From MedscapeCME Clinical Briefs
April 19, 2010 — A single 1000-mg dose of aspirin is an effective treatment of acute migraine headaches for more than half of people who take it, and the addition of 10 mg of metoclopramide may reduce nausea, according to the findings of a literature review published online April 14 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
“Aspirin plus metoclopramide would seem to be a good first-line therapy for acute migraine attacks in this population,” write Varo Kirthi, MD, and colleagues, with the Pain Research and the Nuffield Department of Anaesthetics at the John Radcliffe Hospital, in Oxford, United Kingdom.
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April 8, 2010 — The largest observational study so far to examine the association between chocolate consumption and risk of cardiovascular disease has found that those who ate the most chocolate–around 7.5 g per day–had a 39% lower risk of myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke than individuals who ate almost no chocolate (1.7 g per day) [1].
Lead author Dr Brian Buijsse (German Institute of Human Nutrition, Nuthetal, Germany) told heartwire : “This shows that habitual consumption of chocolate is related to a lower risk of heart disease and stroke that is partly explained by blood-pressure reduction. The risk reduction is stronger for stroke than for MI, which is logical because it appears that chocolate and cocoa have a pronounced effect on BP [blood pressure], and BP is a higher risk factor for stroke than for MI.” Buijsse and colleagues report their findings online March 31, 2010 in the European Heart Journal.
However, Buijsse cautions that only small amounts of chocolate were associated with the benefits and it is too early to give recommendations on chocolate consumption: “Maybe it’s a boring message, but it’s a little too early to come up with recommendations, because chocolate contains so many calories and sugar, and obesity is already an epidemic. We have to be careful.” However, he added, that if people did want to treat themselves, they would be better off choosing small amounts of chocolate, preferably dark chocolate, over other sweet snacks. “We know it is the cocoa content in chocolate that is important, so the higher the cocoa content, the better.”
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