Page 14 - What Doctors Don't Tell You - AU-NZ (February-March 2020)

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More than

3 million suffer

a ‘silent stroke’

after surgery Men who
regularly ate

Around 7 percent of older people will suffer a
‘silent stroke’ after surgery, and this doubles their meat and eggs
risk of cognitive decline—possibly leading to were 28%
dementia or Alzheimer’s—within a year.
Although it’s known that 0.5 percent of people less likely to
over 65 suffer a stroke that is immediately
recognized after surgery, many more will have a suffer from
‘silent,’ or covert, stroke that is never diagnosed.
Researchers at McMaster University estimate it dementia
affects around 7 percent—or one in 14—of older
people who have nonemergency and noncardiac
surgery. With 50 million people over the age of
65 worldwide having elective (nonemergency)
surgery every year, around 3.5 million could be
suffering a silent stroke.
This type of stroke doubles the risk of cognitive
decline and can also cause delirium or a TIA
(transient ischemic attack) during the 12 months
after surgery.

The researchers used MRI scans to assess the
health of 1,114 patients from around the world nine
days after they had undergone elective surgery.
The procedure can damage the veins and arteries
in the brain, so increasing the risk of a stroke, the
researchers found.
Lancet, 2019; 394: 1022–9
Eggs and meat reduce

dementia risk

Eating plenty of eggs and meat could amount of eggs and meat the men ate
reduce your chances of developing and their risk of dementia; in other words,
dementia. The two foods are rich in the more they ate, the lower their risk.
phosphatidylcholines, compounds that The findings are noteworthy, as
help maintain brain health, and people dementia has become so prevalent,
who regularly eat them are 28 percent affecting more than 50 million people
less likely to suffer from dementia, around the world, even as meat and eggs
researchers from the University of East have been branded unhealthy.
Finland estimate. Choline is an essential nutrient
They tracked the diets and health of that’s needed to make acetylcholine,
2,500 men, who were between 42 and a neurotransmitter. The latest findings
60 years old at the start of the study, for 22 echo those of earlier studies that
years, and during that time, 337 of them have found choline plays a key role in
developed dementia. The researchers preventing cognitive decline.
foundaninversecorrelationbetweenthe Am J Clin Nutr, 2019; pii: nqz148

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