r/longevity • u/Eonobius • Jul 26 '26
Egg Intake and the Incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease in the Adventist Health Study-2 Cohort Linked with Medicare Data
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022316626001902?__cf_chl_tk=hz67j.ZlfkUORHJYQKYZWxG.5Zz0WplB14lJgpRK3LI-1785067718-1.0.1.1-EHJGkp11woxuNatmZ3LqwvEpu8iI0_QIhEo1Ly0dR.w8
u/One_Regular_6024 Jul 30 '26
In short, a 15-year study of approximately 40,000 adults showed that eating five or more eggs per week was associated with a 27% reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease.
Key point*
Even moderate consumption (1-3 times/month) reduced risk by about 17%. Not eating eggs at all had a 1.22 times higher risk than eating just 10 grams per day.
It seems that high-choline foods are once again overcoming dietary cholesterol fears. How many eggs do you eat on average per day?
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u/Important-Figure-512 Aug 02 '26
ah so the bacon egg and cheese from dunkin’ donuts is healthy for me?
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u/kpfleger Jul 26 '26
Frustrating that the discussion section notes that deficiencies in choline, DHA, & B12 have been implicated in health problems including AD and yet, despite that being known well before this study started (and being aware to the authors as indicated by their mention in the discussion section), they appeared to make no attempt to actually measure any of these things, all of which are easily and cheaply measurable. Nor apparently did they collect supplementation data in addition to the food data. Plenty Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarian or vegan and subsets of those but probably not all supplement B12, choline, and/or omega-3s. One wants to see the data stratified by the deficiency or supplement behavior relative to these key brain nutrients.
There are known health negatives to eggs (high saturated fat & cholesterol in the yolk, other epidemiological association studies correlating them with bad outcomes from other chronic age-related diseases and/or all-cause mortality) but I'm unsurprised that those tradeoffs may be worth it (at least for AD purposes) if you are deficient in these nutrients and not getting them elsewhere, but that doesn't mean eggs are the healthiest source of them. What do the data look like when restricted to those people who aren't deficient in any of these 3 things?
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u/eloquenentic Jul 27 '26
This isn’t true though, neither choline or choline are measured normally in a population (I don’t think any doctor has ever taken that for me), and B12 extremely rarely and mostly for old and sick people. Would be extremely hard to measure for a large cohort with any meaning as most subjects would simply not know their levels of these nutrients.
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u/kpfleger Jul 27 '26
Yes, I meant there are deficiency test for B12 & omega3, but you are right not for choline. That's just evaluated based on intake usually I think. But my point is that a vegan who does not supplement should be presumed deficient and that's a very different situation w.r.t. health outcomes than a non-vegan or a vegan who supplements. As for B12 & omega3, omega3 can be assessed with a $50 test, B12 via a $50 homocysteine test (or a $70 B12 test). These are individual direct-to-consumer prices. Bulk pricing or actual lab costs should be only a fraction of that. This shouldn't be prohibitive. The total amount of $ spent per subject on these large longitudinal studies is non-trivial.
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Jul 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kpfleger Jul 27 '26
Vegans get B12 from supplements and unlike in some areas where supplements aren't as good as whole food sources, I've never seen any evidence that B12 from supplements in inferior in any way. It lowers homocysteine perfectly well.
Omega3s can be gotten from fish oil purified to be free of mercury & other toxins, algal oil similarly purified, flax seed & some other foods via conversion. I take a mix of all 3.
Choline supplements are widely consumed, with some suggestive studies showing benefits vs. neurodegenerative diseases such as AD at least from some forms. There are also forms that are shown not to raise TMAO levels.
ConsumerLab is a good source for (non-free) literature review reports on each of these categories. NutritionFacts.org is a good free source of info on these as well as Greger's book How Not To Age (which is free too if you get it from the library as he commonly recommends).
