Low-flavanol diet leads to age-related memory loss

More than 3,500 healthy older adults were randomly assigned to receive a daily flavanol supplement (in pill form) or placebo pill for three years. The active supplement contained 500 mg of flavanols, including 80 mg epicatechins, an amount that adults are advised to get from food. Memory scores improved only slightly for the entire group taking the daily flavanol supplement, most of whom were already eating a healthy diet with plenty of flavanols.

But at the end of the first year of taking the flavanol supplement, participants who reported consuming a poorer diet and had lower baseline levels of flavanols saw their memory scores increase by an average of 10.5% compared to placebo and 16% compared to their memory at baseline. Annual cognitive testing showed the improvement observed at one year was sustained for at least two more years.

The results strongly suggest that flavanol deficiency is a driver of age-related memory loss, the researchers say, because flavanol consumption correlated with memory scores and flavanol supplements improved memory in flavanol-deficient adults.

Reference:

“Dietary flavanols restore hippocampal-dependent memory in older adults with lower diet quality and habitual flavanol consumption,” was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.