Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

  Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/dup-6K7RxQ4   Taking a daily cocoa supplement may reduce your chance of dying from cardiovascular disease by 27%.  Preventive medicine investigators at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital conducted a randomized, double-blind placebo controlled study in which 420 persons took a commercially available cocoa extract supplement each day for 3.6 years.  Each of the Mars Edge CocoaVia capsules contained 500 mg of flavanols.  A control group of 456 consumed a multivitamin on a daily basis.   Besides having a reduced risk of death, those taking the Mars CocoaVia supplement had a 13% lower risk of heart attacks, a 9% lower risk of stroke, and overall a 10% lower risk of all cardiovascular events.  Only the reduced risk of death was statistically significant.   The researchers stop short of making a blanket recommendation to use the supplement citing the need for more work.  If you are at risk for cardiovascular disease, there is nothing wrong with using this supplement.  It’s not cheap,