Healthwatch: Study Suggests Cocoa Helps Patients Dealing With Certain Artery Disease

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Still eating those Valentine's chocolates and feeling guilty about it?

There have been studies that say chocolates are good for your mood and your heart.

Well, as CBS2's Dr. Max Gomez reported Monday, chocolate could also be good for a serious disease.

It's actually the cocoa chocolate is made from, and the serious disease is called peripheral artery disease or PAD. It affects millions of people and it can be debilitating. The same disease process that narrows and blocks arteries in the heart, also happens in the legs.

John Conner is grateful to be able to walk around his Chicago neighborhood. The 62-year-old has PAD, which leaves patients with debilitating pain, tightness, and cramping in the leg muscles.

"I couldn't walk one block without stopping. I couldn't go up a flight of stairs. I was in constant pain throughout the day," Conner said.

PAD is a narrowing of the arteries, which reduces blood flow to muscles in the legs.

Conner was among 44 PAD patients who took part in a study at Northwestern University looking at whether cocoa could help. Some drank a cocoa beverage rich in flavanols, which scientists believe have heart health benefits. Others drank a placebo. Patients who drank the cocoa were able to walk much further on a six-minute walking test.

"Those who drank the cocoa beverage had greater improvement in their skeletal muscle health. They also had greater improvement in the blood flow to their legs at six-month follow-up," said Dr. Mary McDermott of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern.

McDermott said while more research is needed, the findings are encouraging.

"This cocoa beverage, which is relatively inexpensive, widely available and has virtually no side-effects, is a medical therapy that they can take," she said.

Conner continues to drink this special type of cocoa.

"I wasn't in a great deal of pain like I was before and I was more active than I was before," Conner said.

He's also eating healthier and said it's all made a difference.

The dark chocolate cocoa drink used in the study contained the antioxidant flavanols and epicatechins that are thought to be responsible for the beneficial effects seen in the study. Milk chocolate and so-called Dutch-process cocoa powder are processed in a way that eliminates those nutrients.