Woolf Emily K, Redman Leanne M
Reproductive Endocrinology and Women's Health Laboratory, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70808, USA.
Nutrients. 2025 Jul 10;17(14):2285. doi: 10.3390/nu17142285.
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.
衰老是非可改变的心血管疾病（CVD）主要危险因素，部分原因是其对血管内皮功能有不利影响。饮食干预，包括富含植物性成分的干预或遵循地中海饮食等饮食模式，已被证明可改善老年人的内皮功能，这是通过肱动脉血流介导的扩张（FMD）来评估的。然而，众所周知，FMD对饮食干预的反应在个体间往往表现出相当大的变异性。这种变异性对将研究结果转化为有效的、针对人群的指导意见构成了重大挑战，凸显了针对CVD风险预防需要更具针对性方法的必要性。因此，为了推进这些精准营养方法，研究必须超越总体组平均效应，开始研究驱动这种变异性的因素。这篇叙述性综述总结了关于随着年龄增长改善内皮功能的营养干预的现有证据，强调个体反应变异性的潜在因素，并概述了未来研究方向，以减少这种变异性，增强临床相关性并推进老年人群的精准营养。
