By Andrew M. Seaman 安德鲁·M·西曼
Eating a small amount of chocolate every week or so may decrease the risk of a common and serious type of irregular heart rhythm, according to a new study of people in Denmark.
根据丹麦人的一项新研究，每周吃少量巧克力可能会降低常见且严重的心律不齐的风险。
People who ate chocolate one to three times per month were about 10 percent less likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation than those who ate the sweet treat less than once a month, researchers found.
研究人员发现，每月吃巧克力一到三次的人被诊断出房颤的可能性比每月吃巧克力少于一次的人低 10%。
"As part of a healthy diet, moderate intake of chocolate is a healthy snack choice," said lead author Elizabeth Mostofsky, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.
“作为健康饮食的一部分，适量摄入巧克力是一种健康的零食选择，”哈佛大学陈曾熙公共卫生学院和波士顿贝斯以色列女执事医疗中心的主要作者伊丽莎白·莫斯托夫斯基说。
The study cannot say for certain that it was the chocolate that prevented atrial fibrillation, however.
然而，这项研究并不能肯定地说是巧克力预防了心房颤动。
Mostofsky and colleagues write in the journal Heart that eating cocoa and cocoa-containing foods may help heart health because they have a high volume of flavanols, which are compounds that are believed to have anti-inflammatory, blood vessel-relaxing and anti-oxidant properties.
Mostofsky 及其同事在《Heart》杂志上写道，食用可可和含可可的食物可能有助于心脏健康，因为它们含有大量黄烷醇，黄烷醇是一种被认为具有抗炎、舒张血管和抗氧化特性的化合物。 。
Past studies have that found eating chocolate - especially dark chocolate, which has more flavanols - is tied to better measures of heart health and decreased risk for certain conditions like heart attacks and heart failure, they add.
他们补充说，过去的研究发现，吃巧克力，尤其是含有更多黄烷醇的黑巧克力，可以更好地衡量心脏健康状况，并降低心脏病和心力衰竭等某些疾病的风险。
There isn't as much research on whether chocolate is also linked to a lower risk of atrial fibrillation, which occurs when the upper chamber of the heart beats irregularly.
关于巧克力是否也能降低心房颤动（心房颤动发生在心脏上腔不规则跳动时）的风险，目前还没有太多研究。
At least 2.7 million people in the U.S. have atrial fibrillation, which increases their risk for blood clots and resulting strokes, heart failure and other complications, according to the American Heart Association.
据美国心脏协会称，美国至少有 270 万人患有心房颤动，这增加了血栓形成以及由此导致的中风、心力衰竭和其他并发症的风险。
For the new analysis, the researchers used data collected for a long-term study of 55,502 people in Denmark. The men and women were between 50 and 64 years old when it began, and they provided information about their diets when they entered the study between 1993 and 1997.
在新的分析中，研究人员使用了对丹麦 55,502 人进行的长期研究收集的数据。研究开始时，这些男性和女性的年龄在 50 岁至 64 岁之间，他们在 1993 年至 1997 年进入研究时提供了有关自己饮食的信息。
The researchers then linked that diet data to Denmark's national health registries to see who was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.
研究人员随后将这些饮食数据与丹麦的国家健康登记处联系起来，以了解哪些人被诊断出患有房颤。
Overall, about 3,346 cases of atrial fibrillation occurred over an average of 13.5 years.
总体而言，平均 13.5 年发生约 3,346 例房颤。
Based on their diets at the beginning of the study period, people who ate one serving, about 1 ounce (28.35 grams), of chocolate per week were 17 percent less likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation by the end of the study than people who reported eating chocolate less than once a month.
根据研究开始时的饮食，每周吃一份（约 1 盎司（28.35 克）巧克力）的人在研究结束时被诊断出房颤的可能性比那些每周吃一份巧克力的人低 17%据报告每月吃巧克力的次数少于一次。
Similarly, those who ate 2 to 6 ounces per week were 20 percent less likely to be diagnosed with atrial fibrillation while those who ate more than an ounce of chocolate a day were 16 percent less likely to have the condition.
同样，每周吃 2 至 6 盎司巧克力的人被诊断出患有心房颤动的可能性降低 20%，而每天吃超过 1 盎司巧克力的人患此病的可能性降低 16%。
Among women, the biggest risk reduction was tied to eating one serving of chocolate per week. For men, the biggest reduction came with eating two to six servings per week.
在女性中，最大的风险降低与每周吃一份巧克力有关。对于男性来说，每周吃两到六份的量减少最多。
"I think our message here is that moderate chocolate intake as part of a healthy diet is an option," Mostofsky told Reuters Health.
“我认为我们在这里传达的信息是，适量摄入巧克力作为健康饮食的一部分是一种选择，”莫斯托夫斯基告诉路透社健康。
The researchers caution that they can't account for unmeasured factors, such as kidney disease and sleep apnea, that may influence the risk of atrial fibrillation. They also didn't have data on the type of chocolate or the amount of flavanols participants ate. Their diets may have also changed over the nearly 14 years of data collection.
研究人员警告说，他们无法解释可能影响心房颤动风险的未测量因素，例如肾脏疾病和睡眠呼吸暂停。他们也没有关于参与者食用的巧克力类型或黄烷醇含量的数据。在近 14 年的数据收集过程中，他们的饮食可能也发生了变化。
The data also suggests the participants who ate the most chocolate consumed more calories but had a lower body mass index - a measure of weight in relation to height - than people who ate the least chocolate, noted Alice Lichtenstein, director and senior scientist at the Cardiovascular Nutrition Laboratory at Tufts University in Boston.
心血管研究所主任兼高级科学家爱丽丝·利希滕斯坦 (Alice Lichtenstein) 指出，数据还表明，吃巧克力最多的参与者消耗的热量更多，但体重指数（衡量体重与身高的关系）低于吃巧克力最少的人。波士顿塔夫茨大学营养实验室。
"It’s very likely - if I had to bet - that these people were more physically active," said Lichtenstein, who was not involved in the new study.
没有参与这项新研究的利希滕斯坦说：“如果我必须打赌的话，这些人很可能更加活跃。”
She said people likely can't get around the fact that they need to have a healthy diet, be physically active and not smoke to optimize their health.
她说，人们可能无法回避这样一个事实：他们需要健康饮食、积极锻炼身体、不吸烟才能优化健康。
"There is no quick fix," she told Reuters Health.
“没有快速解决办法，”她告诉路透社健康。
Drs. Sean Pokorney and Jonathan Piccini write in an accompanying editorial that the study's findings are interesting and warrant further consideration despite their limitations.
博士。肖恩·波科尼 (Sean Pokorney) 和乔纳森·皮奇尼 (Jonathan Piccini) 在随附的社论中写道，这项研究的结果很有趣，尽管存在局限性，但仍值得进一步考虑。
"A double-blind randomized controlled trial is needed to evaluate the true efficacy of chocolate for the prevention of (atrial fibrillation) and such a trial would need to incorporate quantified doses of cocoa," write Pokorney and Piccini, of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
杜克大学医学中心的 Pokorney 和 Piccini 写道：“需要进行双盲随机对照试验来评估巧克力预防（心房颤动）的真正功效，并且此类试验需要纳入定量剂量的可可。”北卡罗来纳州达勒姆。
