The Neuro-Protective Lifestyle

photo credit: Francesca:Nocella

If you think that’s hard, try the original title from the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:
“Luteolin reduces IL-6 production in microglia by inhibiting JNK phosphorylation and activation of AP-1″

*Division of Nutritional Sciences, Integrative Immunology and Behavior Program, Department of Animal Sciences, and Department of Pathology, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, 1207 West Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801

Regardless of how you say it, foods full of flavonoids (such as the luteolin in celery), fight neuroinflammation faster than aspirin. No, I just made that up about the aspirin, but the science is still very, very convincing.

In this study, brave mice were given an intraperitoneal (inside the abdomen) injection of lipopolysachharide (LPS) to stimulate the production of brain damaging inflammatory mediators.

Three weeks earlier researchers had replaced the study animals regular water with water “spiked” with luteolin, a protective flavonoid found in especially high concentrations in celery. At different time intervals they evaluated blood samples to precisely measure the amount of proinflammatory cytokines - chemicals responsible for neuroinflammation.

You’ll remember that neuroinflammation is the hallmark of common neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s and others.

Chronic inflammation anywhere in the body can contribute to disease and the brain is no exception.

Three weeks worth of luteolin spiked water, dramatically reduced the amount of inflammation present in hippocampus of the study animals, confirming the neuroprotective properties of simple celery.

Practically speaking, a human would have to consume 47 servings of celery per day to replicate the concentration of luteolin found in the animals drinking water.

Do not despair however, since flavonoids are found in abundance in many many foods. There are in fact over 4,000 aromatic compounds found in tea, honey, wine, fruits, vegetables, nuts, olive oil, cocoa and others.

For a more complete list see “Eat Your Antioxidants - Or Else”.

A daily intake of a gram or more of a variety of bioflavonoids is a reasonable dietary goal.

Soooooo when you’re out grocery shopping be courteous and save some celery for the next person.

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The power to predict disease is - well - powerful. And nothing is more powerful in scientific circles than a carefully constructed, decades long, longitudinal study.

In case you haven’t noticed, approximately fifty percent of adult Americans have abdominal obesity. “Abdominal” or “visceral” obesity is defined as a waist circumference greater than 102 cm for men (40 in.) and 88 cm (35 in.) for women. Your “viscera” (internal organs) now double as a convenient “dumping-ground” for fat. No surprise then, that researchers in Northern California were easily able to recruit 6,583 “apple-shaped”, middle-aged, men and women. Thirty-six years later, a whopping sixteen percent (1053 people) had developed dementia.

Apparently abdominal obesity at 40, doubles or triples your risk for dementia in your 70’s.

To put it into perspective, every-other vibrant, active, middle-aged person with belly fat that you see today, will reach retirement and be rewarded with difficulty remembering their own name.

But what is it about belly fat that ultimately leaves our brains battered and bewildered?

When fat is progressively packed around internal organs it literally takes on a life of it’s own. Adipocyte (fat cell) signaling becomes so strong that it becomes the dominant “endocrine” or hormone secreting organ in the body. Over time, insulin levels rise. Soon after, persistently elevated blood-sugars increase production of a very dangerous by-product of glucose metabolism known as Advanced Glycosylated End-products (AGE’s).

When diabetic patients undergo HbA1c testing, whether they know it or not, they are having their advanced glycosylated end-products measured. Levels greater than 6.1 are considered abnormal and require treatment. AGE’s are found within the plaque and neurofibrillary tangles of specially stained brain tissue of Alzheimer’s patients and directly contribute to neuronal damage.

So here’s what to do if you’re 40 and find yourself in that other 50 percent category:

1. Determine your waist circumference by wrapping a tape measure midway between the top or your pelvis and the bottom of your ribs (between the bony parts in other words)

2. Ask your doctor to measure a fasting blood-sugar (fasting means nothing to eat - not even juice - after midnight of the night before)

3. Levels greater than 109 mg/dl require further evaluation with HbA1c testing

4. Exercise, exercise, exercise (all the crunches in the world will not remove this fat - neither will liposuction)

5. If you have a low HDL (good) cholesterol and elevated triglycerides, consider having Apo-E testing performed as well

I’m here to help - so feel free to leave a comment if you have a [fat] burning question!

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The central nervous system and the brain in particular are considered “immunologically privileged” sites. Brain function is so important from a survival standpoint that it is essentially “immune” to its own immune system. No immune response to a foreign antigen in the brain, means no inflammatory response and no tissue rejection.

While receiving a “brain tissue” transplant may not turn your crank, thanks to the phenomenon of immune privilege it may soon be your best bet at treating accelerated brain aging and other neurodegenerative diseases. Until recently, survival rates for transplanted neural tissue have been dismal. Rates of less than 10% are considered the norm. Listen up aging baby-boomers, rates are even lower if the host happens to be “middle-aged” and above.

Now for the “berry” good news! Previous studies confirmed that the polpyphenols found for example in the lowbush blueberry (vaccinium augustifolium), dramatically increase survival rates of developing neurons in vitro.

Now a recent in vivo (read rat study) study confirms it.

The lucky rats received a fetal hippocampal tissue transplant to the anterior chamber of the eye (the eye is another immunologically privileged site), plus a diet enriched with the lowly lowbush blueberry. The unlucky rats got the knife but no berries. Final hippocampal graft size increased dramatically in the polyphenol-rich blueberry diet fed rats and not-so-much in the other.

Conclusion? In the future, if your doctor recommends a brain transplant, stock up on blueberries. Remember though, prevention is better than cure.

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