A new study in mice has revealed that signs of brain aging can be postponed with the help of a high-fat diet.
The study headed by the Center for Healthy Aging, University of Copenhagen and the National Institute of Health found that in the long term, this opens the possibility of treatment of children suffering from premature aging and patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
The researchers studied mice having a defect in their DNA repair system. In humans, this defect causes the disorder Cockayne syndrome, where patients prematurely age as children and die at an age of 10-12 years. The study shows that placing a mouse model of Cockayne syndrome on a high-fat diet will postpone aging processes such as impaired hearing and weight loss.
Professor Vilhelm Bohr said that the study is good news for children with Cockayne syndrome, because we do not currently have an effective treatment and their study suggests that a high-fat diet can postpone a ging processes. A diet high in fat also seems to postpone the aging of the brain.
The findings therefore potentially imply that patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease in the long term may benefit from the new knowledge.
