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10/07/26 - General information

Eating habits also affect brain health

Blood levels of palmitoleic acid may be linked to the brain's greater or lesser ability to manage glucose, a factor that appears well before the first symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. This is revealed by a joint study by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute and the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC).

High blood levels of palmitoleic acid are associated with poorer brain health, according to a study by the Hospital del Mar Research Institute (HMRIB) and the Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Until now, scientific evidence had linked this compound in the blood to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, but this new study also points to its relationship with brain health.

Palmitoleic acid is produced when the body takes in excess energy, whether through a high intake of fats, proteins, sugar or alcohol. This element is the body's way of storing this surplus, incorporating it into body fat. It is generated in the body and does not come directly from any food. The researchers analysed its blood levels on two occasions five years apart in almost 500 people participating in the PESA study, which includes 5,000 employees from Banco Santander's headquarters in Madrid, aged between 40 and 54. All of them had atherosclerotic disease, an indicator of cardiovascular disease risk. The participants also underwent a brain imaging test, FDG-PET, which makes it possible to visualise glucose metabolism in the brain.

Aleix Sala Vila

The results indicate that "people who maintained high blood levels of palmitoleic acid over time showed a much greater loss of the brain's ability to manage glucose compared with those who consistently showed low levels of this element," explains Dr Aleix Sala Vila, researcher in the Cardiovascular Risk and Nutrition Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute. This reduction was as high as 65%. The patterns indicating the difficulty of certain areas of the brain in metabolising glucose appear well before the onset of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

An indicator of diet quality

By analysing the dietary data provided by the volunteers, it was possible to confirm that those with higher levels of palmitoleic acid were the ones who followed a diet associated with social and work-related activities; that is, people who frequently ate out and had a high alcohol intake. By contrast, those who followed the principles of the Mediterranean diet or a similar diet maintained more moderate levels. The element most strongly associated with the increase in palmitoleic acid was alcohol.

For this reason, Dr Sala Vila points out that "we can say that what you do with your lifestyle has an impact on your brain health". He adds that "we need to take care of our diet and avoid certain dietary patterns. Preventing obesity is not only an aesthetic issue or a matter of heart arteries; it can also help the brain".

The researchers indicate that this line of research must continue in order to establish whether reducing blood levels of palmitoleic acid by acting on diet and limiting alcohol consumption could be an effective and affordable way to protect the heart and brain as we age. The study received funding from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) and involved researchers from the CIBER areas of Cardiovascular Diseases (CIBERCV) and Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN).

Reference article

Aleix Sala-Vila, Catarina Tristão-Pereira, Iolanda Lázaro, Mehrnaz Shekari, Alberto Fernández-Pena, Jennifer Monereo-Sánchez, Ines Garcia-Lunar, Cristina Perez-Herreras, Maria Angeles Moro, Ana Garcia-Alvarez, Javier Sanchez-Gonzalez, Juan Domingo Gispert, Borja Ibanez, Valentin Fuster, Marta Cortes-Canteli, Circulating palmitoleic acid is associated with cerebral glucose metabolism in healthy middle-aged individuals: results from the PESA prospective cohort study, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2026, 101392, ISSN 0002-9165, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajcnut.2026.101392.

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