Researchers from the University of Birmingham, in the United Kingdom, have found that flavanols may help counteract the effects of prolonged sitting. Findings of their study are published in ‘The Journal of Physiology’.

The researchers found that young men who drank a high-flavanol cocoa drink before sitting for two hours maintained better blood flow in the femoral (leg) and brachial (arm) arteries than those who drank a low-flavanol version of the drink.

“Even though the trial was small, its randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design gives it strong internal validity for detecting acute physiological changes.

“However, the external validity is narrow: all were young, healthy, male, and the experiment lasted only two hours. “The outcome, flowmediated dilation, is a well-validated marker of endothelial function but still a surrogate, not a clinical endpoint.

“Thus, the findings are mechanistically meaningful but not clinically definitive.” said —Christopher Yi, MD, board certified vascular surgeon at MemorialCare Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA, who was not involved in the study.