Are Soy beans increases the risk of Dementia?

Recently, I heard from a radio station that Soy consumption like tofu increases the risk of Dementia which may lead to Alzheimer's disease, based on research conducted. Upon hearing this claim I was immediately alarmed, because I was drinking soy milk for some time now in replace of cows milk. In fact, since last year when our family decided to slowly shift to vegetarian diet, instead of pork and beef in cooking food we use veggie meat (made out of soy bean) as we call it. Eh! I have emptied a lot of Silk, my soy milk brand, I chose Silk soy milk for all the brands I've tried because I love the taste of Silk soy milk. Aside from that, it's organic and non-GMO (genetically modified organism) soybeans.


So, I browsed through the internet to confirm the preponderance of evidence of this news - Soy consumption related to risk of Dementia. And I came across to this article " Soy foods, vegan diets and cognitive function " from examiner.com.

From the article " Soy foods, vegan diets and cognitive function " it says that it was an epidemiologic study back in 2000 involving Japanese men living in Hawaii came up with an unexpected finding: those men who ate the most tofu in middle age were more likely to have experienced signs of mental decline in old age. Yet, another study also that looked at soyfood intake among people in Hong Kong and in contrast to the Hawaiian study, there was no relationship between cognition and soy intake.

So to speak, it’s possible that, in the Hawaiian study, tofu was an innocent bystander—occurring along with other factors that raised dementia risk. And there is reason to believe this may be the case. Intervention studies—which directly measure effects when soyfoods or isoflavones are fed to people –suggest that soy may actually be beneficial for cognitive function. In one study, a diet high in soy improved both long and short-term memory.

As to conclude therefore, those people who ate meat were more likely to develop dementia. Vegetarians, and especially vegans, may have additional protection against cognitive decline since they tend to have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, and less risk of stroke. Antioxidants may also protect health of the brain.

All studies and research prove that the best ways to fight against decline of cognitive function and loss of memory are to keep oneself being active—both mentally and physically—and to eat a balanced diet.