Cocoa Flavanols May Improve Age-Related Memory Loss

Flavanols found in cocoa may be the secret to reversing aging, according to recent findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Researchers from Columbia University Medical Center in New York discovered improvements in brain connections that denate gyrus of mice. Lead study author Dr. Scott Small enrolled 37 healthy individuals between the ages of 50 to 69 in their study for a 3 month period to follow a high-flavanol diet containing 900 mg of flavanols each day. Other participants followed a low-favanol diet containing only 10 mg of favanols a day.

Flavanols were consumed via a cocoa drink that was produced by the food company Mars and made specifically for research purposes to contain flavanols. It was produced to contain flavanols and usually found in raw cocoa that was lost when cocoa was processed.

During the study, each participant underwent brain imaging via a novel technique that was developed in Dr. Small's laboratory that allowed researchers to assess the blood volume specific to the dentate gyrus, which measured metabolism in the region.

Subjects were also required to participate in memory tasks that involved a 20-minute pattern-recognition task that was developed by Dr. Small and colleagues, which assessed a form of memory via dentate gyrus controls.

Findings revealed that a high-flavanol diet helped improve function via the dentate gyrus.

"If a participant had the memory of a typical 60-year-old at the beginning of the study, after 3 months that person on average had the memory of a typical 30- or 40-year-old."

However, researchers stressed that the cocoa used in the study was not the same as chocolate as that has been processed and flavanols are linked to raw cocoa.