Now THIS is something I can whole heartedly endorse!!

I have been blogging for about a month now and have always tried to stick to subjects that will make you think a little bit. You know, topics that maybe you know about but haven’t taken the time to actually stop and consider how it affects you or your loved ones. Today I’m going to talk about a subject that is near and dear to my heart! (not to mention my hips and thighs) Some may trivialize these studies but for me they were like Moses descending with the Ten Commandments! Are you ready?

Self magazine, which is a women’s magazine that reports on wellness, health, nutrition, and beauty etc., put out an article that I found on www.self.com titled Chocolate May Be Good For The Aging Brain. Need I say more? After I went out and bought up all the remaining Halloween candy, I read the rest of the article. Oops! I guess consuming unlimited chocolate wasn’t exactly what they were talking about.

The study was conducted on 60 participants with an average age of 73. Eighteen of these participants had what was described as “impaired blood flow to working areas of the brain” which experts have defined as characteristic in some diseases such as Alzheimer’s. All the participants were given tests to measure their memory and thinking skills. Then for thirty days, each participant drank 2 cups of hot cocoa a day (the cocoa containing the antioxidant flavanol) and had NO OTHER CHOCOLATE. <gasp> The memory and thinking tests were repeated at the end of the 30 days.

Results showed that those with the impaired blood flow demonstrated an improvement in blood flow and  an improvement in the memory testing. But the results also showed that those with reported “normal blood flow” showed no significant improvement on either their memory tests or their blood flow measures.  But lead author Farzaneh A. Sorond, MD, of Harvard Medical School, says that besides pointing out the potential benefits of chocolate the study also points to the connection between healthy blood vessels and thinking skills. He did point out though, that this study does NOT show that drinking hot cocoa while your blood vessels are healthy will prevent future damage.

So while the flavanol found in cocoa beans have shown in some studies to have health benefits, I guess moderation is still the key. Now, what should I do with all the Halloween candy?

Jane Murakami

Golden Years Planning

(507) 403-3875

Www.goldenyearsinfo.com