A new research study recommends that age-related modifications in the brain start earlier in life than formerly believed, and switching diet might decrease the wear and tear.
The findings appear in the journal PNAS
The human brain needs over 20% of the body’s energy to function, and it gets this from metabolizing either glucose or ketone bodies
Hypometabolism happens when brain cells can not utilize glucose as an energy source.
The brain is susceptible to changes in metabolic process.
Individuals with Alzheimer’s illness frequently experience a severe drop in the brain’s glucose metabolic rate, and the level of this reduction is associated with the seriousness of their disease.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most typical kind of dementia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), roughly 50 million people worldwide have dementia, and about 60 to 70% of these have Alzheimer’s disease.
While scientists have actually been unable to pinpoint why the brain cells stop metabolizing glucose at this point, previous research study has actually revealed that a drop in glucose metabolic process appears early prior to Alzheimer’s signs develop.
In this research study, scientists from the United States and the UK utilized the stability of this communication network between brain regions as a method to determine age-related modifications in the brain.
They set out to examine when these changes begin and whether a modification in an individual’s diet plan from one rich in glucose to ketones might affect the interaction between these brain areas.
To identify when these modifications to neural stability emerge, the scientists utilized 2 massive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) datasets. One dataset originated from the Max Planck Institut Leipzig in Germany, and the other from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) in Cambridge, UK. The datasets consisted of brain scans of almost 1,000 adults throughout their life-span (ages 18 to 88).
This type of brain scan measures the stability of brain networks, defined as the brain’s ability to sustain functional communication in between its regions.
To examine how diet plan impacts brain network stability, the scientists utilized an fMRI maker scanner to measure the neural activity of 42 volunteers under 50 years of ages.
These volunteers had spent a week following among 3 diets: a