First Mad Cow, Now Alzheimer's?

In his book Dying for a Hamburger, Dr. Murray Waldman makes the case that the connection between meat consumption and Alzheimer’s disease may result from certain proteins called prions, which contribute to the onset of the disease. Similar to the infectious agent that causes mad cow disease and the human version, Creutzfeldt-Jakob’s disease, these prions are misshapen versions of proteins that are normally found in the nervous systems of animals. When prions come into contact with normal, functioning proteins, they cause these proteins to become misshapen, too. As the chain reaction continues, more and more proteins become misshapen and begin to impair normal neurological functions.

After researching the spread of Alzheimer’s disease over the last century, Waldman concluded that Alzheimer’s disease behaves like an infectious disease, not something congenital. He has linked the spread of the disease to industrialized nations that have started relying heavily on factory-farmed chicken, pork, and other meats as their main source of protein. He argues convincingly that just like the recent outbreaks of mad cow disease, Alzheimer’s disease is very likely the result of the modern factory farm and our increased meat consumption in the last century.

Waldman demonstrates that Alzheimer’s disease first showed up in medical records at about the same time that world meat consumption began to rise. There is a direct correlation between the rates of meat consumption and the rates of Alzheimer’s disease in various cultures across the world. In Africa and China and other Asian countries, where meat consumption is relatively low, the rates of Alzheimer’s disease are much lower than in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and other developed countries, where meat consumption is high.

Although Dr. Waldman’s theory is relatively new, and no laboratory studies have conclusively identified Alzheimer’s as a prion disease, his research still provides unquestionable links between the consumption of meat and the high prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease. The direct causes of Alzheimer’s may be unclear, but the overwhelming scientific evidence proves that meat- and dairy-based diets contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, while plant-based vegetarian diets offer some of the best protection from it.

Read an in-depth review of Dying for a Hamburger.

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