Higher habitual dietary flavonoid intake associates with lower central blood pressure and arterial stiffness in healthy older adults

Benjamin H Parmenter; Kevin D Croft; Lachlan Cribb; Matthew B Cooke; Catherine P Bondonno; Ana Lea; Grace M McPhee; Mrudhula Komanduri; Karen Nolidin; Karen Savage; Matthew P Pase; Jonathan M Hodgson; Con Stough; Nicola P Bondonno

doi:10.1017/S000711452100324X

Higher habitual dietary flavonoid intake associates with lower central blood pressure and arterial stiffness in healthy older adults

Br J Nutr. 2021 Aug 23:1-11. doi: 10.1017/S000711452100324X. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Benjamin H Parmenter¹, Kevin D Croft¹, Lachlan Cribb², Matthew B Cooke³, Catherine P Bondonno^{4

5}, Ana Lea², Grace M McPhee², Mrudhula Komanduri², Karen Nolidin², Karen Savage², Matthew P Pase^{6

7}, Jonathan M Hodgson^{4

5}, Con Stough², Nicola P Bondonno^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Western Australia, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia.
² Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
³ School of Health Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
⁴ Institute for Nutrition Research, School of Medical and Health Sciences, Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.
⁵ Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.
⁶ Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁷ Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 34423750
DOI: 10.1017/S000711452100324X

Abstract

Flavonoids have shown anti-hypertensive and anti-atherosclerotic properties: the impact of habitual flavonoid intake on vascular function, central haemodynamics and arterial stiffness may be important. We investigated the relationship between habitual flavonoid consumption and measures of central blood pressure and arterial stiffness. We performed cross-sectional analysis of 381 non-smoking healthy older adults (mean age 66·0 (sd 4·1) years; BMI, 26·4 (sd 4·41) kg/m2; 41 % male) recruited as part of the Australian Research Council Longevity Intervention study. Flavonoid intake (i.e. flavonols, flavones, flavanones, anthocyanins, isoflavones, flavan-3-ol monomers, proanthocyanidins, theaflavins/thearubigins and total consumption) was estimated from FFQ using the US Department of Agriculture food composition databases. Measures of central haemodynamics and arterial stiffness included systolic blood pressure (cSBP), diastolic blood pressure (cDBP), mean arterial pressure (cMAP) and augmentation index (cAIx). After adjusting for demographic and lifestyle confounders, each sd/d higher intake of anthocyanins ((sd 44·3) mg/d) was associated with significantly lower cDBP (-1·56 mmHg, 95 % CI -2·65, -0·48) and cMAP (-1·62 mmHg, 95 % CI -2·82, -0·41). Similarly, each sd/d higher intake of flavanones ((sd 19·5) mg/d) was associated with ~1 % lower cAIx (-0·93 %, 95 % CI -1·77, -0·09). These associations remained signiﬁcant after additional adjustment for (1) a dietary quality score and (2) other major nutrients that may affect blood pressure or arterial stiffness (i.e. Na, K, Ca, Mg, n-3, total protein and fibre). This study suggests a possible benefit of dietary anthocyanin and flavanone intake on central haemodynamics and arterial stiffness; these findings require corroboration in further research.

Keywords: Arterial stiffness; Blood pressure; Diet and nutrition; Epidemiology; Flavonoids; Nutrition.