Urolithin is a metabolite produced in the gut from dietary ellagic acid, a polyphenol abundant in strawberries, blackberries, cranberries, pomegranates, and walnuts. It has been repeatedly suggested to help prevent ​neurodegeneration—but before you start proactively gorging on berries and pomegranates to protect memory, understand that the metabolite, urolithin A (UA), the biochemical ​compound resulting from the transformation of ellagic acid by the gut bacteria, decreases with age due to microbial imbalances in the gut.

There’s a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?  ~Mike Nichols’ The Graduate (1967). Who knew that ‘great’ would be such an understatement?   "Since World War II, the production and use of plastics have increased exponentially and become part of everyday life. Plastics are found in food wrappings, beverage containers, toys, cars, and cosmetics. The ubiquitous presence of plastics in our lives makes them essentially unnoticed, unrecognized, and forgotten. And this is exactly why we all need to start thinking about them with more deliberate attention.

Thank you Buck Institute for Research on Aging for getting this EurekAlert information out shortly after publication:  A new study from the University of Pittsburgh, published May 14, 2019 in Molecular Cell, provides the first smoking gun evidence that oxidative stress acts directly on telomeres to hasten cellular aging.