Cocoa may improve blood flow to the brain in elderly

Conclusion This study suggests that cocoa consumption may be associated with the manner in which blood flow and brain function interact among elderly people with vascular conditions. A major limitation of this study is the method of analysis. While randomised controlled trials are considered to be the best method to determine the effect of a treatment or intervention (in this case, consumption of flavanol-rich cocoa) on a health outcome (neurovascular coupling), this strength depends on the ability to analyse outcomes in the intervention compared with the control group. In this study, the analysis of the intervention group compared with the control group revealed no significant difference in NVC. After this finding, the researchers conducted further analyses by considering all the participants together. This analysis did not have the benefit of randomisation, which means that we cannot determine if cocoa consumption was, in fact, responsible for changes in NVC. The researchers suggest multiple reasons for the lack of a significant difference between the effect of flavanol-rich and flavanol-poor cocoa on NVC. First, they suggest that it may not be flavanol, but another component of cocoa that is responsible for the observed changes in NVC in both randomised groups. Alternatively, they suggest that NVC is extremely sensitive to flavanols, and that the low concentrations seen in the flavanol-poor cocoa group were sufficient to cause an improvement in NVC. The researchers did n...
Source: NHS News Feed - Category: Consumer Health News Tags: Food/diet Neurology Older people Source Type: news