You want chocolate. You need flavanols. - Harvard Gazette

"New findings from Harvard researchers pinpoint reduced inflammation as the key to cocoa's effects against cardiovascular disease. The work follows a large probe of the possible health benefits of cocoa that ran from 2014 to 2020. Called COSMOS, the study showed that cocoa supplements reduced cardiovascular disease mortality by 27 percent among 21,442 subjects 60 and older. What that study didn't explain is how."

"The new work, published in the journal Age and Ageing, analyzed COSMOS blood samples and shows that a widely accepted marker of inflammation called high sensitivity C-reactive protein fell 8.4 percent annually compared with placebo."

"The term 'inflammaging' recognizes the fact that inflammation on its own is an important risk factor not just for cardiovascular disease, but also for other conditions related to vascular health, such as cognition," said Sesso, also an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "The aging piece simply acknowledges that as we're aging, a lot of these things we think about for cardiovascular disease prevention also extend to other aging-related outcomes."

COSMOS ran from 2014 to 2020 and enrolled 21,442 participants aged 60 and older, finding a 27 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease mortality with cocoa supplements. Analysis of COSMOS blood samples shows high sensitivity C-reactive protein, a widely accepted inflammation marker, declined about 8.4 percent annually with cocoa extract compared with placebo. The analysis examined five age-related inflammatory markers, noting a modest increase in the immune mediator IFN-g and changes in other pro-inflammatory markers. The findings reinforce the role of chronic inflammation in aging-related vascular risks and cognition under the concept of "inflammaging."

Read at Harvard Gazette