Cocoa Intake and Muscle Pain Sensation

Overview

This experimental randomized, double-blind, and controlled study included fifteen young, healthy, and pain-free men and 15 age-matched women. It lasted for three visits with at least one-week washout. Pain was experimentally induced, twice at each visit, with intramuscular injections of 0.2 mL hypertonic saline (5%), before and after intake of one of the different chocolate-types; white (30% cocoa-content), milk (34% cocoa-content), dark (70% cocoa-content). Pain duration, pain area, peak pain, and pressure pain threshold were assessed every fifth minute after each injection, between the time-points 5 to 30 min. Prior to inclusion, all participants underwent an examination in a dental chair. This included a clinical examination of the orofacial region according to the Diagnostic Criteria for temporomandibular disorders (DC/TMD) by a blinded examiner. Participants were also examined regarding their psychosocial status prior to inclusion, this included depression, somatization, anxiety, pain catastrophizing and stress.

Conditions

Interventions