Western Diets May Encourage Brain Degredation

Consuming grilled or broiled red meats may be contributing to a heightened risk of Alzheimer's, according to a new study.

According to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, heat processed meats contain high levels of compounds that have been associated with the worsening of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's.

The compounds, advanced glycation endoproducts (AGEs), are already found in the human body at low levels, but research shows that these levels can be considerably heightened with the regular consumption of grilled and broiled red meats.

Researchers also found that high levels of AGEs suppress a substance called SIRT1 in the blood and tissue of the brain. SIRT1 helps regulate neural, immune, and endocrine function. The suppression of this substance helps further the negative impacts of neurodegenerative diseases. In fact, neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases such as Alzheimer's and even diabetes already work to suppress SIRT1, but increased AGE levels have been proven to only make things worse.

Originally, evidence of AGEs negatively affecting cognitive regulation was only seen in mice, where mice regularly fed a "traditionally Western" grilled-meat heavy diet showed increased problems with cognitive and motors abilities, as well as early signs of the development of Alzheimer's diseases.

However, when the researcher finally carried their hypothesis over to human subjects, the results were equally alarming.

A clinical health study of healthy adults over the age of 60 was carried out for nine months. The volunteer subjects were divided into groups corresponding to whether they had high or low AGE levels at the start of the study.

At the end of the study, researchers found that the subjects with high AGE levels developed noticeable cognitive decline, demonstrating that raised levels of SIRT1 suppression contributed even to the natural degradation of the brain associated with aging.

Researchers concluded the study explaining that more research would be needed to discover the exact nature of the connection between food AGEs and neurological disorders. Still, they wrote, the study's findings do indicate that careful attention to diet may help an aging individual preserve his or her quality-of-life longer.

The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America on January 24.