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Chocolate may help protect the brain after a stroke. This finding comes from an animal study at Johns Hopkins where researchers fed mice epicatechin, a compound found in chocolate, and then induced strokes in the animals by cutting off the blood supply to their brains. Mice that received the epicatechin had significantly less brain damage than animals that didn’t get the chocolate compound. The investigators don’t know how much chocolate a human would need to consume to provide the apparent protective effects, but the research team leader suggested that it might not be much. He theorizes that the epicatechin may not be directly protecting brain cells but may indirectly prompt them to defend themselves. He also noted that not all dark chocolate contains bioactive epicatechin - the compound is very sensitive to changes in heat and light and can be destroyed during chocolate-making. However, he suggested that if future research confirms these findings, epicatechin - and the chocolate that contains it - could help protect against Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative neurological damage.
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