Author response: Trends in dementia prevalence, incidence, and survival rate in a Japanese community

We thank Dr. Grant for the comment on our article.1 According to the data on dietary supply from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the consumption of meat (from 7.6 to 33.7 kg/capita/y), animal fat (from 5 to 35 kg/capita/y), and energy from animal products (from 249 to 580 kcal/capita/d) increased from 1961 to 1985 in Japan.2 As Dr. Grant pointed out, the increasing consumption of animal products was highly correlated with data on the prevalence of Alzheimer disease (AD) in Japan with a lag of 25 years (correlation coefficient = 0.92).3 In addition, a multicountry ecologic study revealed that the dietary intake of animal products other than milk was also strongly associated with AD prevalence 5–15 years later.4 These findings suggest that increasing consumption of animal products due to the westernization of dietary habits may be partly responsible for the rapid increase in AD prevalence from 1985 to 2012 in Japan.1
Source: Neurology - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: WRITECLICK & amp;reg; EDITOR ' S CHOICE Source Type: research