What if I told you that something as simple as eating one egg a week was linked to a 47% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease?
And no, this isn’t some sensational headline from a magazine. It comes from a major US aging study. The details are actually more surprising than the headline.
Two long-term studies looked at eggs and brain health, and at how eggs might help protect our brain as we age. So if you’ve been avoiding eggs, maybe because you’re afraid of high cholesterol, this might get you to rethink some things.
Why So Many Older Adults Stopped Eating Eggs
For decades, many of us have been told that eggs are bad. Eggs raise your cholesterol. Because of that, egg consumption in the United States dropped by about half, and many older adults still avoid eggs today.
But that information was based on older research. More recent research is showing that eggs might actually be healthy for us, especially when it comes to brain health.
Why Eggs Matter for Brain Health
Eggs are more than just protein. They contain:
- Choline. Eggs are one of the top food sources of it. The brain needs choline to make acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter responsible for memory.
- Lutein and zeaxanthin, antioxidants that help protect our brain’s neurons.
- Omega-3s, which support brain health and nerve health.
- B vitamins, which are energy for our brain cells.
These nutrients play an important role in things like inflammation, oxidative stress and communication between brain cells. Those are all the things that get disrupted in dementia.
So scientifically, eggs kind of make sense as a brain food. But do they actually change dementia risk?
Study 1: One Egg a Week and Alzheimer’s Risk
The first study comes from the Rush Memory and Aging Project. This is a high-quality, long-term US study of older adults who agreed to extensive testing every year, and even to brain autopsies. It’s an impressive data set.
- Over 1,000 older adults
- An average age of 81.4
- Followed for an average of 6.7 years
- 280 of them went on to develop Alzheimer’s type dementia
The people who ate one egg per week had a 47% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Let me repeat that. One egg per week.
Eating two or more eggs a week showed the same protective effect.
Nearly 40% of that lower risk was explained by dietary choline. Basically, choline, which eggs are packed with, carries part of the protection.
The researchers also examined brain autopsies. Higher egg intake was linked to less Alzheimer’s pathology in the brain.
Study 2: Eggs and Cognitive Decline in Women
The second study, the Rancho Bernardo Study, is also a long-term US study. It looked at 890 older adults, followed for about four years.
In women, higher egg intake was linked to less decline in category fluency.
When someone goes through dementia testing, one of the things we test is called semantic fluency. We give them a category and ask them to come up with as many words in that category as they can in a short period of time. It’s a way of measuring how their brain is doing.
The women who ate more eggs did better on that kind of testing.
In men, there really wasn’t an improvement. But there was no harm either.
So the takeaway from this study: eggs may support cognitive functioning in women. They don’t appear to have any harmful cognitive effects in men, but the men didn’t get the benefit the women did.
What Both Studies Point To
- Eggs contain nutrients the brain needs. Eggs aren’t the only way to get those nutrients, but eggs have them.
- Moderate egg intake was linked to better brain outcomes.
- There was no evidence of cognitive harm from eating eggs.
- The benefits would be strongest when eggs replace foods that are less nutrient-rich, which makes common sense.
This certainly isn’t a cure. But it is an incredibly simple, accessible change we might be able to make for long-term brain health. And for caregivers, small wins like this matter.
Should You Start Eating Eggs for Brain Health?
If eggs aren’t part of your diet, you don’t need to add them.
Talk to your health care provider, especially if you have high cholesterol or heart disease. Remember, these studies looked specifically at eggs and brain health, not at the other health conditions eggs could affect.
Diet is just one piece of brain health. But it’s an important piece, and one we can very much control. I go through the other pieces in 14 ways to cut your dementia risk in half.
I love studies like this because they remind us that brain health isn’t always about big, life-altering decisions. Sometimes it can be as simple as changing something we eat.
This isn’t a typical topic for me, especially since I actually don’t like eggs. But maybe I’ll try to eat one every now and then.
Because with a disease that still has no cure, if there’s anything we can do right now to help protect our brain health, it might be worth knowing.
If you’re caring for a loved one with dementia right now, inside the Care Collective you have a community of Careblazers and a panel of dementia experts you can come to week after week with your questions. You can learn more here.
