An ingredient of chocolate could put a stop to persistent coughs and lead to new, more effective cough medicines, research suggests.

Scientists found the key ingredient, theobromine, is nearly a third more effective in stopping persistent coughs than the leading medicine codeine.

They say it produces fewer side effects than conventional treatment - and would not leave people drowsy.

The research, led by Imperial College London, is published in FASEB journal.

Researcher Professor Peter Barnes said: "Coughing is a medical condition which affects most people at some point in their lives, and yet no effective treatment exists.

"While persistent coughing is not necessarily harmful it can have a major impact on quality of life, and this discovery could be a huge step forward in treating this problem."

The researchers gave 10 healthy volunteers theobromine, a placebo or codeine at different times.

They then exposed the volunteers to capsaicin, a substance used in clinical research to cause coughing.

The concentration of capsaicin required to produce a cough in those people given theobromine was around one third higher when compared with the group receiving a placebo.

When the group received codeine they needed only marginally higher levels of capsaicin to produce coughing, compared with the placebo.

Nerve activity

Theobromine works by suppressing vagus nerve activity, which is responsible for causing coughing.

The team also discovered that unlike standard cough treatments, theobromine caused no adverse effects on either the cardiovascular or central nervous systems.

Professor Maria Belvisi, who also worked on the study, said: "Not only did theobromine prove more effective than codeine, at the doses used it was found to have none of the side effects.

"Normally the effectiveness of any treatment is limited by the dosage you can give someone.

"With theobromine having no demonstrated side effects in this study it may be possible to give far bigger doses, further increasing its effectiveness.

"At the same time, theobromine may not have any of the side effects such as drowsiness. This means there will be no restrictions on when it can be taken.

"For example, people using heavy machinery or who are driving should not take codeine, but they could take theobromine."

Encouraging results

Dame Helena Shovelton, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation said: "The results of this research sound very promising.

"Persistant coughing often affects lung disease patients so this could be a progressive step in terms of treating it. Also, it is encouraging to find no adverse effects.

"We would like to see more research done to fully understand the potential of these findings and would advise patients to speak to their GP before changing their medication or treating their cough with chocolate!"

Dr Richard Russell, of the British Thoracic Society, said: "Over-the-counter sales for acute cough medicines currently reach approximately £100m a year in the UK - money that is being spent on remedies, where there is no evidence that they work.

"The number of people with undiagnosed chronic cough is increasing in this country - and more effective treatments are needed.

"The condition can be really distressing and so I hope this research provides a clue for future treatments."

Read Article Here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4032585.stm

(Lets hope it doesnt replace DXM anytime soon)

Oh shit this is bad with the South park episode getting the Genie out of the bottle about DXM this gives anti drug groups the power they need to make DXM banned since choclate helps coughs better than DXM!!!

dxm will never be banned/schedualed. It was written so that is cannot eb schedualed. Cool huh? Read the leagality papers int he vaults on the DV's main page.

dxm will never be banned/schedualed. It was written so that is cannot eb schedualed. Cool huh? Read the leagality papers int he vaults on the DV's main page. [/b][/quote]
yea, but they will most liekly replace most of the dxm ingredients with chocolate and their will be very few dxm syrups.

Holy fucking crap, ok, no lie. I've had the worst cough that Camel ciggarettes have ever visited upon me. Its crazy, like -

I've only smoked 4 in the past two weeks, but fuck my lungs are tore up. Its actually been hard recording vocals, laughing, or even talking because I'd go into coughing fits. Well I had a dark cherry mocha something or other that I bought at Starbucks, and, thinking nothing of it at all until now, wow I haven't coughed since a little after I'd finished my cup.

Causation?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Perhaps, Nivra. Interesting.

So you went on dv and searched "chocolate cough" or something similar in consequence?

I'm mostly just funning, trans ata. I mean, the chocolate certainly gives me a lift, and I noticed this interesting correlation. I found this thread because a guest was viewing it and the title intrigued me.

edit: as for that pesky cough, I found this site to be immensely helpful. A Starbucks dark cheery mocha still works better for alleviating the vicious coughing fits than a placebo, a tablespoon or two of Robitussin, or nothing at all.

At least we can still trip balls on chocolate. It's way more pleasant than chugging syrup, and helps me astral project about as well. The only problem is the long term risk of coronary disease.

well i work at a bookstore that has a 'starbucks' cafe, and i've had that dark cherry syrup many a time.

i have found that it's heavily laden whit DXM, with a strong sugar/cherry mask so it won't show past a mocha/latte.

so your study will have to be independent of starbucks dark cherry syrup.

Blast!

. . .

I've read somewhere that Cocoa mulch - which consists mostly of cacao bean shells - has a higher concentration of theobromine than chocolate processed for human consumption. Apparently it is toxic to animals:

http://urbanlegends.about.com/librar...ocoa_mulch.htm