The study — headed by the National Institutes of Health, the Center for Healthy Aging, and the University of Copenhagen — found brain aging was postponed in mice placed on a high-fat diet. The findings, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, open the door to potential new treatments for those suffering from premature aging, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease.
 

“Our study suggests that a high-fat diet can postpone aging processes,” said lead researcher Vilhelm Bohr. “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.”
 

As we age, DNA-related defects begin to develop in our nervous systems, our brains lose functional capacity, and the risk of developing diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's increases, researchers noted. Healthy human cells have a system that repairs DNA damage, but as we age it ceases to function, contributing to dementia.
 

For the new study, researchers studied mice with defects in their DNA repair systems. They found that placing a mouse on a high-fat diet postponed the aging processes and researchers noted a particularly positive effect from so-called medium chain fatty acids (such as those in coconut oil).
 

"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," said Morten Scheibye-Knudsen from the National Institutes of Health.