Cutting Calories May Keep Brain Sharp

Researchers have long believed that calorie restriction is good for your body, and now, it appears, it may be good for your brain. Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute For Learning and Memory figured that out when they decreased by 30 percent the normal diets of mice (yes, mice, not humans) that were genetically engineered to rapidly undergo changes in the brain associated with neurodegeneration. Science Daily reports that after three months of calorie restriction, the mice were given learning and memory tests. The researchers found that there was a delay in the onset of neurodegeneration in the calorie-restricted mice, and they also found that the animals were spared the learning and memory deficits of mice that did not consume reduced-calorie diets. Next, the researchers wondered if they could recreate the benefits of caloric restriction without changing the animals’ diets, so they gave a separate group of mice a drug that activates SIRT1, an enzyme that is normally activated by calorie restriction. Similar to what the researchers found in the mice exposed to reduced-calorie diets, the mice that received the drug had less cell loss and better cellular connectivity than the mice that did not receive the drug. Wait, there’s more: the mice that received the drug treatment performed as well as normal mice in learning and memory tests. Read more from Science Daily.