Health

Common Dreams -  Replacing one serving of processed red meat per day with healthier foods was linked to a 20% drop in dementia risk, preliminary research presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Philadelphia revealed. The research, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, tracked more than 130,000 participants in a pair of related medical studies for more than 40 years. It found that people who consumed more than two weekly servings of processed red meats—which include bacon, lunch meats, sausages, and other cured, salted, smoked, or preserved meats—had a 14% increased risk of dementia compared with those who ate less than three servings per month. 

BBC Dementia occurs when a disease, such as Alzheimer's, damages nerve cells in the brain and leads to confusion and memory loss - but it is not an inevitable part of getting old.Most of the reason why we get dementia is down to things we cannot control, such as the genes we inherit from our parents and grandparents.

But 45% of our risk can be changed, according to international experts in the field, and can therefore be reduced. "It’s never too early or too late to take action," says lead author Prof Gill Livingston, from University College London. “Governments must reduce risk inequalities by making healthy lifestyles as achievable as possible for everyone.”

The researchers have drawn up a list of recommendations that countries around the world should focus on, including:

• making hearing aids accessible for those with hearing loss
• ensuring good-quality education for all
• supporting people to give up cigarettes
• encouraging exercise and sport
• reducing high blood pressure from the age of 40
• treating high cholesterol from mid-life
• treating obesity as early in life as possible
• reducing problem drinking
• making sure people are not socially isolated or lonely
• screening for eyesight problems and giving glasses to those who need them
• reducing people's exposure to air pollution