Grassi Davide, Socci Valentina, Tempesta Daniela, Ferri Claudio, De Gennaro Luigi, Desideri Giovambattista, Ferrara Michele
aDepartment of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila bDepartment of Psychology, "Sapienza" University of Rome, Rome cDepartment of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy *Davide Grassi and Valentina Socci contributed equally to the writing of this article.
J Hypertens. 2016 Jul;34(7):1298-308. doi: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000000926.
Sleep deprivation is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Cocoa flavonoids exert cardiovascular benefits and neuroprotection. Whether chocolate consumption may mitigate detrimental effects of sleep loss on cognitive performance and cardiovascular parameters has never been studied.
We investigated the effects of flavanol-rich chocolate consumption on cognitive skills and cardiovascular parameters after sleep deprivation.
Thirty-two healthy participants underwent two baseline sessions after one night of undisturbed sleep and two experimental sessions after one night of total sleep deprivation. Two hours before each testing session, participants were randomly assigned to consume high or poor flavanol chocolate bars. During the tests were evaluated, the Psychomotor Vigilance Task and a working memory task, office SBP and DBP, flow-mediated dilation and pulse-wave velocity.
Sleep deprivation increased SBP/DBP. SBP/DBP and pulse pressure were lower after flavanol-rich treatment respect to flavanol-poor treatment (SBP: 116.9 ± 1.6 vs. 120.8 ± 1.9 mmHg, respectively, P = 0.00005; DBP: 70.5 ± 1.2 vs. 72.3 ± 1.2 mmHg, respectively, P = 0.01; pulse pressure: 46.4 ± 1.3 vs. 48.4 ± 1.5 mmHg, P = 0.004). Sleep deprivation impaired flow-mediated dilation (5.5 ± 0.5 vs. 6.5 ± 0.6%, P = 0.02), flavanol-rich, but not flavanol-poor chocolate counteracted this alteration (flavanol-rich/flavanol-poor chocolate: 7.0 ± 0.6 vs. 5.0 ± 0.4%, P = 0.000001). Flavanol-rich chocolate mitigated the pulse-wave velocity increase (P = 0.001). Flavanol-rich chocolate preserved working memory accuracy in women after sleep deprivation. Flow-mediated dilation correlated with working memory performance accuracy in the sleep condition (P = 0.04).
Flavanol-rich chocolate counteracted vascular impairment after sleep deprivation and restored working memory performance. Improvement in cognitive performance could be because of the effects of cocoa flavonoids on blood pressure and peripheral and central blood flow.
睡眠剥夺是心血管疾病的一个危险因素。可可黄酮具有心血管益处和神经保护作用。食用巧克力是否可以减轻睡眠不足对认知能力和心血管参数的有害影响尚未得到研究。
我们研究了食用富含黄烷醇的巧克力对睡眠剥夺后认知技能和心血管参数的影响。
32名健康参与者在一夜未受干扰的睡眠后进行了两次基线测试，并在一夜完全睡眠剥夺后进行了两次实验测试。在每次测试前两小时，参与者被随机分配食用高黄烷醇或低黄烷醇巧克力棒。在测试过程中，评估了精神运动警觉任务和工作记忆任务、诊室收缩压和舒张压、血流介导的血管舒张和脉搏波速度。
睡眠剥夺会使收缩压/舒张压升高。与低黄烷醇治疗相比，富含黄烷醇的治疗后收缩压/舒张压和脉压更低（收缩压分别为116.9±1.6与120.8±1.9mmHg，P = 0.00005；舒张压分别为70.5±1.2与72.3±1.2mmHg，P = 0.01；脉压为46.4±1.3与48.4±1.5mmHg，P = 0.004）。睡眠剥夺会损害血流介导的血管舒张（5.5±0.5与6.5±0.6%，P = 0.02），富含黄烷醇而非低黄烷醇的巧克力可抵消这种改变（富含黄烷醇/低黄烷醇巧克力：7.0±0.6与5.0±0.4%，P = 0.000001）。富含黄烷醇的巧克力减轻了脉搏波速度的增加（P = 0.001）。富含黄烷醇的巧克力在睡眠剥夺后的女性中保留了工作记忆准确性。在睡眠状态下，血流介导的血管舒张与工作记忆表现准确性相关（P = 0.04）。
富含黄烷醇的巧克力可抵消睡眠剥夺后的血管损伤并恢复工作记忆表现。认知能力的改善可能是由于可可黄酮对血压以及外周和中枢血流的影响。
