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.

In earlier research, Joseph and his colleagues showed that old rats maintained for two months on diets containing two percent high antioxidant strawberry or blueberry extracts exhibited reversals of age-related deficits in the way that nerve cells function. In the brain, antioxidant molecules halt the damage caused by molecules known as free radicals. This study builds upon the earlier findings and demonstrates that walnuts can have a similar effect.

Walnuts contain anti-oxidant molecules, polyphenols and an essential omega-3 fatty acid, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA). These compounds may block the signals free radicals create that can later trigger the formation 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 equal to a person eating one ounce of walnuts daily, the recommended amount to reduce toxic low density lipoprotein, LDL cholesterol. A nine percent die is equal to consuming 1.5 ounces of walnuts daily. Dr. Joseph said, "Importantly 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."

Joseph and his colleagues are currently assessing whether increased nerve cell creation or changes in stress signaling, or both, may be involved in the actions through which the walnut diets could be producing their effects.

Walnuts have effects beyond "quenching" of free radicals. They may in fact be involved in blocking the damaging "stress signals" caused by free radicals. Dr. Joseph believes walnut's beneficial effect may be due to enhancing the signals that control critical functions such 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.