A new study has found that older individuals who consume a plant-based diet take 58% fewer medications than meat-eaters, according to Green Queen, a news outlet.
The study also found that a vegan diet is associated with better health outcomes.
Researchers from the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University, California, compared the dietary patterns and the number of pills seniors take regularly and found that a vegan diet is linked to lower medication use.
The researchers, who published their findings in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, noted there was a 58% reduction in the number of pills taken by seniors who followed a vegan diet.
The study mainly focused on polypharmacy – the use of multiple medications in a patient, which is one of the prevalent issues among older adults.
The authors wanted to investigate how dietary patterns would affect polypharmacy among seniors. They wrote, “We hypothesized that a plant-based diet and healthy lifestyle choices decreases morbidities and number of medications taken.”
The team examined the diets of 328 participants aged 60 or above through a series of questionnaires. They eventually found consistent results linking vegan diets with lower medication use.
Polypharmacy is often associated with increased body mass index (BMI) and the presence of disease. And the most significant factor of polypharmacy was a high BMI.
The researchers also found that older individuals who did not eat meat or dairy products showed better overall health.
The authors wrote, “Increased fiber intake and lower intakes of saturated fat associated with vegan diets improve blood sugar, blood pressure, weight, cholesterol, and other health outcomes linked to better health.”
“Our results show that eating healthy, especially a vegan diet, maybe protective in leading to a reduced number of pills taken, either by preventing the development of risk factors and/or cardiovascular disease or by helping on the controlling of such conditions,” they added.
There is growing evidence of a wide range of health benefits associated with plant-based diets.
Recent research has shown that plant-based food intake is linked to better urological health and reduced risk of prostate cancer and impotence in men. In addition, vegan diets have been found to reduce the risk of heart disease and boost the presence of gut microbes.
