The scientists are looking for answers in the blood of 600 individuals age 60 and older who participated in the largest trial ever to assess the impact of a cocoa supplement as well as a common multivitamin, on reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and other health outcomes, says Dr. Yanbin Dong, geneticist and cardiologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia.
The COSMOS Trial (COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study), led by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, gathered data from 21,444 men and women looking at the impact of a cocoa extract supplement and/or multivitamins on common health problems, most of which increase with age.
Dong just received a $3 million grant (1RO1HL157665-01) from the National Institutes of Health to perform detailed analysis of inflammatory factors and genetic changes associated with aging to see if cocoa consumption reduces those factors.
Cocoa products have become a “widely consumed food” with still growing demand and increasing interest in their anti-aging potential", Dong says.
“People think the consumption of chocolate is good for you,” says Dong, adding that worldwide enthusiasm for the sweet treat has outpaced the scientific evidence of its benefit in humans.
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