#Cocoa Flavanol Intake and Biomarkers for #Cardiometabolic Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

http://m.jn.nutrition.org/content/early/2016/09/28/jn.116.237644

Conclusions: Our study suggests that cocoa flavanol intake has favorable effects on select cardiometabolic biomarkers among adults. These findings support the need for large long-term RCTs to assess whether cocoa flavanol intake reduces the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular events.

Enhancing Human #Cognition with #Cocoa Flavonoids

http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnut.2017.00019/full

Enhancing cognitive abilities has become a fascinating scientific challenge, recently driven by the interest in preventing age-related cognitive decline and sustaining normal cognitive performance in response to cognitively demanding environments. In recent years, cocoa and cocoa-derived products, as a rich source of flavonoids, mainly the flavanols sub-class, have been clearly shown to exert cardiovascular benefits. More recently, neuromodulation and neuroprotective actions have been also suggested..
Although still at a preliminary stage, research investigating the relations between cocoa and cognition shows dose-dependent improvements in general cognition, attention, processing speed, and working memory. Moreover, cocoa flavanols administration could also enhance normal cognitive functioning and exert a protective role on cognitive performance and cardiovascular function specifically impaired by sleep loss, in healthy subjects. Together, these findings converge at pointing to cocoa as a new interesting nutraceutical tool to protect human cognition and counteract different types of cognitive decline, thus encouraging further investigations.

#Cocoa Flavanols Improve Vascular Responses to Acute Mental #Stress in Young Healthy Adults
https://2medical.news/2021/04/08/cocoa-flavanols-improve-vascular-responses-to-acute-mental-stress-in-young-healthy-adults/

Mental stress has been shown to induce cardiovascular events, likely due to its negative impact on vascular function. Flavanols, plant-derived polyphenolic compounds, improve endothelial function and blood pressure (BP) in humans, however their effects during stress are not known. This study examined the effects of acute intake of cocoa flavanols on stress-induced changes on vascular function. In a randomised, controlled, double-blind, cross-over intervention study, 30 …

Effects of #Cocoa Consumption on #Cardiometabolic Risk Markers: Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

https://2medical.news/2024/07/03/effects-of-cocoa-consumption-on-cardiometabolic-risk-markers-meta-analysis-of-randomized-controlled-trials/