Eating one rasher of bacon a day increases your chance of getting dementia by 44%, study into dangers of processed meats suggests

The heading above is misleading. The Hazard Ratios were all very low, indication a most tenous relationship between diet and dementia. The results allow for their being no real relationship at all

Eating processed meat such as sausages, bacon and burgers could dramatically increase the risk of getting dementia, new research shows.

The findings suggest that eating just one rasher of bacon a day could increase your chances of developing the disease by a staggering 44 per cent.

However meat-lovers need not despair, as scientists conducting the study also found that eating some unprocessed meat including beef, pork and veal can protect against dementia.

In the study, people who ate 50g a day of unprocessed meat were almost 20 per cent less likely to develop the condition.

The research, by Leeds University, explored a potential link between eating meat and developing dementia using data from 500,000 people.

Professor Janet Cade, who supervised the research, said: 'Anything we can do to explore potential risk factors for dementia may help us to reduce rates of this debilitating condition.

'This analysis is a first step towards understanding whether what we eat could influence that risk.'

Researchers investigated links between eating different types of meat and dementia risk.

The team studied data from the UK Biobank database containing genetic and health information from half a million Brits aged 40 to 69 between 2006 and 2010.

This included how often people snacked on different kinds of meat, with six options from never to once or more daily.

Vegetarian and vegan diets were not looked at specially but the study did include people who avoided red meat.

Over an average of eight years, almost 2,900 dementia cases emerged.

This was seen in people who were generally older, more economically deprived, less educated, more likely to smoke, less physically active, more likely to have stroke history and family dementia history, and more likely to carry a dementia-related gene.

More men than women were diagnosed with dementia in the study.

Professor Cade said: 'Some people were three to six times more likely to develop dementia due to well established genetic factors, but the findings suggest the risks from eating processed meat were the same whether or not a person was genetically predisposed to developing the disease.

'Those who consumed higher amounts of processed meat were more likely to be male, less educated, smokers, overweight or obese, had lower intakes of vegetables and fruits, and had higher intakes of energy, protein, and fat including saturated fat.'

Meat consumption has previously been associated with dementia risk, but this is believed to be the first large-scale study of participants over time to examine a link between specific meat types and amounts, and the risk of developing the disease.

Lead researcher Huifeng Zhang, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, said: 'Worldwide, the prevalence of dementia is increasing and diet as a modifiable factor could play a role.

'Our research adds to the growing body of evidence linking processed meat consumption to increased risk of a range of non-transmissible diseases.'

There are around 50 million dementia cases globally, with around ten million new cases diagnosed every year.

Alzheimer's Disease makes up 50 per cent to 70 per cent of cases, and vascular dementia around 25 per cent.

Its development and progression are associated with both genetic and environmental factors, including diet and lifestyle.

Ms Zhang added: 'Further confirmation is needed, but the direction of effect is linked to current healthy eating guidelines suggesting lower intakes of unprocessed red meat could be beneficial for health.'

The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Monday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9387307/Eating-one-rasher-bacon-day-increases-chance-getting-dementia-44-study-suggests.html

The abstract

Meat consumption and risk of incident dementia: cohort study of 493,888 UK Biobank participants

Huifeng Zhang

ABSTRACT

Background
Worldwide, the prevalence of dementia is increasing and diet as a modifiable factor could play a role. Meat consumption has been cross-sectionally associated with dementia risk, but specific amounts and types related to risk of incident dementia remain poorly understood.

Objective
We aimed to investigate associations between meat consumption and risk of incident dementia in the UK Biobank cohort.

Methods
Meat consumption was estimated using a short dietary questionnaire at recruitment and repeated 24-h dietary assessments. Incident all-cause dementia comprising Alzheimer disease (AD) and vascular dementia (VD) was identified by electronic linkages to hospital and mortality records. HRs for each meat type in relation to each dementia outcome were estimated in Cox proportional hazard models. Interactions between meat consumption and the apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele were additionally explored.

Results
Among 493,888 participants included, 2896 incident cases of all-cause dementia, 1006 cases of AD, and 490 cases of VD were identified, with mean ± SD follow-up of 8 ± 1.1 y. Each additional 25 g/day intake of processed meat was associated with increased risks of incident all-cause dementia (HR: 1.44; 95% CI: 1.24, 1.67; P-trend < 0.001) and AD (HR: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.18, 1.96; P-trend = 0.001). In contrast, a 50-g/d increment in unprocessed red meat intake was associated with reduced risks of all-cause dementia (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.69, 0.95; P-trend = 0.011) and AD (HR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.92; P-trend = 0.009). The linear trend was not significant for unprocessed poultry and total meat. Regarding incident VD, there were no statistically significant linear trends identified, although for processed meat, higher consumption categories were associated with increased risks. The APOE ε4 allele increased dementia risk by 3 to 6 times but did not modify the associations with diet significantly.

Conclusion
These findings highlight processed-meat consumption as a potential risk factor for incident dementia, independent of the APOE ε4 allele.