Amazing Anti-Aging Food Secrets
Dr. James Jospeh, a researcher at Tufts University reported that senior rats on diets of 2 to 9 per cent walnuts experienced a significant reversal of brain aging, as well as improvement of cognitive impairment and age related movement slowing.
Dr. Joseph researched the impact of strawberry or blueberry extracts in an earlier study, on the effect these antioxidant rich foods had on brain nerve cells. The animals experienced reversals of age related deficits. The antioxidants halt the damage in the brain caused by free radicals. This current study builds upon the preceding findings and demonstrated that walnuts have a similar impact.
Walnuts contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an essential omega-3 fatty acid, and other molecules, known as polyphenols that act as antioxidants. They may actually block the signals produced by free radicals that can later trigger the creation of compounds that increase inflammation.
These findings are the first time that shorter chain fatty acids, found in plants, such as walnuts, have been shown to be beneficial in supporting and enhancing cognitive brain function similar to those derived from fish and other sources that have been previously reported.
A six percent diet is equivalent to a person eating 1 ounce of walnuts each day, which is the recommended amount to reduce harmful low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, cholesterol, while a nine percent diet is equivalent to people eating 1.5 ounces of walnuts per day. “Importantly,” Joseph says, “this information, coupled with our previous studies, shows that the addition of walnuts, berries, and grape juice to the diet may increase ‘health span’ in aging and provide a ‘longevity dividend’ or economic benefit for slowing the aging process by reducing the incidence and delaying the onset of debilitating degenerative disease.”
Dr. Joseph is currently evaluating if increased nerve cell production or alterations in stress signaling, or if both, my be involved in the action through which walnut diets are producing their effects.
Walnuts may have additional impact beyond “quenching” and halting free radicals. They may in fact be involved in blocking the harmful “stress signals” created by cell functions. Dr. Joseph suggests the beneficial effects of walnuts may be due to the enhancement of signals that control very important functions as nerve cell growth and communication.
A great deal of data suggests that the deficits associated with aging, for example, Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular diseases, occur as a result of an increasing inability of the “aging” organism to protect itself against inflammation and oxidative stress, providing fertile ground for the development of neurodegenerative diseases.
According to Dr. Joseph, “The good news is that it appears that compounds found in fruits and vegetables – and, as we have shown in our research, walnuts – may provide the necessary protection to prevent the demise of cognitive and motor function in aging.
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March 03 2010 05:22 am | Nutrition