Eating eggs may help slow the progress of certain brain diseases including dementia and Alzheimers, scientists have shown.
A Finnish study, published in the December 2016 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, has concluded that moderate egg intake may have a beneficial association with certain areas of cognitive performance.
The study investigated the associations of cholesterol and egg intakes with incident dementia, Alzheimer disease and cognitive performance in middle-aged and older men from Eastern Finland.
A total of 2497 dementia-free men, aged 42–60 signed up to the research study in the mid to late 1980s. Baseline examinations of the prospective, population-based Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study, and were included in the study and information on the apolipoprotein E (Apo-E) phenotype was available for 1259 men, a major risk factor for dementia. Cognitive performance tests and dietary intakes were assessed as well as dementia and Alzheimer disease diagnoses.
The follow up lasted more than two decades and during this period 337 men were diagnosed with dementia and 266 men were diagnosed with Alzheimer disease. Neither cholesterol nor egg intake was associated with a higher risk of incident dementia or Alzheimer disease. The associations of cholesterol or egg intake were not influenced by men with the Apo-E4 phenotype. Furthermore, in this study egg intake was associated with better performance on neuropsychological tests of the frontal lobe and executive functioning, the Trail Making Test, and the Verbal Fluency Test.