Age-old wisdom tells us that we should eat fruit to stay healthy. Once again, science catches up to the old adage. A new study suggests that compounds in fruit, especially apples, may promote brain fitness as you age.
Specifically, researchers found that phenolics, extracted from apples, bananas and oranges protected neuron-like cells from dying in a dish. But before we get into the new results let’s cover a little background on what the fruits may be doing to protect your brain.
Too much oxidative stress can lead to Alzheimer’s disease
One of the things that can damage bodily tissues and cause disease is oxidative stress. This is essentially a process that usually happens during the manufacturing of energy. Just like a nuclear reactor makes energy very efficiently, but at the same time produces toxic by-products, so do our tissues.
Usually these toxic by-products are well controlled, but occasionally they escape into our cells and tissues and do a little damage. If left unchecked, this damage can accumulate and eventually lead to disease.
Since the brain gets dibs on about 20% of the calories that you eat, it has a lot of energy production going on and is at risk of oxidative stress. In fact, many studies indicate that Alzheimer’s disease brains are highly susceptible to oxidative stress and that this may be one causative factor in developing the disease in the first place.
Fruit can protect you from oxidative stress
That’s the bad news, now here’s the good news. Antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables can help prevent oxidative stress by neutralizing the toxic by-products of the energy production process. That’s why it’s so critical to get your recommended five to nine servings a day. This gives your brain and body what it needs to fight oxidative stress.
In new research, scientists from Korea and Cornell, extracted specific nutrients, called phenols, from apples, bananas and oranges and used them to save neuron-like cells grown in a dish. They treated the cells with hydrogen peroxide, which will cause oxidative stress and tested if the fruit extracts could save the cells from damage and death.
Apples help neurons and blood vessels
First, researchers looked at damage to the protective membrane that surrounds the cells to see if the fruit extract could prevent them from springing leaks caused by the toxic peroxide. Second, researchers measured the actual peroxide-induced death of the cells and the ability of the fruit phenols to save them.
It turned out that all the tested fruit extracts were effective at protecting membrane damage and cell death, but apple extract was the most potent.
In a related experiment researchers from the University of California at Davis, also tested the ability of apple extract to prevent cells from dying. But in this experiment they used endothelial cells, which are the cells that make up the walls of blood vessels.
Again, since the brain utilizes a big share of the bodies oxygen supply, blood delivery through a healthy circulatory system is a huge factor. And, the health of the endothelial cells that make up the vascular system is extremely important for overall brain health and fitness.
In this experiment, the apple extract met the challenge again. Researchers treated endothelial cells in a dish with a toxin known to kill them, and were able to prevent the cell death with the apple extract.
So there you have it. We should remember all that stuff our grandmother told us and take heed. An apple a day really may keep the doctor away and help maintain good brain function as we age.
