Of Sound Mind and Body: Dietary Lifestyles, Promotion of Healthy Brain Aging, and Prevention of Dementia in Healthy Individuals

There is mounting evidence suggesting that cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) can be traced back to neuropathological conditions initiated several decades before disease onset. Among lifestyle factors receiving a large amount of attention for being potentially associated with an increased risk for age-related cognitive deterioration, and possibly dementia, are features of metabolic syndrome. There is also accumulating evidence that some of the pathophysiological effects associated with metabolic syndrome are beneficially modulated by bioactive dietary polyphenols through multiple mechanisms including indirect mechanisms, such as by modulating peripheral metabolic syndrome pathophysiological phenotypes, and direct mechanisms, such as by modulating activities of the brain. Therefore, targeting the effects of metabolic syndrome on the brain, specifically attempting to modulate multiple non-redundant epigenetic molecular mechanisms among other mechanisms, with novel combinations of highly tolerable polyphenolic compounds, may be significant for developing novel therapeutic strategies in AD.