Your gut bacteria may reveal how quickly your brain is ageing; it effects memory, focus and mood

A person's "brain age" may be different from their chronological age. For years, scientists have used brain scans to estimate this age and found that when the brain appears older than expected, it is associated with a pattern of poorer memory, weaker thinking skills and changes in mood. Most of these studies focused on older adults who already had neurological conditions. But does the brain start to age faster in a generally healthy adult?According to a new study published in the journal eBioMedicine, bacteria present in the gut and the chemical compounds produced by them may be connected to brain ageing. UCLA Health researchers examined brain scans from nearly 1,500 adults divided across three separate groups.They used a scanning approach that measures how different areas of the brain communicate with one another when a person is at rest. Researchers then created a computer model that estimated each person's age based on those communication patterns. They compared the estimated brain age with each participant's actual age. The difference between the two became what the researchers called the Brain Ageing Index (BAI).Older-looking brains linked to memory and mood shiftsAcross all t...