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<\/a>Study: Egg Intake and the Incidence of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease in the Adventist Health Study-2 Cohort Linked with Medicare Data.<\/a> Image credit: tyasindayanti\/Shutterstock.com<\/p>\nA recent Journal of\u00a0<\/a>Nutrition<\/a> study investigated the relationship between egg consumption and the incidence of Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n Alzheimer\u2019s Disease: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Dietary Considerations<\/p>\n Alzheimer\u2019s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder marked by amyloid-\u03b2 plaque accumulation, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal loss, resulting in cognitive decline and death. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States, with projected national management costs exceeding $600 billion annually by 2050.<\/p>\n Alzheimer\u2019s disease etiology involves genetic, vascular, and environmental factors, notably diet. Due to the lack of curative treatments and limited pharmacological efficacy<\/a>, prevention targeting modifiable risk factors is critical. Previous research indicated higher dementia mortality among vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians, despite reduced all-cause and other cause-specific mortalities with vegetarian diets.<\/p>\n Recent studies indicate egg consumption may be associated with Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk, with moderate intake linked to a 10 % reduction in neurodegenerative mortality. However, most studies are limited by design flaws, inconsistent dietary assessment, lack of biomarker<\/a> validation, and inadequate adjustment for confounders, underscoring the need for rigorous investigation.<\/p>\n Investigating the impact of egg consumption on Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk<\/p>\n The current study exploited the Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) cohort to examine the relationship between egg consumption and Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk, drawing on extensive dietary and health data from over 96,000 participants. AHS-2 data were merged with Medicare claims and deidentified. For this analysis, only US participants aged 65 and older were included, with eligibility based on Medicare records.<\/p>\n A total of 39,498 participants met the eligibility criteria. Dietary intake was measured at baseline with a validated food frequency questionnaire covering over 200 items. Both frequency and quantity of egg intake were recorded, including visible and hidden sources. Egg intake categories ranged from never to five or more times per week, and intake was energy-adjusted.<\/p>\n Alzheimer\u2019s disease incidence was determined from Medicare records, using standard diagnostic codes.\u00a0Only new cases after enrollment were counted. Cox proportional hazards models with attained age as the time scale were used to estimate the link between egg intake and Alzheimer\u2019s risk.<\/p>\n To provide context for individual food intake, two substitution analyses were conducted to examine the replacement of eggs with nuts\/seeds and legumes, which are nutrient-dense, commonly consumed plant-based protein sources in the cohort. These analyses examined how substituting eggs with alternative protein-rich foods might affect the risk of Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n Moderate Egg Consumption Is Associated With Reduced Alzheimer\u2019s Disease Risk<\/p>\n Significant baseline differences were observed across egg intake categories. The cohort had a mean age of 64 years and was 64 % female. Over 15.3 years of follow-up, 2,858 participants developed Alzheimer\u2019s disease, with affected individuals more likely to have comorbidities and dietary patterns characterized by lower intake of eggs, meat, and fish and higher intake of fruits, grains, and nuts\/seeds.<\/p>\n Multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards models indicated that a higher frequency of egg consumption was independently associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer\u2019s disease. After controlling for demographic factors, lifestyle variables, major food groups, and comorbidities, the hazard ratios (HRs) for Alzheimer\u2019s disease, relative to never or rare egg intake, ranged from 0.83 for moderate intake (1\u20133 times per month or once per week) to 0.73 for frequent intake (5 or more times per week).<\/p>\n Any level of egg intake corresponded to a 17 %\u201327 % lower relative hazard of Alzheimer\u2019s disease compared to no egg intake. This inverse relationship persisted after progressive adjustment for potential confounders.<\/p>\n Analysis of those consuming one or more eggs per day showed an HR of 0.74 compared to rare or no intake, but the small sample size limited statistical power. The study also noted that the highest intake category reflected frequency of consumption rather than precise daily egg counts. No significant interaction between sex or race\/ethnicity and outcome was detected. The use of attained age as the time variable accounted for age-related risk.<\/p>\n Sensitivity analysis excluding vegans produced results consistent with the primary analysis, demonstrating a similar reduction in Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk at higher egg intake frequencies.<\/p>\n Restricted cubic spline analysis showed a nonlinear inverse relationship between egg intake and Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk; non-consumers had a significantly higher risk\u00a0than participants consuming about one egg per week, with an HR of 1.22 relative to those consuming about one egg per week. Additional egg intake further reduced risk, though not significantly. Analyses comparing eggs with other protein-rich foods, such as legumes and nuts\/seeds, produced broadly similar associations with Alzheimer\u2019s disease risk.<\/p>\n Findings support possible brain-health role for eggs<\/p>\n The current study suggests that moderate egg consumption may be linked to a reduced risk of Alzheimer\u2019s disease in older adults, adding to evidence that diet may play a role in brain health and supporting further investigation into the potential role of egg-derived nutrients in cognitive health.<\/p>\n The authors proposed several possible mechanisms that could explain this association, including nutrients found in eggs such as choline, DHA, lutein, zeaxanthin, phospholipids, and vitamin B12, although these mechanisms were not directly tested in the study.<\/p>\n Despite these key observations, this study has several limitations, including residual confounding that cannot be fully excluded due to the observational design and dietary intake measured only at baseline, which may not capture changes over time. Furthermore, reliance on Medicare data may lead to missing milder or undiagnosed Alzheimer\u2019s cases. The authors also noted the possibility of reverse causation, in which preclinical Alzheimer\u2019s disease could influence dietary habits before diagnosis, although they argued that dietary patterns in this cohort were generally stable over time. In addition, because death can occur before Alzheimer\u2019s diagnosis in older adults, the reported hazard ratios should not be interpreted as direct measures of absolute disease risk.<\/p>\n Importantly, the study population consisted of a relatively health-conscious Seventh-day Adventist cohort with low rates of smoking and alcohol use and generally lower egg consumption than the broader US population, which may limit the generalizability of the findings.<\/p>\n Further research should explore diverse populations, long-term dietary patterns, and the effects of specific egg-derived nutrients. In addition, the underlying mechanisms of eggs’ neuroprotective effects must be explained.<\/p>\n The analysis was supported by an investigator-initiated grant from the American Egg Board, although the authors stated that the funder had no role in study design, data analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or publication decisions.<\/p>\n Download your PDF copy by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n Journal reference:<\/p>\n Oh, J., Oda, K., Chiriac, G., Fraser, G. E., Sirirat, R., & Sabat\u00e9, J. (2026). Egg Intake and the Incidence of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease in the Adventist Health Study-2 Cohort Linked with Medicare Data. The Journal of Nutrition. 101541. DOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.tjnut.2026.101541. https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0022316626001902<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers tracked nearly 40,000 older adults for 15 years and found that people who consumed eggs moderately developed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,63,1362,9757,1298,4080,1295,4081,3968,137,8192,10484,63209,14752,532,1543,337,40847,21821],"class_list":["post-657709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brain","tag-dementia","tag-diet","tag-efficacy","tag-food","tag-frequency","tag-genetic","tag-health","tag-medicare","tag-mortality","tag-neurodegenerative-disorder","tag-nutrients","tag-nutrition","tag-protein","tag-research","tag-vascular","tag-vegetarian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}