Sweet News on Cirrhosis, Portal Hypertension, Dark Chocolate

Cirrhosis of the liver, statistically speaking, is the twelfth leading cause of death (related to diseases) in the United States every year. Cirrhosis kills ten to fifteen thousand individuals in the U.S. annually.

So anyone who has cirrhosis will be interested in some good news that was recently announced abiout the dangers of cirrhosis, a related condition known as portal hypertension, and eating dark chocolate. The study indicated that eating dark chocolate can actually help prolong the lives of cirrhosis patients with portal hypertension.

Results of the study, which was conducted in Spain, were announced in the spring of 2010, at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Vienna, Austria. Researchers announced that their findings showed that dark chocolate lowers portal hypertension in patients with cirrhosis.

Understanding the reseach requires some basic knowledge of portal hypertension and how it's related to cirrhosis.

Cirrhosis is a serious condition in which healthy tissue in the liver is destroyed and replaced by fibrous scar tissue. It usually occurs over an extended period of time. A normal liver can regenerate cells up to a point. Unfortunately, scarring that has built up to the cirrhosis stage is irreversible. Blood cannot flow through scar tissue, so as the scarring progresses, liver function degrades. Eventually, liver failure occurs, which is a medical emergency and a life-threatening situation.

As you probbably know, cirrhosis can result in a series of related liver problems and complications. Most frequently it is caused by excessive alcohol consumption or hepatitis.

One of these complications is a problem known as portal hypertension. Portal hypertension is a form of high blood pressure that occurs in the portal vein, which brings blood to the liver from the digestive organs. This rise in blood pressure in the portal vein often causes veins known as varices to develop across the stomach and esophagus to bypass any blockages. Because varices are fragile and already under an exaggerated degree of pressure, blood vessel ruptures can easily occur. These ruptures are known as bleeding varices, and they are dangerous

But a group of medical researchers working in Spain discovered that cirrhosis patients could lower their risk of bleeding varices by eating dark chocolate.

Blood pressure in your abdominal area generally increases after you've eaten a meal. This occurs because more blood flows to your liver to help with digestion. This situation can be especially hazardous to patients with cirrhosis. They already have higher-than-normal blood pressure in the portal vein.

Dark chocolate is loaded with flavenoids - a chemical with proven benefits for heart health. Other foods that contain flavenoids include pecans, walnuts, blueberries, strawberries, cinnamon and cabbage. They can also help bring down blood pressure by widening and relaxing blood vessels. It's worth noting that not all types of chocolate have any flavenoids or blood vessel-influencing properties.

The participants in this study were given either 85 percent dark chocolate to eat, or a meal of white chocolate which contained no flavenoids. Researchers said those who ate white chocolate reported an increase in blood pressure that was greater than those who ate dark chocolate. This prompted researchers to conclude that eating dark chocolate could ultimately reduce the odds of blood vessels rupturing in cirrhosis patients.

Nutritional research now shows that dark chocolate doesn't belong in the same class as other chocolates. It's actually more of a health food. The flavenoids found in high quality dark chocolate offer the same health benefits as chemicals found in darkly colored vegetables and many varieties of fruit. There are, in fact, eight times as many flavenoids in dark chocolate as there are in strawberries.

Portal hypertension is a serious danger to individuals with cirrhosis, so they must constantly guard against the possibility of bleeding varices. The research study reported at the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in April 2010 indicates that eating dark chocolate not only tastes great. It also offers some benefits to cirrhosis patients that may not only lower their portal hypertension - but could even save their lives. 

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