Scientists claim people with 'dementia gene' can stave off illness by eating more of one thing

Researchers examining how diet can impact your likelihood of developing dementia have found that eating more of one unlikely foodstuff can drastically improve your odds of never developing the dreadful disease.

The one in four people who carry the APOE4 'Alzheimer's gene', which indicates that your are more likely to develop the neurodegenerative disease as you get older. Roughly 90 percent of Alzheimer's patients carry this gene.

But in a first, Stockholm University scientists were able to identify that people who eat more of one kind of food were half as likely to develop the health condition, which is the most common form of dementia.

They followed more than 2000 mentally healthy adults in Sweden who were over the age of 60, following their health and diet for 15 years to uncover the dietary link. Their findings, published in the journal JAMA Network, were not good reading for vegans.

Modifying your diet can have a major impact on your dementia risk (Getty Stock Image)

The 2000 Swedes had to fill out detailed questionnaires that tracked 98 groups of food items regularly consumed by each participant, but the most important data point for the researchers was each person's meat intake.

They found that people with this APOE4 'Alzheimer's gene' experienced a slower cognitive decline overall and were at a much lower risk of developing dementia if they had a high meat intake.

Astonishingly, people over 60 who consumed more meat than average reduced their risk by as much as 45 percent.

But not all meat has a positive health impact for older people with a genetic predisposition for developing dementia, with the Stockholm University team also exploring if there was a difference between processed and unprocessed meats.

Adding some more meat into your diet as you get older can cut your dementia risk in half (Getty Stock Image)

Processed meats include a number of widely eaten foodstuffs that have salted, cured, smoked or fermented as part of the cooking process, such as ham.

Their findings indicate that consuming processed meats like salami or bacon are likely to increase your chances of developing the dreaded neurodegenerative disease, regardless of whether or not you have dementia's APOE risk markers.

Unlike with other studies into the healthier choices of meat, their study found no difference between unprocessed lean proteins like chicken and unprocessed red meats like beef, which have traditionally been viewed as contributing to a number of health conditions.

"Viewed alongside reinterpreted evidence from the UK Biobank focusing on unprocessed meat, these findings point to a consistent gene-diet interaction with important implications for public health," study author Dr Jakob Norgren said.

He added: "Results reinforce the urgency of investing in precisions nutrition research with a focus on APOE, which could ultimately inform future policy development."