Scientists have long been studying the brain to help with healthier aging. While much is known about the risk factors for accelerated brain aging, less has been uncovered to identify ways to prevent cognitive decline.
There’s evidence that nutrition matters, and a new study from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Center for Brain, Biology and Behavior and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign points to how certain nutrients may play an important role in healthy aging. brain. The findings were published in Nature Publishing Group Aging.
The team of scientists led by Aron Barbey, director of the Center for Brain, Biology, and Behavior, Nebraska doctoral student Jisheng Wu, and UIUC research scientist Christopher Zwilling, conducted the multimodal study. We explored cutting-edge innovations in neuroscience and nutritional science and identified a specific nutritional profile in participants who performed better cognitively.
The cross-sectional study included 100 cognitively healthy participants aged between 65 and 75 years. These participants completed a survey that included demographic information, body measurements, and physical activity. Blood plasma was collected after the fasting period to analyze nutritional biomarkers. Participants also received cognitive assessments and MRI scans. The efforts revealed two types of brain aging among participants: faster and slower than expected. Those with slower brain aging had a distinct nutritional profile.
Useful nutritional blood biomarkers were a combination of fatty acids (vaccenic, gondoic, alpha linolenic, elcosapentaenoic, eicosadienoic, and lignoceric acids); antioxidants and carotenoids, including cis-lutein, trans-lutein, and zeaxanthin; Two forms of vitamin E and choline. This profile is associated with nutrients found in the Mediterranean diet, which previous research has linked to healthy brain aging.
“We investigated specific nutrient biomarkers, such as fatty acid profiles, that are known in nutritional science to potentially provide health benefits. “This is consistent with extensive research in the field showing the positive health effects of the Mediterranean diet, which emphasizes foods rich in these beneficial nutrients,” said Barbey, the Mildred Francis Thompson Professor of Psychology. “The current study identifies specific patterns of nutritional biomarkers that are promising and have positive associations with measures of cognitive performance and brain health.”
Barbey noted that previous research on nutrition and brain aging relied mostly on food frequency surveys that relied on participants’ own recall. This study is one of the first and largest to combine brain imaging, blood biomarkers, and validated cognitive assessments.
“The unique aspect of our study lies in its comprehensive approach, integrating data on nutrition, cognitive function and neuroimaging,” Barbey said. “This allows us to gain a more robust understanding of the relationship between these factors. We go beyond simply measuring cognitive performance with traditional neuropsychological tests. Instead, we simultaneously examine brain structure, function, and metabolism, revealing a direct link between these brain characteristics and cognitive abilities.” “We also show that these brain properties are directly linked to diet and nutrition, as revealed by observed patterns in nutritional biomarkers.”
Researchers will continue to explore this nutrient profile as it relates to healthy brain aging. Barbey said it’s possible the findings could help develop treatments and interventions to improve brain health in the future.
“The next important step involves conducting randomized controlled trials. In these trials, we will isolate specific nutrients that have positive associations with cognitive function and brain health and administer them in the form of nutraceuticals,” Barbey said. “This will allow us to precisely assess whether increasing levels of these specific nutrient profiles reliably leads to improvements in cognitive test performance and measures of brain structure, function, and metabolism.”
Barbey is also co-editing an upcoming special collection for the Journal of Nutrition titled “Nutrition and the Brain – Exploring Pathways to Optimal Brain Health Through Nutrition”; This collection is currently awaiting submissions for review, and articles will begin to be published next year.
“There is tremendous scientific and medical interest in understanding the profound impact of nutrition on brain health,” Barbey said. “Recognizing this, the National Institutes of Health recently launched a 10-year strategic plan to significantly accelerate nutrition research. Our study is directly aligned with this critical initiative that aims to provide valuable insights into how dietary patterns affect brain health and cognitive function.”