Impact of nutrition on brain health

Nutrition plays a crucial role in brain health across all stages of life, from prenatal development to aging. Modern dietary patterns, especially in developed countries, have led to a form of malnutrition where people consume high-calorie but nutrient-poor diets, contributing to cognitive decline, neurodegeneration, and psychiatric disorders. Vulnerable populations, such as the elderly, are particularly affected, with malnutrition worsening cognitive decline and accelerating conditions like dementia.
As people age, physiological changes, such as increased neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and reduced synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis, and brain volume, already pose challenges to brain health. Malnutrition in older adults exacerbates these issues, potentially accelerating cognitive decline and increasing the risk of dementia. With the global aging population, this situation presents a growing burden on social and healthcare systems. Older adults are vulnerable to malnutrition due to factors including physiological decline, reduced access to nutritious food, and comorbidities, making nutrition a crucial element in the prevention and progression of brain-related diseases in this population.

There is a pressing need to focus on the development of nutritional strategies appropriate to support cognitive and emotional health throughout the lifespan. Simple dietary interventions aimed at neuroprotection may help to support and improve cognition throughout life and into aging but also prevent the devastating consequences of acquired neurotrauma by helping to dampen the spread of secondary injury. Targeted nutritional interventions may also be used for neurorepair following spinal cord or brain trauma through increased plasticity and/or neuroregeneration, and by modifying the scar environment from a hostile to a more favorable one for recovery, aiding the neurorehabilitation process and preventing the development of post-traumatic tumors.

This Research Topic will bring together experts from different backgrounds to focus on the impact of nutrient deficiencies, metabolic disorders, and poor diets on brain structure, function, development throughout the lifespan.
It will also highlight future directions investigating how specific nutritional interventions might protect the central nervous system, dampening neurodegenerative processes, and support recovery after neurotrauma.
The multidisciplinary scope aims to collect research output that will help identify the most critical periods in life when nutrition influences brain health, examine sex-specific dietary needs, and evaluate the potential of tailored diets and/or blends of nutrients in preventing and treating brain-related conditions, from neurobehavioral disorders to neurodegeneration and neurotrauma to full-blown dementia.

We welcome articles addressing the following:

• Nutritional deficiencies and rectifications and neurodegeneration
• The role of the gut-brain axis in cognitive health
• Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress as targets for dietary interventions
• Impact of prenatal and early-life nutrition on brain development
• Malnutrition in aging populations and cognitive decline and impact of interventions
• Nutritional strategies for post-traumatic neuroprotection and neurorepair
• Sex-specific nutritional needs for brain health
• Nutraceuticals in brain health
• Diet and mental health disorders
• Nootropics and nutritional supplements in neurorehabilitation

Keywords: neurodegeneration, brain health, malnutrition, gut-brain axis, neurorehabilitation, diet, mental health, sex-specific nutritional needs, neurorepair, neuroprotection, neuroinflammation

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.