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The study results suggested that changes to the stability of a person’s neural network emerged at 47 years old, and the brain rapidly degenerated from 60 years old onward.
“The bad news is that we see the first signs of brain aging much earlier than was previously thought,” says Mujica-Parodi, a professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.
The researcher also has joint appointments in the College of Engineering & Applied Sciences and Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University in New York and is a faculty member in the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology.
“However, the good news is that we may be able to prevent or reverse these effects with diet, mitigating the impact of encroaching hypometabolism by exchanging glucose for ketones as fuel for neurons.”
– Prof. Mujica-Parodi
Prof. Mujica-Parodi explained that as people age, their brains lose the ability to metabolize glucose efficiently, causing neurons to starve and brain networks to destabilize.
“This effect matters because brain aging, and especially dementia, are associated with ‘hypometabolism,’ in which neurons gradually lose the ability to effectively use glucose as fuel.”
“Therefore, if we can increase the amount of energy available to the brain by using a different fuel, the hope is that we can restore the brain to more youthful functioning.”
“In collaboration with Dr. Eva Ratai at Massachusetts General Hospital, we’re currently addressing this question, by now extending our studies to older populations,” Prof. Mujica-Parodi adds.
In their paper, the researchers suggest that a ketone supplement would be more appropriate for people with insulin-resistant conditions, such as diabetes, as they are less able to achieve ketosis through a change in diet, fasting, or exercise.
Their findings also support the hypothesis that at least some of the beneficial neural effects reported with a sudden and extreme drop in calories, such as intermittent fasting, may be linked with the brain using ketone bodies as fuel rather than glucose.
The researchers are now working on discovering the precise mechanisms by which fuel impacts signaling between neurons.
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