Does a Cocoa a Day Keep MS Fatigue Away?

Research Summary: A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled feasibility trial of flavonoid-rich cocoa for fatigue in people with relapsing and remitting multiple sclerosis

Fatigue is one of the most common symptoms of multiple sclerosis.  It is also the symptom that many people list as having the biggest impact on their life.  Considering this, any research that looks at ways of reducing fatigue in people living with multiple sclerosis is of high interest.

A couple of weeks ago, many media reports appeared online suggesting that a study had shown that a daily cup of cocoa may be able to have a positive impact on reducing fatigue in people living with multiple sclerosis.

However, was this actually the case?  We summarised this published study in a video format, which was shared to our Facebook page and can be viewed at the base of this article.  We have also now done a written summary of this work below, which hopefully explains a bit more about what the study was and what they actually found.

WHAT?

The researchers wanted to test whether a high-flavonoid cocoa drink could reduce fatigue in people living with multiple sclerosis.  This current study was mostly performed to see whether a trial to assess this would be feasible.

WHO?

The research was led by scientists from Oxford Brookes University in Oxford, UK.

WHERE/WHEN?

The study was published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry in March 2019.  The abstract can be found here.

FACT #1:  Flavonoids are of interest because of their anti-inflammatory properties.  You can read more about another multiple sclerosis study that looked at flavonoids here.

FINDING #1:  The study was found to be feasible!  Nearly all of the participants were happy to do what was expected of them through the length of the trial, both in terms of drinking the cocoa provided and recording their data.

FINDING #2:  The small amount of data gathered gave some small suggestion that perhaps the high-flavonoid cocoa could have an impact on fatigue, particularly in terms of the distance that a person was able to walk before they got tired.

However, the improvements seen were very minor and not statistically significant.  It is important to realise though that this was not the point of the study and “Finding #1” was the main aim of this trial!

THOUGHT:  It is great to see that research is being performed to directly tackle symptoms that have a huge impact on the lives of people living with multiple sclerosis, such as fatigue.  I think this really reflects the wishes of the multiple sclerosis community, who have been asking for a focus on this for many years now.

THOUGHT:  This study is very interesting.  It presents an easy option for managing fatigue, through a safe and generally well-tolerated cocoa drink.  However, as always, we need to be a little careful about the reports that we see online.  At this stage, this research hasn’t shown enough evidence to indicate that this can improve fatigue in people living with multiple sclerosis.  However, considering the success of the study design shown here, larger trials will now be performed that will allow us to better determine if this intervention is effective.

VIDEO SUMMARY