Initial findings from the large-scale COSMOS study, which enrolled over 21,000 older men and women over a three-year period, found that multivitamin/mineral supplementation was associated with significant improvements in cognitive test scores in the full population of older adults.
 
While significant results in the same tests weren’t achieved in those treated with a daily dose of 500 mg of cocoa flavanols instead, a secondary analysis appearing in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that significant cognitive performance improvements were achieved in a segment of the cocoa flavanols treatment group which had poor diet quality at baseline.
 
Cocoa flavanols are thought to potentially offer neuroprotection through reductions in oxidative stress and inflammation, the promotion of neurogenesis, and the improvement of cerebral blood flow.
 
The follow-up findings were based on a population of 573 older adults within the COSMOS group who underwent more detailed, in-person cognitive testing during the treatment period.
 
According to the authors of the secondary study, a team of researchers from Mass General Brigham, these results were consistent with an earlier study which used a web-based cognitive assessment given over the internet to a separately-recruited set of COSMOS participants. Analyses of the data from COSMOS continue to yield insights about the connections between supplements and human health, the authors noted, but still, more research is needed.  
 
“Additional research on the role of [cocoa extract] supplementation in more diverse populations and among those with lower diet quality is warranted,” the authors concluded.