This is a diet that rejuvenates the brain and increases life expectancy.
Research published in Aging of the Nature publishing group The Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the US notes that specific nutrients They play a critical role in healthy brain aging and longevity.
Scientists led by Aron Barbee, director of the Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior, identified specific nutrient profiles in participants who showed better cognitive performance. The cross-sectional study included 100 cognitively healthy participants aged 65 to 75 years. Everyone completed a questionnaire with demographic information, body measurements, and physical activity.
After a period of fasting, their blood plasma was extracted to analyze nutrient biomarkers, according to Europa Press. Participants also underwent cognitive assessment and MRI. This revealed two types of brain aging in the participants: accelerated and slower than expected. People with slower brain aging had a different nutritional profile.
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Useful blood biomarkers were a combination fatty acid (vaccenic, gondoic, alpha-linolenic, elcosapentaenoic, eicosadienic and lignoceric acids); antioxidants and carotenoids, including cis-lutein, translutein and zeaxanthin; two forms vitamin E and choline. This profile correlates with the nutrients contained in Mediterranean dietalready identified in previous studies to be associated with healthy brain aging.
“We are investigating specific nutrient biomarkers, such as fatty acid profiles, that are known in nutritional science to have potential health benefits. This is consistent with the extensive body of research in this area demonstrating the positive health effects of the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes foods rich in these beneficial nutrients,” says Barbee, Mildred Frances Thompson Professor of Psychology.
“The present study identifies specific patterns of nutrient biomarkers that are promising and have favorable associations with measures of cognitive function and brain health,” he adds. The study, he points out, is one of the first and largest to combine brain imaging, blood biomarkers and validated cognitive assessments.
“The unique aspect of our study is its comprehensive approach, which combines data from nutrition, cognitive function and brain imaging. This allows us to gain a clearer understanding of the relationship between these factors. We go beyond simply measuring cognitive function using traditional methods. neuropsychological tests,” says the researcher.
Instead, they simultaneously examined brain structure, function, and metabolism, demonstrating a direct link between these brain properties and cognitive abilities. What’s more, Barbee says they showed that “these brain properties are directly related to diet and nutrition, as evidenced by patterns observed in nutrient biomarkers.”
“The next important step is to conduct randomized controlled trials. In these studies, we will isolate specific nutrients that are beneficially associated with cognitive function and brain health and prescribe them in the form of nutraceuticals. This will allow us to definitively assess whether increases in levels of these specific nutrient profiles reliably lead to improvements in cognitive test scores and measures of brain structure, function and metabolism,” he concludes.