High cholesterol intake & eggs don't increase dementia risk

A large, long-running Finnish study looking at the dietary habits of 2,497 men aged 42-60 has found that a high intake of dietary cholesterol was not associated with the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease, even among carriers of the ‘Alzheimer’s gene’ APOE4.

Previous research has found that the effect of dietary cholesterol on serum cholesterol levels is more visible in carriers of APOE4. In Finland, the prevalence of the APOE4 gene variant is exceptionally high and approximately a third of the population are carriers.

The consumption of eggs was not only not associated with an increased risk of dementia or Alzheimer's, but on the contrary, was associated with better cognitive performance on some tests.

The highest level of average daily dietary cholesterol intake was 520 mg and these participants consumed an average of one egg per day.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2017-01/uoef-hci010917.php

Reference:

Ylilauri, M.P.T. et al. 2017. Association of dietary cholesterol and egg intakes with risk of incident dementia or Alzheimer's disease: The Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition; First published online January 4, 2017. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.116.146753 http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/early/2017/01/04/ajcn.116.146753.abstract?papetoc

middle-aged

cholesterol

risk factors

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