2 Health Opinion Leaders Trust This Supplement to Boost Their Brain Health

Since the mid-70s, Terry and Joe Graedon — a medical anthropologist and pharmacologist respectively — have advocated for holistic approaches to wellness, sharing their passion for natural health and evidence-based research on the popular People’s Pharmacy website, podcast, and national radio show.

As public awareness of natural products increased in the 90s, Terry and Joe began exploring the potential benefits of herbs and other natural remedies — challenging the common perception that only pharmaceuticals provide results.

Many pharmaceutical drugs have a ton of unwelcome side effects — just think of the disclaimers on the last drug commercial you watched on TV. “Natural products rarely have those kinds of consequences,” Joe points out.

The Graedon’s findings, many of which have been published in over 18 books, like The People’s Pharmacy Quick & Handy Home Remedies and Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them, have only continued to grow in the public interest. 

“There’s a lot of insecurity in the world today and people are looking for trustworthy resources,” Joe says. “We have a responsibility to our readers and listeners to be objective and really delve into research and science and give people the whole story, as much as we know.”

There’s power in protecting your brain

Preserving brain health has been a key area of focus since the Chapel Hill, NC-based couple first learned about the benefits of the cocoa plant while living in a small village in Oaxaca, Mexico as Terry pursued her doctoral degree (she has a Ph.D. in anthropology.)

Since then, Terry and Joe have become advocates for the health benefits of incorporating cocoa flavanols into your daily diet.

“The idea of keeping your brain as highly functional as possible and relying on science to better understand how the brain responds to ingredients like cocoa has been of great interest to us,” says Joe.

That’s why both Terry and Joe take a CocoaVia cocoa flavanol supplement every day. “I’ve been taking CocoaVia for so long that I wouldn’t want to go without it,” says Joe. “I value my brain, so cocoa flavanols are important for my sense of well-being. And what we love about the brand is that there are relatively few products that have been studied as well as, for as long as, and by as reputable researchers as CocoaVia.”

For over 20 years, CocoaVia has been dedicated to scientific research on the health benefits of cocoa flavanols, or the healthy compounds naturally found in cocoa beans. Proven to boost brain performance, enhance memory, and support heart health, CocoaVia’s premium-quality cocoa flavanols are extracted from cocoa beans in Indonesia and packaged into easy-to-take daily supplements.

Cocoa flavanols are backed by science

Researchers at Columbia University led a three-year-long study and discovered that consuming flavanols on a daily basis can enhance brain and memory performance during normal cognitive aging. The study, published in June, showed that already at the start of the trial, participants with relatively higher dietary flavanol intake and better diet quality tended to perform better in memory tasks that were designed to probe the hippocampus, a brain region that is sensitive to age-related memory decline. For participants who started the trial with lower intake of flavanols in their diet, they were given a cocoa extract supplement containing 500 mg of cocoa. After just one year, these individuals experienced an average improvement of 16 percent in their memory and reported having better memory than they did at the start of the trial. This improvement in memory performance appeared to be sustained over three years of follow up.

“There’s a wide range of cocoa flavanol research and most of it points in the same direction,” explains Terry. “The effect of cocoa flavanols on blood pressure is clear — cocoa flavanols promote healthy blood circulation and help retain healthy blood pressure levels, and that appears to be a benefit for the brain.”

And after rigorous testing for ingredient quality, ConsumerLab.com listed it as their overall top pick for cocoa products with the highest concentration of flavanols. (ConsumerLab.com is considered a premier authority in independent testing and information on health and nutrition products.) “It’s that kind of data that warms our hearts because there are very few other entities like ConsumerLab.com that can say they did the research, and here’s what they found,” says Terry.

Lifestyle changes can also help give your brain a boost

Preserving brain health requires a multifaceted approach, Terry and Joe explain. Alongside the potential benefits of taking daily cocoa flavanol supplements, they recommend engaging in physical activity (“whatever gets you moving is the exercise that will help your brain health,” says Terry), maintaining a balanced diet, ensuring adequate intake of essential nutrients like B vitamins, as a few of the overall lifestyle choices that can play an integral role in optimizing brain health.

“The evidence is quite clear. If you follow sensible lifestyle recommendations, including getting a good night’s sleep, exercising regularly, and taking supplements like CocoaVia, that will have much more benefit than trying to get the horses back in the barn,” says Terry. “Because once they’re out, it’s almost too late. For us, prevention is the name of the game.”

Try CocoaVia

For a limited time, you can enjoy an extra 20 percent off in single, bulk, or subscription purchases of CocoaVia. Just use promo code KCM2024 at checkout.*

*This offer is valid until December 31, 2024, on any single, bulk, or subscription order of CocoaVia products sold at cocoavia.com; Limited to one use per e-mail.

The information provided on this site isn’t intended as medical advice, and shouldn’t replace professional medical treatment. Consult your doctor with any serious health concerns. The Food and Drug Administration has not evaluated these statements. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The People’s Pharmacy is a paid partner of CocoaVia^TM.