Reprinted with the kind permission of Life Extension.

July 28 2017.A review published on May 16, 2017 inFrontiers in Nutritionconcludes that Through a variety of direct and indirect biological actions, in part still speculative, cocoa and cocoa-derived food have been suggested to possess the potential to counteract cognitive decline and sustain cognitive abilities, particularly among patients at risk.

Valentina Socci and colleagues at Italys University of LAquila examined a number of studies that assessed the effect of cocoa flavanols (a type of flavonoid) on human cognition. They document improvements in general cognition, attention, processing speed and working memory, among other benefits. While healthy aged individuals benefitted from cocoa, effects such as these were pronounced among older adults whose memory and cognition was beginning to decline.

"This result suggests the potential of cocoa flavanols to protect cognition in vulnerable populations over time by improving cognitive performance, commented Dr Socci and Michele Ferrara, of the University of LAquilas Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences. If you look at the underlying mechanism, the cocoa flavanols have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and can increase cerebral blood volume in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. This structure is particularly affected by aging and therefore the potential source of age-related memory decline in humans."

Among women, cocoa consumption following a night of wakefulness has been found to counteract the impairment in cognition that would typically result. The effect led to improvement in working memory accuracy. This suggests a mental benefit for female shift workers or those withinsomnia.

"Regular intake of cocoa and chocolate could indeed provide beneficial effects on cognitive functioning over time, Drs Socci and Ferrara conclude. "Dark chocolate is a rich source of flavanols. So we always eat some dark chocolate. Every day."

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Cocoa flavanols: new nutraceutical? - ProHealth