Okay, I must admit, when I saw “cocoa” in the title of an article on slowing brain aging, I smiled. Seriously, wouldn’t you smile if every time you ate a Dove bar, you were protecting yourself from cognitive decline? Like everything in life, if it seems too good to be true, it usually is! Sadly, the outcome of a study, COSMOS-Mind, found that adding cocoa flavanols as a daily supplement, showed no beneficial effect on cognitive loss. Darn! 

That said, all is not lost! What the study DID find, was that study participants who were taking a daily multivitamin for 3 years showed a 60% slowing of cognitive aging, AND the effects were especially pronounced in patients with cardiovascular (CVD) disease! 60%, that means slowing cognitive aging by 1.8 years, wow, that’s impressive! Think about how many of your residents have CVD AND cognitive decline and what this information could mean for them! Of note, the study did not focus on the effects of multivitamins and Alzheimer’s disease progression, however, the researchers hinted that they may be focusing on that next.  

What does this mean to you, those caring for our seniors in post-acute care settings? Maybe nothing, however, as we continue to focus on polypharmacy and decreasing the number of medications our residents receive daily, be sure to consider studies like this. Sure, it is “only a vitamin,” but could it be preventing cognitive decline? Maybe, maybe not. As with all medications, risk/benefit, what are the risks of continuing the medication versus the benefit? Consider sharing this information with your QAPI committee and discuss the findings with your pharmacy provider and medical director. What could it hurt? I, for one, am going to grab my multivitamin! Stay the informed and stay well!