Eating berries may activate the brain's natural housekeeper for healthy aging

August 23rd, 2010 in Medicine & Health / Health
Eating berries may activate the brain's natural housekeeper forEnlarge

Many berries, including blueberries, could help protect the brain against aging.
Credit: Jim Clark

Scientists today reported the first evidence that eating blueberries, strawberries, and
acai berries may help the aging brain stay healthy in a crucial but previously
unrecognized way. Their study, presented at the 240th National Meeting of the
American Chemical Society (ACS), concluded that berries, and possibly walnuts,
activate the brain's natural "housekeeper" mechanism, which cleans up and recycles
toxic proteins linked to age-related memory loss and other mental decline.

Shibu Poulose, Ph.D., who presented the report, said previous research suggested
that one factor involved in aging is a steady decline in the body's ability to protect
itself against inflammation and oxidative damage. This leaves people vulnerable to
degenerative brain diseases, heart disease, cancer, and other age-related disorders.

"The good news is that natural compounds called polyphenolics found in fruits,
vegetables and nuts have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect that may
protect against age-associated decline," said Poulose, who is with the U. S.
Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) Human
Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston. Poulose did the research with James
Joseph, Ph.D., who died June 1. Joseph, who headed the laboratory, pioneered
research on the role of antioxidants in fruits and nuts in preventing age-related
cognitive decline.

Their past studies, for instance, showed that old laboratory rats fed for two months
on diets containing 2 percent high-antioxidant strawberry, blueberry, or blackberry
extract showed a reversal of age-related deficits in nerve function and behavior that
involves learning and remembering.

In the new research, Poulose and Joseph focused on another reason why nerve
function declines with aging. It involves a reduction in the brain's natural house-
cleaning process. Cells called microglia are the housekeepers. In a process called
autophagy, they remove and recycle biochemical debris that otherwise would
interfere with brain function.

"But in aging, microglia fail to do their work, and debris builds up," Poulose
explained. "In addition, the microglia become over-activated and actually begin to
damage healthy cells in the brain. Our research suggests that the polyphenolics in
berries have a rescuing effect. They seem to restore the normal housekeeping
function. These findings are the first to show these effects of berries."

The findings emerged from research in which Joseph and Poulose have tried to detail
factors involved in the aging brain's loss of normal housekeeping activity. Using
cultures of mouse brain cells, they found that extracts of berries inhibited the action
of a protein that shuts down the autophagy process.

Poulose said the study provides further evidence to eat foods rich in polyphenolics.
Although berries and walnuts are rich sources, many other fruits and vegetables
contain these chemicals especially those with deep red, orange, or blue colors. Those
colors come from pigments termed anthocyanins that are good antioxidants. He
emphasized the importance of consuming the whole fruit, which contains the full
range of hundreds of healthful chemicals. Frozen berries, which are available year
round, also are excellent sources of polyphenolics, he added.

Provided by American Chemical Society

"Eating berries may activate the brain's natural housekeeper for healthy aging."
August 23rd, 2010. www.physorg.com/news201789781.html


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