Dark Chocolate is good for you

Guess what? Scientists have found out why chocolate is good for you.

Eating one and half ounces (42.5 g) daily for two weeks reduced stress hormones in the body, and also helped to reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. It also helps with the production of serotonin (the happy neurotransmitter in the brain) and endorphins (enjoyment). It has also been shown that savouring dark chocolate stimulates all part of the brain more intensely than passionate kissing.

It might also be helpful in providing relief from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Read more from the article here.

Heart felt pain

I seem to be bringing more health warnings about the end of important relationships again this week.

Results released recent from an Australian scientific study ("The Cardiovascular Effects of Bereavement - CARBER") revealed that the emotional pain that some people experience when grieving can have a real physical impact. The study of 160 people (half of whom were in mourning) commenced in 2005 and looked at changes in blood pressure, blood clotting, immunity and heart rhythm activated during the acute phase of bereavement.

The researchers found that grieving could raise blood pressure, heart rate and result in changes in the immune system and clotting - all of which can contribute to an increased risk of heart attack.

There was a six-times higher risk of heart attack for those who had suffered the death of a partner or child. The risk decreased after six months and levelled out after two years.

I believe that the death of a marriage creates similar physical impacts - not just emotional. So many of my divorced friends talked about heart ache and chest pain, and I felt it too.

If you are or have experienced chest pain or other symptoms that are not usual for you, make sure you get checked by an appropriate health care practitioner. It might be easier to think that it is just your experience of your grief, but get it checked out anyway.

Marriage breakdown is bad for your health

Conflict in marriages and marriage breakdown is stressful, and this stress is bad for your health. A scientific study has reported evidence that women suffer more physiologically and psychologically than men when relationships are going through rough patches. Men also suffer depression, but this does not tend to impact their health in the same manner.

The study, co-authored by Nancy Henry and Professor Tim Smith of University of Utah Psychology Department found that women in "strained marriages are more likely to feel depressed and suffer high blood pressure, obesity and other signs of "metabolic syndrome" which are risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes".

Read and overview of the study here or more about the study here.

The authors of the study do not go so far as to say that happy relationships are good for your health, but it is wise to consider that there are more impacts on your life than just the changes that you might be contemplating.

Divorce is not easy for anyone - either partner, children, friends, relatives or colleagues. It is obviously harder on the key people involved but it reaches far and wide.

It is important to consider ways to decrease the stress you might experience, and to try to maintain healthy lifestyles in any way you can. Get enough rest (and sleep), try to eat healthy foods, get some regular exercise and watch out for chemical substances such as alcohol or other drugs.