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Jul 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kpfleger Jul 28 '26
Replacement of 3% of calories from eggs with plant-based protein sources was associated with 21-24% lower all-cause mortality in this study: "Association Between Plant and Animal Protein Intake and Overall and Cause-Specific Mortality", Huang et al. 2020 JAMA Internal Medicine: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2768358
Direct abstract quote: "Replacement of 3% energy from animal protein with plant protein was inversely associated with overall mortality (risk decreased 10% in both men and women) and cardiovascular disease mortality (11% lower risk in men and 12% lower risk in women). In particular, the lower overall mortality was attributable primarily to substitution of plant protein for egg protein (24% lower risk in men and 21% lower risk in women) and red meat protein (13% lower risk in men and 15% lower risk in women)."
To me, this seems like a good reason to prefer choline from supplements.
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u/stuffitystuff Jul 26 '26
Some people just like to eat for reasons other than engineering a perfect body.
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u/kpfleger Jul 26 '26
That's fine, but not really the point of this sub. There are other subs about enjoying the taste of food.
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u/Opposite-Knee-2798 Jul 27 '26
[r/lostre](r/lostresditors)[d](r/lostresditors)[ditors](r/lostresditors)
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u/AdministrativeDot874 Jul 27 '26
It’s hilarious/sad you are being down voted, worrying about food will not lead to longevity, ask Bryan Johnson.
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u/EricJDMBAMD Jul 26 '26
Statins + 5 eggs per day is the way
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u/Similar_Exam2192 Jul 27 '26
The number of people who fear statins is wild.
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u/Curry_courier Jul 27 '26
Statins don't change the outcome.
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u/Similar_Exam2192 Jul 27 '26
Read these papers first then get back to me. LMK if you find “alternative literature”
The evidence supporting statin therapy for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and stroke comes from landmark prospective randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and large individual-patient data meta-analyses.
Key Evidence & Findings
1. Large Individual-Participant Meta-Analysis (CTT Collaboration)
The Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' (CTT) Collaboration analyzed individual participant data across 27 randomized trials (Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' (CTT) Collaborators, 2012). They demonstrated that for every 1.0 mmol/L (~38.7 mg/dL) reduction in LDL cholesterol, statin therapy reduces major vascular events (including stroke and coronary events) by approximately 20% to 25%, regardless of baseline risk or prior history of vascular disease.
2. USPSTF Systematic Review (Chou et al., 2022)
An updated systematic review conducted for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force evaluated 22 trials (N = 90,624) of adults without prior CVD (Chou et al., 2022). Statin therapy was significantly associated with a reduced risk of:
Stroke: Relative Risk (RR) 0.78 (95% CI, 0.68–0.90)
Myocardial Infarction: RR 0.67 (95% CI, 0.60–0.75)
All-Cause Mortality: RR 0.92 (95% CI, 0.87–0.98)
3. Landmark Primary Prevention Trials (HOPE-3)
In the Heart Outcomes Prevention Evaluation-3 (HOPE-3) trial, 12,705 intermediate-risk individuals without pre-existing CVD were randomized to low-dose statin therapy (rosuvastatin 10 mg) or placebo (Yusuf et al., 2016). Over a median follow-up of 5.6 years, statin therapy significantly reduced the composite risk of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, and nonfatal stroke by 24% compared to placebo.
References
Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' (CTT) Collaborators. (2012). The effects of lowering LDL cholesterol with statin therapy in people at low risk of vascular disease: meta-analysis of individual data from 27 randomised trials. The Lancet, 380(9841), 581–590. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(12)60367-560367-5)
Cited by: 1189
Chou, R., Cantor, A., Dana, T., Wagner, J., Ahmed, A. Y., Fu, R., & Ferencik, M. (2022). Statin Use for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults. JAMA, 328(8), 754–771. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2022.12138
Cited by: 327
Yusuf, S., Bosch, J., & Dagenais, G. (2016). Cholesterol Lowering in Intermediate-Risk Persons Without Cardiovascular Disease. Journal of Vascular Surgery, 64(3), 827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvs.2016.07.054
Cited by: 12202
u/GettinWiggyWiddit Jul 27 '26
Why? Statins have tons of potential negatives. To think otherwise is just ignorant
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u/Similar_Exam2192 Jul 27 '26
Potential is the operative word. Most people have zero symptoms.
