HAMILTON, Ontario, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Eating chocolate may lower your risk of having a stroke, but more research is needed, Canadian researchers found.
Study author Sarah Sahib of McMaster University in Hamilton and colleagues examined three studies involving stroke and chocolate.
One study involved 44,489 people who ate one serving of chocolate per week were 22 percent less likely to have a stroke than people who ate no chocolate.
A second study found that 1,169 people who ate 50 grams of chocolate -- about 5 ounces -- once a week were 46 percent less likely to die following a stroke than people who did not eat chocolate.
However, the third study found no link between eating chocolate and risk of stroke or death.
"More research is needed to determine whether chocolate truly lowers stroke risk, or whether healthier people are simply more likely to eat chocolate than others," Sahib said in a statement.
The findings are scheduled to be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd annual meeting in Toronto April 10-17.
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