Multiple health benefits of cocoa flavanols have been extensively investigated in various clinical studies. It is believed that cocoa flavanols can protect against cognitive ageing. Recent research has shown that cocoa flavanols may improve cerebral oxygenation in response to hypercapnia. A significantly greater oxyhemoglobin level was observed after the higher intake of flavanols in this study. In addition, the behavioural findings in this study also indicated that flavanols could enhance the cognitive performance acutely in healthy young adults, but only when the level of cognitive demand was high. The results reported in this study have highlighted the important future implications for the enhancements of blood oxygenation and cognitive performance in healthy populations by involving cocoa flavanols as one of the dietary strategies.

Keywords: Cocoa flavanols, cerebral oxygenation, cognitive performance

Reference:

Gratton G, et al. Sci Rep 2020;10:19409.