New health benefit of eating chocolate-preventing memory decline

Eat more chocolate for better memory

Before we see the benefits of eating chocolate to better our memory let us see all other health benefits.

1) Dark Chocolate is good for Your Heart

Studies show that eating a small amount of dark chocolate two or three times each week can help lower your blood pressure. Dark chocolate improves blood flow and may help prevent the formation of blood clots. Eating dark chocolate may also prevent arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).

 

2) Dark Chocolate is good for Your Brain

Dark chocolate increases blood flow to the brain as well as to the heart, so it can help improve cognitive function. Dark chocolate also helps reduce your risk of stroke.

Dark chocolate also contains several chemical compounds that have a positive effect on your mood and cognitive health. Chocolate contains phenylethylamine (PEA), the same chemical your brain creates when you feel like you're falling in love. PEA encourages your brain to release endorphins, so eating dark chocolate will make you feel happier.

Dark chocolate also contains caffeine, a mild stimulant. However, dark chocolate contains much less caffeine than coffee. A 1.5 ounce bar of dark chocolate contains 27 mg of caffeine, compared to the 200 mg found in an eight ounce cup of coffee.

3) Dark Chocolate Helps Control Blood Sugar

Dark chocolate helps keep your blood vessels healthy and your circulation unimpaired to protect against type 2 diabetes. The flavonoids in dark chocolate also help reduce insulin resistance by helping your cells to function normally and regain the ability to use your body's insulin efficiently. Dark chocolate also has a low glycemic index, meaning it won't cause huge spikes in blood sugar levels.

4) Dark Chocolate is Full of Antioxidants

Dark chocolate is loaded with antioxidants. Antioxidants help free your body of free radicals, which cause oxidative damage to cells. Free radicals are implicated in the aging process and may be a cause of cancer, so eating antioxidant rich foods like dark chocolate can protect you from many types of cancer and slow the signs of aging.

5) Dark Chocolate Contains Theobromine

Dark chocolate contains theobromine, which has been shown to harden tooth enamel. That means that dark chocolate, unlike most other sweets, lowers your risk of getting cavities if you practice proper dental hygiene.Theobromine is also a mild stimulant, though not as strong as caffeine. It can, however, help to suppress coughs.

6) Dark Chocolate is high in Vitamins and Minerals

Dark chocolate contains a number of vitamins and minerals that can support your health. Dark chocolate contains some of the following vitamins and minerals in high concentrations:

•Potassium

•Copper

•Magnesium

•Iron

The copper and potassium in dark chocolate help prevent against stroke and cardiovascular ailments. The iron in chocolate protects against iron deficiency anemia, and the magnesium in chocolate helps prevent type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.

 

New Research - Hot chocolate may prevent memory decline

Scientists at Harvard Medical School suggest drinking two cups of hot chocolate a day may keep the brain healthy and prevent memory decline in older people by preserving blood flow in working areas of the brain.

They write about their findings online in the August 7th issue of Neurology. The team was investigating the effect of cocoa consumption on thinking and memory performance, as well as something called neurovascular coupling, where blood flow in the brain changes in response to local brain activity.

Farzaneh A. Sorond, lead author and member of the American Academy of Neurology, told the press,"As different areas of the brain need more energy to complete their tasks, they also need greater blood flow. This relationship, called neurovascular coupling, may play an important role in diseases such as Alzheimer's."

For their investigation, the team recruited 60 dementia-free older people of average age 73 and asked them to drink two cups of hot cocoa a day for 30 days.

Half the participants drank hot cocoa high in antioxidant flavanol, while the other half drank flavanol-poor hot cocoa. (There is substantial evidence that consuming cocoa flavanols helps circulation and heart health.) Scientists think there could be a link between hot chocolate and brain blood flow The participants were asked not to consume any other products containing chocolate during the study. The team tested the participants' memory and thinking skills before and after using a set of standard tests. Using ultrasound, they also measured neurovascular coupling (the blood flow response to brain activity) as the participants completed the mental tests. At the start of the study, 18 of the 60 participants had impaired neurovascular coupling. By the end of the study, it had improved by 8.3%. These participants also improved their scores on a working memory speed test. At the start of the study, it took them 167 seconds to complete the test, while at the end they did it in 116 seconds. In participants with regular neurovascular coupling at the start of the study, there was no change either in blood flow measures or working memory.A subset of 24 participants also underwent MRI scans to look for tiny areas of damage in the white matter of the brain. These can occur when there is a restriction in blood flow. The MRI scans showed that the participants with impaired neurovascular coupling were the ones most likely to have these tiny areas of brain damage. There was no difference between the participants who drank flavanol-rich cocoa and the ones who drank flavanol-poor cocoa.

In their study paper, Sorond and colleagues conclude, There is a strong correlation between neurovascular coupling and cognitive function, and both can be improved by regular cocoa consumption in individuals with baseline impairments. Better neurovascular coupling is also associated with greater white matter structural integrity."In an editorial accompanying the team's study report, Paul B. Rosenberg, an Alzheimer's expert at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD, says the study is an important first step, but: "More work is needed to prove a link between cocoa, blood flow problems and cognitive decline. “A research review of 20 trials that was published in The Cochrane Library in 2012, found that consuming dark chocolate or cocoa may reduce blood pressure by a small amount.

(Source- Neurology)