Those of us who engage in lifestyle counseling might be inclined to pat ourselves on the back over these findings.

Perhaps men not motivated to quit smoking for fear of heart attack or lung cancer will be motivated by this. It may be difficult to quit smoking, but it almost invariably proves far more difficult to live with the consequences of not doing so.

They include vitamins, which are organic compounds our bodies need to function normally, and minerals, which are inorganic compounds our bodies need to function normally.

An accumulating body of evidence suggests that this translates into health benefits for those who consume cocoa or dark chocolate with a cocoa content of 60 percent or more. Benefits have been seen in endothelial function, a measure of blood vessel health, blood pressure, insulin levels, and serum lipids.

This is just the combination that might lead to very bad judgments. Feeling less intoxicated and more alert, one might get behind the wheel of a car, but with impaired coordination and reaction time, that decision might spell disaster.

In some populations, increasing restrictions on tobacco use may be another factor. And while the overall trend cannot be explained by medication use, certainly the declines in the elevated blood pressure values are partly due to better medical care.