Study finds high-fat diet may ward off aging in body and brain

© National Post

A study out of Denmark seems to have found something good can come out of a high-fat diet. The study was conducted while looking at the effects of a high-fat diet on Cockayne syndrome, a premature aging disease.

The hope is such a diet can not only help children with Cockayne syndrome, who more often die of old age related symptoms somewhere between 10 and 12, but also help others.

That is what the study found could happen.

"Our study suggests that a high-fat diet can postpone aging processes," lead author of the study, Professor Vilhelm Bohr of the Center for Healthy Aging at the Univ. of Copenhagen, said in a press release.

"A diet high in fat also seems to postpone the aging of the brain. The findings therefore potentially imply that patients with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease in the long term may benefit from the new knowledge."

High-fat diet: aging slowed down

Published in the science journal, and called A High-Fat Diet to Rescue Premature Aging in Cockayne Syndrome, the study used mice that had the same defect in the DNA of their genes as humans with Cockayne syndrome have in theirs. The body and brain of the mice aged slower on a diet of high-fats such as coconut oil, than did mice who were not on a high-fat diet.

Morten Scheibye-Knudsen from the U.S. National Institute of Health, which also took part in the study, noted it's a matter of the body and brain getting more fuel to help repair damage going on in cells during the aging process. That is what the study indicates occurs on a high-fat diet, he said.

"We have previously demonstrated that aging (in children with Cockayne syndrome) is a result of the cell repair mechanism being constantly active," Scheibye-Knudsen said. "We therefore hope that a diet with a high content of coconut oil or similar fats will have a beneficial effect, because the brain cells are given extra fuel and thus the strength to repair the damage."

Researchers intend to do more work in the area of high-fat diets and aging.