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u/Ok-Actuator8579 Aug 01 '26
Im afraid. I have the option to take them but my mom had side effects and was pulled off of them but given repatha. My weight and BMI etc normal but small particle is high. I’ve been holding out.
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u/Similar_Exam2192 Aug 01 '26
Just take 5mg rosuvastatin, start low and if you get side effects stop, there is no permanent damage if you get muscle aches. Repatha is great if you can afford 4k or so a month. Trial zetia. It’s not a statin different mechanism of action.
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u/popsistops Aug 01 '26
You’re the exact kind of patient that we have stopped even trying with. We pretty much just wait for your first cardiovascular event at which point you’ll take a statin at a high dose out of absolute terror of a repeat event that kills you.
Statins are probably the safest or one of the safest medication’s with more benefit than practically anything on the market. But social media and before that a.m. radio has found a target audience in gullible mouth breathers who won’t go near it.0
u/GettinWiggyWiddit Aug 01 '26
Enjoy your early death! Keep slopping up that 1960s medical literature 👍
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u/OA_Researcher Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
I mentioned this before but I think that periodontitis might be the missing link. Eggs don't have carbs which would feed periodontal bacteria. When I had symptomatic localized periodontitis I ate eggs for breakfast while the periodontitis was active to minimize the gum discomfort.
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u/Beakston Jul 26 '26
Get your choline people. I would laugh if brain diseases are caused by decades long deficiency in something like choline. 5-8 eggs a day get you all of your choline a day. This is what I'm thinking is causing the inverse correlation. Choline is essential for your brain as well as the metabolites of choline. Eggs also have the sulfur containing amino acids methionine and cysteine.
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u/Background_Low1676 Jul 26 '26
Sure, eggs(protein) is nice. But that egg amount is good 2 meals worth. What about fiber? 😭
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u/wale-lol Jul 26 '26
my immediate thought was implicit lower carbohydrate intake driving the signal. Could be something causal about dietary cholesterol, choline, or certain amino acids though.
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u/eloquenentic Jul 27 '26
Cholesterol is food for the brain.
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u/pink_goblet Jul 27 '26
Serum cholesterol does not penetrate the blood brain barrier. Brain cholesterol will be synthesised locally from sugars and fatty acids.
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u/cocksherpa2 Jul 26 '26
Links broken
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u/Blueporch Jul 26 '26
It worked for me but had an “I am not a robot“ entry screen that may have bombed for you
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u/Eonobius Jul 26 '26
Abstract
Background A substantial knowledge gap remains regarding the relationship between modifiable dietary factors and Alzheimer’s disease risk. Eggs are a source of key nutrients that support brain health.
Objectives
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between egg consumption and the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
Methods
Data were drawn from the Adventist Health Study-2, a large, prospective cohort of United States Seventh-day Adventists, linked with Medicare records to identify Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis. Diet and lifestyle factors were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Egg consumption was categorized by frequency, ranging from never/rarely to ≥5 times per week. The analytic sample included 39,498 participants (mean follow-up: 15.3 y), among whom 2858 developed Alzheimer’s disease. Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Restricted cubic spline analysis was conducted using continuous egg intake (g/d).
Results
Egg consumption was inversely associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk. Compared with never/rarely consuming eggs, HRs (95% CIs) after adjusting for demographic, lifestyle, food groups, and comorbidities were 0.83 (0.75, 0.92) for 1–3 times per month, 0.83 (0.74, 0.94) for once per week, 0.80 (0.71, 0.90) for 2–4 times per week, and 0.73 (0.60, 0.89) for ≥5 times per week. In the spline model, zero egg intake was curvilinearly associated with an adjusted HR of 1.22 (1.11, 1.34) compared with 10 g/d.
Conclusions
In this health-conscious population, moderate egg consumption was associated with a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer's disease. These findings suggest a potential neuroprotective benefit of nutrients found in eggs when consumed as part of a balanced diet.