Anatomical biology guides a search for nutrients for the aging brain.

ABSTRACT

Considerable evidence has established the importance of specific nutrients that have been found vital for the developing brain. We hypothesize that in a similar manner there should be nutrients vital to the aging brain and that based on aging's distinct pathophysiology they should be different than those essential to development. Specific brain networks that govern cognition are particularly vulnerable to the aging process, resulting in what is referred to as 'cognitive aging'. Common late-life disorders, however, such as Alzheimer's disease also target these same brain networks. Studies have disambiguated cognitive aging from late-life disease by isolating regions and biological pathways within each network differentially linked to one or the other. This anatomical biology anchors a framework to identify nutrients and/or dietary bioactives relevant to cognitive aging whose utility is illustrated via a decades-long research program into how dietary bioactive flavanols benefit the brain. As we are living longer in cognitively more demanding lives, the framework's ultimate goal is to generate specific dietary recommendations that will fortify our mind for its golden years.