Cocoa Flavanols and Cardiovascular Health: From the Kuna Tribe to Harvard’s the COSMOS Trial

This product is free for CV-Well members.

This webinar was presented live on August 11, 2022.

Data supporting the benefits of cocoa flavanols on heart health and the prevention of cardiovascular disease continues to strengthen. This webinar will describe the mechanisms through which cocoa flavanols may exert cardiovascular health benefits, review key clinical trial data (including the recently published COSMOS trial of 21,442 participants taking daily cocoa flavanol supplements with 3.6 years of follow-up) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and review practical strategies for incorporating cocoa flavanols and other flavanol food sources as part of a healthy dietary pattern.

Sponsored by: FlavaNaturals

CPEU: 1.0
CPE Level: 3
Performance Indicators: 8.1.1, 8.1.2, 8.2.2

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the potential mechanisms of action of cocoa flavanols on cardiovascular health
2. Identify cardiovascular risk factors that have been shown to be favorably affected by daily cocoa flavanol consumption in clinical trials
3. Describe the main trial findings on clinical cardiovascular outcomes from the recently published Cocoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS)
4. Identify practical strategies for people to consume adequate daily amounts of flavanols from cocoa and other food sources

Speaker

Howard Sesso, ScD, MPH

Dr. Howard D. Sesso is an Associate Epidemiologist at the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He leads the design and conduct of randomized clinical trials and epidemiologic studies, focusing on dietary supplements and lifestyle factors in the prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, cancer, and other aging-related outcomes. Dr. Sesso is also the Associate Director of the Division of Preventive Medicine. Dr. Sesso has led the Physicians’ Health Study, consisting of trials testing aspirin, beta-carotene, vitamin E, vitamin C, and a multivitamin on aging-related outcomes in 29,071 men with long-term follow-up. Dr. Sesso is also examining vitamin D and fish oil supplements on 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and hypertension in an ancillary study of the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL) trial. Finally, Dr. Sesso is Co-Principal Investigator of the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS), a recently completed randomized trial testing cocoa flavanol and multivitamin supplements in the prevention of CVD and cancer in 21,442 older women and men. He has published more than 300 papers, teaches courses on clinical trials and epidemiology, and enjoys mentoring students and junior faculty.