by Dr Uma
Hello Readers!
For our first foray into factors influencing Healthy Ageing, let’s start with nutrition.
Biological age is a just a number especially in older adults. It does not tell you the stage at which your body or mind is – unlike the early stages of growth. We all age differently – a complex symphony of genes, habits, environment, social interactions and even economics — playing a role.
One undisputed fact that is emerging after decades of scientific studies is that ‘Diet’ plays a role in healthy longevity. Today’s digest brings you the findings from a recent paper published in the journal, Gut Microbes (June 2024, Vol. 16, No. 1, 2363011) led by Dr David Vauzour from Norwich Medical School, UK and his colleagues and collaborators from France and Italy.
What is ‘Mediterranean diet’ that we hear so much about and is part of this research team’s investigation here?
Mediterranean diet is a generic term for the traditional dietary habits followed by the people in the regions surrounding the mediterranean sea. There is no specific or uniform cuisine that is dominant in these regions. It varies according to the ethnicities and cultural practices of these groups of people. So, what makes it a mediterranean diet?
Mediterranean diet (MD) consists of lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, whole grains with olive oil as the fat source and moderate amounts of lean protein sources like fish and poultry. This diet is inherently low in salt, sugar, refined carbs, red meat and high processing methods.
What is the secret in this mediterranean diet that accords the proven benefits for brain and gut health? In simple terms, this diet consists of lots of antioxidants, bioactive components including polyphenols that are friendly to the gut microbiome and have less inflammatory triggers (like processed food products and sugar) that make us exist in a chronically inflammatory state. Low inflammation with gut friendly bioactive components results in a better brain health (optimal gut-brain axis).
What is preventing most of us from adopting this diet that has widely proven and accepted benefits? It is the cost and/or lack of access to these high quality ingredients in all regions of the world. The researchers here tried to tackle this problem by developing a novel supplement called ‘Neurosyn240’ that is concentrated with these bioactive ingredients. This supplement was tested in a mouse model with low chronic inflammation. One set of mice were raised on normal diet (control set) and the other set (test set) were supplemented with Neurosyn240. After 8 weeks, the gut microbiome, metabolome and proteome were analysed in depth along with behavioural testing to understand any cognitive impacts.
The neuroprotective properties of this supplement manifested in better gut microbiome profile, reduced oxidative stress (and by extrapolation – less neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease), slightly better cognitive outcome in the memory recognition tests, modified metabolomic and proteomic profile that in turn correlated with certain gut microfauna highlighting the gut-brain connection.
Neurological disease burden in the ageing population is already a problem that many developed nations are grappling with. Availability of such supplements will become a norm in the future to combat these issues and give us some peace of mind!
Isn’t science fascinating in coming up with such investigations, ideas and solutions? That said, we need a ‘community of care’ network in place to reach out and implement these practices amongst the growing demographic of seniors. A multifarious approach will be needed to achieve good physical and cognitive outcomes in the long life that awaits us and this starts when we are young and we need to become an active participant in building such a cohesive community.
Today’s write-up only skimmed on one facet of this deep topic and there are still a vast array of areas under nutrition that are being researched upon. We will revisit relevant sub-topics in this realm, later in our future digests.
Do let us know in the comments – your thoughts as well as requests for any specific area you would like to see addressed.
Till next time, Cheers!
Reference:
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10.1080/19490976.2024.2363011