High-Calorie Diet Causes Brain Nerve Abnormalities: Researchers

Tokyo, Oct. 6 (Jiji Press)--A team of researchers has found that a cognitive decline from a continued habit of eating high-calorie food is due to abnormalities in the synapses, junctions between nerve cells.

While previous studies had shown that a continued high-calorie diet slows down brain functions, researchers had yet to unravel the complex mechanism on a molecular level.

The findings by the team, including Hitoshi Okazawa, professor at the Institute of Science Tokyo, were published in September in international science journal Molecular Psychiatry.

In an experiment, the team had some mice on a high-calorie diet for either one or six weeks to compare their nerve cells on a molecular level with those of mice given regular food.

The team observed a decline in polyglutamine binding protein 1, or PQBP1, in mice given a high-calorie diet. The protein regulates the production of proteins necessary for proper nerve cell transmission.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]