The brain weighs only 3 pounds, or around 2 percent of our total body weight. The crazy part, however, is that it consumes somewhere from 20 to 30 percent of the bodies energy. Whether or not we’re busy thinking and problem solving or just lying about and daydreaming, the brain demands a hefty chunk of our energy stores.

As we age our ability to get the brain the energy it wants starts to wane. Certain diseases and stressors also inhibit this energy supply, which all point to one important factor to consider when we’re looking to keep ourselves mentally sharp in later life: how can we continue to supply the brain with the energy it wants? An article in Life Extension looks into it:

The human brain has a prodigious demand for energy — 20 to 30% of the body’s energy budget. In the course of normal aging, in people with neurodegenerative diseases or mental disorders, or in periods of physiological stress, the supply of sugars to the brain may be reduced. This leads to a reduction in the brain’s energy reserves, which in turn can lead to cognitive decline and loss of memory.

But new research on mice shows that the brain’s energy reserves can be increased with a daily dose of pyruvate, a small energy-rich molecule that sits at the hub of most of the energy pathways inside the cell. These results need to be replicated in human subjects, but could ultimately lead to clinical applications.

It may take some time before we see trials in humans, but as with most studies mice offer a reasonable starting point, and these results are promising. Check out the full post for more details.

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