slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
Drinking a cocoa-rich beverage every day may help brain health in older adults, a new study shows.
The study, published in Hypertension, included 90 elderly people who already had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which can include difficulty with memory, language, thinking, or judgment.
For eight weeks, they drank a cocoa drink that had high, medium, or low amounts of antioxidants called flavanols. Those who got high and medium levels of flavanols in their drink did better on tests of attention and other mental skills, compared to people who got low amounts of flavanols.
Flavanols "could be one element of a dietary approach to the maintaining and improving not only of cardiovascular health, but also specifically brain health," write the researchers, including Giovambattista Desideri, MD, of Italy's University of L'Aquila.
He cautions that the results may not apply to everyone with MCI.
"We can't say, 'Eat chocolate every day,'" says neurologist and Alzheimer's disease researcher Marc L. Gordon, MD, of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y. "People need to be very careful about making broad-based dietary changes based on one study.”
Mars, Inc., maker of the cocoa powder, funded the study.
cont at
http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20120813/cocoa-may-help-sharpen-aging-brain
The study, published in Hypertension, included 90 elderly people who already had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which can include difficulty with memory, language, thinking, or judgment.
For eight weeks, they drank a cocoa drink that had high, medium, or low amounts of antioxidants called flavanols. Those who got high and medium levels of flavanols in their drink did better on tests of attention and other mental skills, compared to people who got low amounts of flavanols.
Flavanols "could be one element of a dietary approach to the maintaining and improving not only of cardiovascular health, but also specifically brain health," write the researchers, including Giovambattista Desideri, MD, of Italy's University of L'Aquila.
He cautions that the results may not apply to everyone with MCI.
"We can't say, 'Eat chocolate every day,'" says neurologist and Alzheimer's disease researcher Marc L. Gordon, MD, of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y. "People need to be very careful about making broad-based dietary changes based on one study.”
Mars, Inc., maker of the cocoa powder, funded the study.
cont at
http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/news/20120813/cocoa-may-help-sharpen-aging-brain
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