For decades, brain research has focused on addressing the impact of cognitive decline in people over 60.
However, scientists are now switching their attention to “accelerated changes” that occur in the brain from your forties onwards.
And one thing which could help stop cognitive decline linked to dementia is as cheap as 18p a day, a new review paper, published in the journal Trends in Neurosciences suggests.
Sebastian Dohm-Hansen, a researcher in UCC’s Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience and lead author of the study, said: “Once someone has an age-related cognitive disease in their sixties and seventies, it is almost too late to make significant improvements. By then the window of opportunity for therapeutic intervention may very well have closed.”
The researcher explained that midlife is a time when pounds creep on, metabolism slows down and physical fitness declines, contributing to a rise in inflammatory messengers in the bloodstream that then make their way into the brain.
Fortunately, the new study suggests that a fibre-rich diet could step in and offer more beneficial cognitive outcomes. Of particular interest to scientists is butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid produced by bacterial fermentation of fibre in the gut.
Dohm-Hansen said: “Butyrate is one of these interesting molecules that make their way across the blood/brain barrier into the brain. It seems to have very beneficial effects, particularly on the hippocampus.”
You can boost your butyrate levels by eating more resistant starch, which is found in fibre-rich foods like lentils, chickpeas, beans, nuts, seeds, starchy vegetables and unripe bananas.
However, the average fibre intake in the UK is about 18 grams a day, which is well below the recommended 30 grams daily. Apart from including more fibre rich foods in your diet, a fibre supplement could also offer a helping hand, according to researchers at King’s College London.
The team recently reported in the journal Nature Communications that a cheap, commercially available fibre supplement, inulin, which can cost as little as 18p a day, improved brain function in a group of people in their sixties. After 12 weeks, those taking the fibre pill performed better in tests assessing brain function, reaction time and processing speed compared to those who were given a placebo.
You can buy 90 servings of Easyfibre’s inulin for £16.49 from Healthspan, which works out to 18p per pill a day.
Apart from boosting your fibre intake, other simple lifestyle tweaks could also benefit your brain. Dohm-Hansen added: “Critically, good habits such as regular exercise, plenty of sleep and a balanced diet really do matter in terms of bringing beneficial molecules into the brain or by reducing levels of the inflammatory markers that are so harmful.”