Study To Test The Impact Of Dark Chocolate On MS Fatigue

A team of UK experts will research the effect of chocolate in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), as a part of its comprehensive research strategy against the disease.

The United Kingdom's Multiple Sclerosis Society is going to fund scientists from the Oxford Brookes University in order to assess whether fatigue, a very common symptom of MS, can be reduced through the consumption of chocolate.

According to experts, dark chocolate with 70-percent cocoa has flavonoids that reduce inflammations. Many different foods contains such flavonoids.

The study will look specifically into the impact that cocoa flavonoids have on inflammation and, of course, the role it plays in fatigue.

During this study, multiple sclerosis patients will consume a hot chocolate drink daily. Forty of these participants will be given hot chocolate with a high flavonoid content, while forty others will be given one with low flavonoids levels.

What The Doctor's Have To Say

According to Dr. Shelly Coe, leader of the experiment, there isn't an absolute cure for the fatigue associated with MS, even though most patients with the condition experience the symptom.

According to Coe, dark chocolate can have positive effects on one's health, as exemplified by the flavonoids, even though most people generally believe it is bad for your health.

The doctor says they have presented the trial idea to individuals in MS support groups as well as medics, and they seem to have really liked it.

Over a hundred thousand people in the United Kingdom are diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. (In the United States estimates are as high as 400,000.) The majority of these people deal with the extreme fatigue the condition causes daily, according to researchers.

As explained by Dr. Emma Gray, head of the MS Society's clinical trials, the team is hopeful that they'll be able to help patients handle such a crippling problem, and are delighted to support such a quirky and unusual project which is based on robust scientific evidence.