Published in Neuron, new research demonstrates how a high-fat diet, even short-term, can rapidly affect brain health, but there are ways to reverse this and prevent long-term cognitive decline.
Published in Neuron, new research demonstrates how a high-fat diet, even short-term, can rapidly affect brain health, but there are ways to reverse this and prevent long-term cognitive decline.
Diet impacts the brain a lot more than we think.
A new study from UNC School of Medicine researchers, published this week in Neuron, reveals a unique look at how junk food rewires the brain’s memory hub – leading to risk of cognitive dysfunction. This new research opens the door to early interventions that can prevent even long-term memory loss associated with obesity.
Led by UNC School of Medicine’s Juan Song, PhD, principal investigator, professor of pharmacology, and Taylor Landry, PhD, first author, Department of Pharmacology, researchers found that a special group of brain cells in the hippocampus, called CCK interneurons, become overly active after eating a high-fat diet (HFD), due to an impaired ability of the brain to receive glucose (sugar). This overactivity disrupts how the hippocampus processes memory, even after just a few days of high fat diet. This type of diet resembles typical Western-style junk food rich in saturated fat—like cheeseburgers and fries. The discovery also showed that a protein called PKM2, which controls how brain cells use energy, plays a key role in this problem.
Read More: UNC School of Medicine
Photo Credit: artur_schlenker via Pixabay
