Processed meat can cause dementia

0

Scientists from the University of Leeds conducted an experiment with the participation of 500,000 individuals to find out how the daily consumption of meat affects the human body. In addition, they studied the effect of processed meat on health.

In the course of the study, scientists used information from the British Biobank database, which contained detailed genetic and medical information about residents of Great Britain from 40 up to 69 years old. Thus, they were able to study how eating different types of meat affects the development of dementia. About 5-8% of people aged 60 and older suffer from this disease.

It turned out that the daily inclusion of 25 g of processed meat in the diet, for example, a portion of bacon, increases the risk of cognitive and mental diseases by 44%. At the same time, unprocessed red meat (pork, beef or veal), on the contrary, can protect the body from such conditions. Thus, those consuming about 50 g of such meat per day had a 19% lower potential risk of developing the disease. 

“Anything we can do to study potential risk factors for dementia can help us reduce the rate of this debilitating condition. This analysis is the first step towards understanding whether what we eat can affect this risk,” said study leader Professor Janet Cade.