That’s the conclusion of a team of scientists from Stockholm University in Sweden. In their new study, the researchers found that people who carry the APOE gene associated with can cut their risk of developing it by nearly half if they eat meat regularly.
The APOE gene is thought to be responsible for more than 90 percent of cases of the disease, which is the most common and severe form of dementia.
How meat consumption affects dementia risk for people with the APOE gene
For their roughly 15-year study, the team enrolled more than 2,000 cognitively healthy Swedish residents aged 60 and over. The researchers reported this in a paper published in JAMA Network.
Participants filled out detailed food questionnaires covering 98 items. The surveys focused especially on meat consumption.
The researchers found that higher meat intake was linked with slower cognitive decline and a lower risk of developing dementia in adults who carry the gene mentioned above.
Results showed that among carriers of the APOE4 allele, those who ate the most meat had a 45 percent lower risk of developing dementia than those who ate the least.
The team also tracked participants’ intake of processed meats—salted, cured, fermented, smoked, and so on.
During the study, the scientists used tests to assess participants’ cognitive functions, including , language, and processing speed.
During the study, 296 participants developed dementia, and 690 people died from other causes.
Just over a quarter of participants carried the APOE4 variant—either two copies of the E4 allele or one E3 and one E4 copy—a well-known genetic risk factor for developing dementia.
The researchers observed that higher meat consumption among these people was associated not only with improved cognitive function but also with a lower risk of developing . These results applied to any unprocessed meat, including poultry.
In participants with the genetic risk factor who ate the most meat (about the equivalent of one chicken breast per day), the odds of developing dementia were nearly half those of people who ate the least.
The results showed that a high proportion of processed meat in the diet (such as bacon and sausages) increases the risk of dementia regardless of APOE genotype. In other words, as previous studies have shown, processed meat harms brain health.
The researchers suggested that the benefit of regular meat consumption for APOE4 carriers might be partly due to higher levels of vitamin B12, which is essential for brain health.
Vitamin B12 deficiency is linked to a wide range of symptoms affecting the brain and nervous system, causing problems with memory, comprehension, and judgment.
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