Calorie Restricted Diet Delay Brain Aging
As medicine and our ability to treeat disease has improved, our longevity has improved as well. The deterioration of the body with age is, unfortunatelly, another story. Age-related neurodegenerative diseases are already the 4th highest disease burden in the western world.
Live Longer Stay Younger
According to the Portugese researchers, all that we might need is some brain cleaning. How? With a help of calorie restriction diet (a diet with low calories intake, without malnutrition) that can delay aging and increase longevity.
Brain Clogging and Aging
In their new (animal) study, Claudia Cavadas and her colleagues from the Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) of the University of Coimbra in Portugal say that the key to this diet appears to be its ability to increase autophagy - the mechanism that recycles unwanted molecules in the cells. Authopagy cleans and prevents molecules clogging and malfunction in the hypothalamus. Feeding behavior and energy-balance are also regulated centrally by the hypothalamus, a brain area with a key role on whole-body aging.
Reshearchers also enlightened the role of the molecule called Neuropeptide Y (NPY) that controls this "cleaning" process. The finding raises the possibility that NPY could be used to develop ways to control aging and not only treat its consequences. Autophagy impairment is a major sign of aging, and any intervention that enhances autophagy is of potential interest to delay aging.