Protecting your brain’s energy and keeping your mind sharp might start with what’s on your plate. Foods such as fish and seafood, meat, non-starchy vegetables, berries, nuts, seeds, eggs, and even full-fat dairy may play a key role in maintaining cognitive health.
Exploring the Power of the Ketogenic Diet
At the University of Missouri, researchers are exploring how these foods influence brain function. Their work focuses on a high-fat, low-carbohydrate eating plan known as the ketogenic diet. Early results suggest that this approach could not only support long-term brain health but also slow or even prevent cognitive decline, especially among individuals who face a higher genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Inside the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building, Ai-Ling Lin, a professor in the School of Medicine, and doctoral student Kira Ivanich are examining how the ketogenic diet may benefit people with the APOE4 gene, which is the strongest known genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
In their recent study using mice, Lin and Ivanich found that females with the APOE4 gene developed healthier gut bacteria and showed higher brain energy levels when following a ketogenic diet compared to those on a high-carbohydrate diet. Males did not show the same improvement, suggesting that gender may influence who benefits most from this dietary approach.
How the Brain Uses Fuel
The key lies in how the brain produces its energy.
“When we eat carbs, our brains convert the glucose into fuel for our brains, but those with the APOE4 gene — particularly females — struggle to convert the glucose into brain energy, and this can lead to cognitive decline down the road,” Ivanich said. “By switching to a keto diet, ketones are produced and used as an alternative fuel source. This may decrease the chance of developing Alzheimer’s by preserving the health of brain cells.”
These findings highlight the potential of “precision nutrition,” an approach that adapts diets and interventions to fit a person’s unique biology.
“Instead of expecting one solution to work for everyone, it might be better to consider a variety of factors, including someone’s genotype, gut microbiome, gender and age,” Lin said. “Since the symptoms of Alzheimer’s — which tend to be irreversible once they start — usually appear after age 65, the time to be thinking about preserving brain health is well before then, so hopefully our research can offer hope to many people through early interventions.”
Advancing Research Through Collaboration
Lin joined Mizzou in part for its collaborative environment and advanced imaging facilities located in the NextGen Precision Health building and at the University of Missouri Research Reactor.
“We can do a lot of things in-house here that at other places we would have to outsource,” Lin said. “This is team science. The impact we make will be much better when we work together than by ourselves.”
With cutting-edge imaging equipment and both research and clinical spaces under the same roof, the NextGen Precision Health building allows Mizzou to move quickly from preclinical models to human trials.
For Ivanich, that real-world impact is personal.
“When my grandmother got Alzheimer’s, that sparked my interest in this topic, so being able to make an impact to help people preserve their brain health is very rewarding,” she said. “With Mizzou being a leading research university and having a tight-knit community feel, I know I’m at the right place.”
“Ketogenic diet modulates gut microbiota-brain metabolite axis in a sex-and genotype-specific manner in APOE4 mice” was published in the Journal of Neurochemistry.
