Chocolate May CAuse Increased Blood Flow to the Brain

I was reading an article on CNN, and in a recent study cocoa has demonstrated potential brain enhancing functions as people age. Flavanols, the antioxidants that many believe have several health benefits, also may increase blood flow to the brain. Researcher’s utilized magnetic resonance imaging as they monitored the brains of women given cups of cocoa full of flavanols versus those who were not given any cocoa. The study revealed significant increase in women who were given cocoa compared to women who were not. In another study Norman Hollenburg, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, found that the Cuna Indian Tribe in Panama, who drink large amounts of cocoa, have demonstrated similar health benefits. This maybe a huge discovery in the field of medicine as many people suffer from dementia, a disease caused by insufficient blood flow to the brain. However, further studies must be done in order to show that flavanols increase blood flow in diseased patients and not only in healthy patients.