Fewer calories – younger brain
The ability of a low-calorie diet to slow down the progression of all aspects of aging is well known, but its effect on human life expectancy is much weaker than in short-lived species. At the same time, the health benefits of our species are worth the effort, especially considering that a low-calorie diet is reliably beneficial and completely free. The authors of the article (see the original links) published in the journal Aging, note that a low-calorie diet slows down the development of the effects of aging of the population of neural stem cells, as well as other stem cell populations throughout the body. They suggest that this is a consequence of a decrease in the levels of physiological cell aging and chronic inflammation.
Neural stem cells support the functionality of the brain through neurogenesis – the appearance of new neurons that can take their place in the brain tissue and be included in its functioning. Neurogenesis fades with age, which is explained by a decrease in the activity of stem cell populations throughout the body as degenerative aging progresses. One explanation for this phenomenon is that it is a component of the balance formed during evolution between the risk of developing cancer and the slow extinction of tissue functionality. Too high activity of stem cells in a damaged system should lead to an increased risk of cancer. The widespread use of stem cell therapies to date indicates that if this is the case, the described equilibrium is not very precisely regulated. There is a large enough reserve for increasing the activity of stem cells, not accompanied by an increase in the risk of cancer.
Excerpts from the article by Apple et al. Calorie restriction protects neural stem cells from age-related deficiencies in the subventricular zone, published in the journal Aging:
The adult brain is capable of producing new neurons from neural stem cells. The process of neurogenesis throughout life proceeds mainly in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and in the subventricular zone. This process is subject to powerful regulation and, despite the lack of knowledge of the signals controlling neurogenesis, it is known that its activity fades with age. This indicates that neurogenic signals are susceptible to age-related insufficiency, which is also observed in other regions of the brain.
A low-calorie diet is one of the mechanisms that can suppress the development of age-related extinction in aging animals. A low-calorie diet can significantly increase the average and maximum life expectancy and improve the indicators of physiological markers of health, including tissue sensitivity to insulin, body mass index and markers of cardiovascular diseases in plasma. A low-calorie diet has a positive effect on the functions of blood stem cells and muscle tissue, and can also prevent damage to neurons in models of neurodegenerative diseases. In the hippocampus, a low-calorie diet increases the proliferation of progenitor cells, but it is unclear whether these cells survive and mature into neurons.
Chronic inflammation is a well-known component of the aging process, so it is logical to assume that inflammatory cells contribute to the development of manifestations of insufficiency in the aging brain. Physiological aging of cells is a phenomenon in which cell division stops in an aging organism. In laboratory models, it lends itself to modulating influence. Inflammation is associated with physiological aging in in vitro models, since the cells that enter it secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines.
In this study, the authors demonstrated that a low-calorie diet has a protective effect against age-related activation of the process of cells entering the phase of physiological aging, as well as activation of microglia and expression of proinflammatory cytokines in animal models of aging. Moreover, these protective effects mitigate the age–related extinction of neuroblast and neuron production, as well as improve olfactory memory - a behavioral indicator of neurogenesis in the dentricular zone. The results support the concept that a low-calorie diet can be an effective anti-aging intervention in the context of healthy brain aging.
Evgenia Ryabtseva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Fight Aging!: Calorie Restriction Slows Neural Stem Cell Decline, Perhaps via Reduced Cellular Senescence and Inflammation.