Exploring Individual Factors Affecting Endothelial Function Response Variability in Aging: Implications for Precision Nutrition

TL;DR

This paper reviews how diet can improve blood vessel function in older adults, but responses vary, and suggests personalized nutrition approaches to better prevent heart disease.

Contribution

The paper emphasizes the need to move beyond average effects and explore individual variability in endothelial function responses to dietary interventions.

Findings

Dietary interventions like plant-based diets can improve endothelial function in older adults.

Individual variability in FMD responses to diets is a major barrier to effective population-level guidance.

Precision nutrition approaches are needed to address variability and improve clinical outcomes in aging populations.

Abstract

Aging is a major non-modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), in part due to its detrimental effects on vascular endothelial function. Dietary interventions, including those rich in plant-based components or following dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean Diet, have been shown to improve endothelial function in older adults, assessed via brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD). However, it is well recognized that FMD responses to dietary interventions often show considerable variability among individuals. This variability presents a major challenge to translating findings into effective, population-level guidance highlighting the need for more tailored approaches for CVD risk prevention. Thus, to advance these precision nutrition approaches, research must move beyond the overall group mean effects and begin to investigate the factors driving this variability. This narrative review summarizes current evidence on nutritional interventions that improve endothelial function with aging, highlights potential contributors to individual response variability, and outlines future research directions to reduce this variability to enhance clinical relevance and advance precision nutrition for the aging population.

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