Nutritional Impact on Metabolic Homeostasis and Brain Health

• Published in: Frontiers in neuroscience Vol. 15; p. 767405
• Main Authors: Carneiro, Lionel, Pellerin, Luc
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 27.01.2022; Frontiers Media S.A
• Subjects: Aging; Blood glucose; Body weight; Cancer; cognition; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive ability; Diabetes; Diet; Disease; Energy; Energy balance; Epigenetics; Fatty acids; Homeostasis; Inflammation; Insulin; Ketones; Life expectancy; Memory; Metabolism; Mitochondria; Motor skill; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurogenesis; Neurological diseases; neurological disorder; Neurological disorders; Neuroscience; nutrient sensing; nutrition; Oxidative stress; Regulation; Risk assessment; Social behavior; Synaptic plasticity; Triglycerides; nutrition; metabolism; aging; cognition; nutrient sensing; neurological disorder
• ISSN: 1662-4548; 1662-453X; 1662-453X
• DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.767405

Aging in modern societies is often associated with various diseases including metabolic and neurodegenerative disorders. In recent years, researchers have shown that both dysfunctions are related to each other. Although the relationship is not fully understood, recent evidence indicate that metabolic control plays a determinant role in neural defects onset. Indeed, energy balance dysregulation affects neuroenergetics by altering energy supply and thus neuronal activity. Consistently, different diets to help control body weight, blood glucose or insulin sensitivity are also effective in improving neurodegenerative disorders, dampening symptoms, or decreasing the risk of disease onset. Moreover, adapted nutritional recommendations improve learning, memory, and mood in healthy subjects as well. Interestingly, adjusted carbohydrate content of meals is the most efficient for both brain function and metabolic regulation improvement. Notably, documented neurological disorders impacted by specific diets suggest that the processes involved are inflammation, mitochondrial function and redox balance as well as ATP production. Interestingly, processes involving inflammation, mitochondrial function and redox balance as well as ATP production are also described in brain regulation of energy homeostasis. Therefore, it is likely that changes in brain function induced by diets can affect brain control of energy homeostasis and other brain functions such as memory, anxiety, social behavior, or motor skills. Moreover, a defect in energy supply could participate to the development of neurodegenerative disorders. Among the possible processes involved, the role of ketone bodies metabolism, neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity, oxidative stress and inflammation or epigenetic regulations as well as gut-brain axis and SCFA have been proposed in the literature. Therefore, the goal of this review is to provide hints about how nutritional studies could help to better understand the tight relationship between metabolic balance, brain activity and aging. Altogether, diets that help maintaining a metabolic balance could be key to both maintain energy homeostasis and prevent neurological disorders, thus contributing to promote healthy aging.