Cocoa may protect the brains and reduce inflammation in the hearts of children who live in polluted environments resulting in restored cognitive function
October
03,
2013
Air pollution is linked to systemic inflammation; persistent low-level
inflammation throughout our body. For this reason it is linked to lung and heart
disease and disease-related deaths. The inhalation of pollutants is also linked
to inflammation in and low-level damage to the brain. Most children living in
Mexico City exhibit subtle cognitive deficits.
Neuropathology studies show 40% of them exhibit frontal tau phosphorylation (a
finding found in dementia) and 51% exhibit beta-amyloid plaques (seen in
Alzheimer’s disease); this is compared to 0% in children exposed to low levels
of pollution who served as the controls in this study. These pathologies are
hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
The Mexico City children in this
study were then fed real cocoa daily in the form of super concentrated (as far
as the antioxidant value) dark chocolate for 9 to 24 days. Inflammation raises
endothelin-1. Endothelin-1 is a powerful vasoconstrictor in our body meaning it
squeezes our blood vessels and raises blood pressure and if chronically released
it contributes to high blood pressure and heart disease. Cocoa significantly lowered
endothelin-1 activity. Out of this came a marginally significant improvement in
the performance of one or both simple short term memory tasks.
Dysfunction of blood vessels is a
key feature of exposure to pollution. Decreasing endothelin-1 activity helps
restore blood vessel function and this is a reason why cocoa helps restore or
improve brain function in people in regions with particulate matter pollution;
the kind of pollution in the air that you inhale. The research was performed at
the University of Montana Missoula Center for Structural and Functional
Neurosciences and at the Hospital Central Militar in Mexico City. The Montana based researcher’s state that cocoa may
help protect the brains of children exposed to pollution and may lower systemic
inflammation. It may help protect cognitive function and help prevent the
related shrinking of the brain restricting the development of cognitive deficits
and the pathology related to dementia and Parkinson’s disease. The study is published in the August
2013 issue of the journal Frontiers in
Pharmacology.