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posted by Fnord666 on Monday July 29 2019, @04:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the demented-people-like-spicy-food dept.

Spicy Diet Could be Linked to Dementia:

A 15-year study of 4582 Chinese adults aged over 55 found evidence of faster cognitive decline in those who consistently ate more than 50 grams of chili a day. Memory decline was even more significant if the chili lovers were slim.

The study, led by Dr Zumin Shi from Qatar University, showed that those who consumed in excess of 50 grams of chili a day had almost double the risk of memory decline and poor cognition.

"Chili consumption was found to be beneficial for body weight and blood pressure in our previous studies. However, in this study, we found adverse effects on cognition among older adults," Dr Zumin says.

[...] Those who ate a lot of chili had a lower income and body mass index (BMI) and were more physically active compared to non-consumers. Researchers say people of normal body weight may be more sensitive to chili intake than overweight people, hence the impact on memory and weight. Education levels may also play a role in cognitive decline and this link requires further research.

Journal Reference:
Zumin Shi, Tahra El-Obeid, Malcolm Riley, Ming Li, Amanda Page, Jianghong Liu. High Chili Intake and Cognitive Function among 4582 Adults: An Open Cohort Study over 15 Years. Nutrients, 2019; 11 (5): 1183 DOI: 10.3390/nu11051183


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday July 29 2019, @05:20PM (2 children)

    Why oh why must supposedly intelligent and educated people make it necessary to pull this one out of the junk drawer so often? Correlation is not causation.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Hartree on Monday July 29 2019, @05:55PM (1 child)

    by Hartree (195) on Monday July 29 2019, @05:55PM (#872752)

    Worse, there's an obvious confounding effect. People who get older and start to lose their sense of smell often start liking spicier foods. Olfactory disfunction is a common first symptom of several kinds of dementia.

    This happened to my dad. As he got older he started liking chili so hot I didn't like it. This was a reverse of earlier years where he didn't like my chili as it was too hot. In his late 60s he started developing a non-Alzheimers frontal lobe dementia. (Bad news for me and my brothers. Dad and all of his siblings developed the same mental decline.)

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday July 30 2019, @01:57PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 30 2019, @01:57PM (#873089) Journal

      As I get older I am interested in spicy, but LESS spicy than when I was younger. I've come to realize the liking of spicy is not to maximize how hot it is, but that this stuff actually has a taste, that I like.

      Because 'less' is better than 'more'?

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      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.