Does the cocoa bean contain heart health benefits?
Is there something valuable for your heart inside the cocoa bean?
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Mars, Incorporated are partnering to conduct the largest-ever clinical investigation of the heart health benefits of cocoa flavanols – especially their role in reducing the risk of heart attack, stroke, and death from cardiovascular disease.
Flavanols are natural compounds that can be found in cocoa beans and a variety of other food sources. Although cocoa flavanols can be found in some forms of chocolate, they can be provided in significantly higher concentrations as a capsule or powder (mix). In this particular trial, the cocoa flavanols will be provided in a capsule and compared to a placebo.
The study also will explore the effects of a daily multivitamin in women. This will be the first large-scale, placebo-controlled, randomized trial testing (randomly assigning subjects to either the multivitamin or the placebo) of a multivitamin in women. It has been designed to follow up a male-only trial conducted previously by the same BWH researchers that showed that multivitamin use lowered cancer risk by eight percent.
“Cocoa flavanols and multivitamins are two of the most promising and exciting nutritional interventions available, and this new randomized trial is the natural next step in advancing our understanding of their potential benefits,” says Dr. JoAnn Manson, Chief of the BWH Division of Preventive Medicine and one of the study leaders. ”In smaller studies, cocoa flavanols have been linked to improvements in intermediate risk factors for heart disease, such as reductions in blood pressure and cholesterol levels, improvements in the body’s sensitivity to insulin, and improved ability of blood vessels to dilate.”
“For multivitamins, the exact mechanisms leading to lower risks of cancer remain unclear, but could be due to individual or joint effects of more than 20 essential vitamins and minerals,” adds study co-leader Dr. Howard Sesso, BWH Division of Preventive Medicine. “This supplement has shown favorable results in research to date examining both cancer and eye disease (particularly cataracts), but the proposed randomized trial is critically needed to provide conclusive evidence on the potential benefits of daily multivitamin use.”
The research team is using an innovative recruitment approach to facilitate a prompt launch of this study and to deliver sound results. By targeting individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to medical research by participating in previous research studies, study leaders expect to quickly recruit reliable and compliant study participants. This approach is expected to significantly reduce the high costs normally associated with recruitment for large clinical trials, and shorten the time needed to complete the study.
Study results are expected to be available in 2019.
- Chris P
