Long-lived communities eat plants that are rich in natural connections that can delay aging now, scientists discover how these polyphenols work at a cellular level and why they might be the key to a longer, healthier life.
Judgement: Diet polyphenols as stubborn connections: from blue zones to characteristics of aging. Image Credit Zaporizhzhia Vector / Shutterstock
In a recent review article in the magazine Outdated research reviewsHave researchers assessed how polyphenol -rich foods that are often eaten in ‘blue zones’ by long -lived people can act as retrotective agents to support healthy aging and prevent age -related diseases.
Current research indicates that polyphenols can change important biological processes, protecting them against aging. However, the research team emphasized that further studies are needed to understand how polyphenols modulate the characteristics of aging and promote lifespan.
Outdated populations must remain healthy for longer
Life expectations increase worldwide as living conditions, medical technology, nutrition and public health improve. This has emphasized the importance of ‘healthspans’, so that people can stay healthy for longer and enjoy their improved lifespan.
Researchers have turned to centenary, or people who live beyond the age of 100, to collect valuable insights into which factors support such an unusual lifespan. They have identified five blue zones, located in Loma Linda (California, United States), Sardinia (Italy), Okinawa (Japan), Nicoya (Costa Rica) and Ikaria (Greece), as places with a disproportionate number of long -lived individuals.
Diet can be a key factor in promoting a long service life, and a factor that can be changed. Healthy diets are often rich in vegetable foods with high levels of polyphenols, which are plant compounds with anti -inflammatory and antioxidant properties and can reduce the risk of heart conditions, blood pressure and high blood sugar. Thus polyphenols can slow aging and reduce diseases that often come to age.
However, the authors emphasize that the biological availability of polyphenol is influenced by intestinal microbiota, food matrices, chemical structure and individual metabolism – which is a challenge to estimate intake and efficacy. Although it is known that the diets of people in blue zones are rich in vegetable foods, exact consumption levels are not known.
Diet and lifespan in blue zones
In Okinawa, traditional nutritional diets are linked to lower percentages of diabetes, dementia and cardiovascular disease. The most important components of diets in this blue zone are sweet potatoes, soy grafting, turmeric, bitter melon, seaweed and green teas. Okinawa was once a leader in a long lifespan, although modern nutritional profit has eroded this advantage. Traditional components such as purple sweet potatoes and turmeric, however, remain rich polyphenol sources.
Polyphenol -rich food in Sardijns diet includes red wine, coffee and fruit and vegetables. While Sardinians consume a lot of vegetable food, the primary sources of polyphenols in their diet are red wine and coffee. These foods have potential benefits for inflammation, metabolism and vascular function. Plant food can also reduce the impact of saturated fats in the diet. These food sources, combined with active lifestyle, can support the Sardinian lifespan.
The Mediterranean diet in Ikaria, Greece, includes daily consumption of extra virgin olive oil, which is rich in polyphenols, in particular oleuropeine, with concentrations ranging from 380 to 939 mg/kg. People in this area also consume wild greens and raw vegetables, including dandelion, onions and arugula. They drink Greek coffee in moderate quantities and herbal tea made from Ironwort.
In Loma Linda, California there are primary sources of polyphenols coffee, citrus fruits and berries, legumes (especially chickpeas) and nuts and vegetables. Residents of Nicoya, Costa Rica, consume in large quantities of mangos, papayas and beans.
Polyphenols and signs of aging
Polyphenols in diets with blue zone can prevent deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage and slow -reduction. This can be attributed to anthocyanins, which are found in beans and sweet potatoes, and procyanidines, which are found in some grapes and wines. Anthocyanins protect DNA and regulate key routes that regulate cell survival, while Procyanidines promote DNA repair.
Other polyphenols are linked to epigenetic modifications, such as Genistein, found in soy, which promotes the activation of tumor-suppressing genes. Chlorogeneic acid, found in coffee, also prevents harmful genhypermethylation associated with cancer. Oluropeeine, found in olive oil, reduces the disease -related amyloid deposits of Alzheimer’s in the brain, while curcumin, the bioactive connection in turmeric, reduces oxidative stress. Xanthonoids in mangos can also slow down cell aging.
Polyphenols such as genisteine reduce inflammation, while oleuropeine slows aging through proteasoma activation. Some, such as quercetin (found in beans), boost energy metabolism, while curcumin also knew damaged mitochondria. Oleuropein and curcumin also improve autophagia and suppress harmful signals of aging. These effects correspond to the ability of polyphenols to influence aging by a framework that is known as the ‘characteristics of aging’, including genomic instability, cellular senescence, mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic inflammation.
Conclusions
Long-lived people who live in the blue zones in the world are models of healthy aging, their lifespan as a result of a combination of environmental and genetic factors. These populations give priority to vegetable foods rich in polyphenols, but more research is needed to understand their impact.
The authors warn that the current proof that the intake of polyphenol is linking to an increased lifespan of humans is observational and misses controlled intervention data. Currently limited epidemiological studies connect polyphen -rich diets to a long service life; Better tools are needed to measure polyphenol’s consumption levels that can integrate variations in food between cultures. Without supplementary tests it is also difficult to insulate the effects of polyphenols.
They recommend future work focus on developing reliable biomarkers to follow polyphenol consumption, techniques to measure polyphenol-linked metabolites in human biofluïds and randomized controlled studies to assess how these connections influence healthy aging.