerve damage known as alcoholic neuropathy, which can produce a painful pins-and-needles feeling or numbness in the extremities as well as muscle weakness, incontinence, constipation, erectile dysfunction, and other problems. Alcoholic neuropathy may arise because alcohol is toxic to nerve cells, or because nutritional deficiencies attributable to heavy drinking compromise nerve function.

Pancreatitis

In addition to causing stomach irritation (gastritis), drinking can inflame the pancreas. Chronic pancreatitis interferes with the digestive process, causing severe abdominal pain and persistent diarrhea. Some cases of chronic pancreatitis are triggered by gallstones, but up to 60% stem from alcohol consumption.

source: http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/features/12-health-risks-of-chronic-heavy-drinking