> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.foodconsumer.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Flavanol-rich cocoa help prevent heart attacks
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/flavanol-rich_cocoa_help_prevention_heart_attacks_2505100936/
- Published: 2010-05-25T22:36:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T16:00:39.000Z
- Description: Harvard researchers note that Panama's Kuna Indians have low blood pressure and less heart attack, stroke, diabetes and cancer, and eat large amounts of flavanol-rich cocoa. They speculate that cocoa flavonoids trigger nitric oxide synthesis.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Food, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

A study published in the March-April 2009 issue of Journal of the American Society of Hypertension suggests eating flavanol-rich cocoa may reduce risk of myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Hollenberg N.K. and colleagues from Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Massacusetts report in their study that the Kuna Indians residing in an archipelago on the Caribbean Coast of Panama have very low blood pressure levels and a reduced frequency of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and cancer.

The researchers found their diet commonly includes high amounts of flavanol-rich cocoa; the researchers speculate that flavonoids in cocoa trigger nitric oxide synthesis in healthy humans. Nitric oxide is important for heart health.