Abstract
Biological aging, or the discrepancy between biological and chronological age of a subject (Δage), has been associated with a polyphenol-rich Mediterranean diet and represents a new, robust indicator of cardiovascular disease risk. We aimed to disentangle the relationship of dietary polyphenols and total antioxidant capacity with Δage in a cohort of Italians. A cross-sectional analysis was performed on a sub-cohort of 4592 subjects (aged ≥ 35 y; 51.8% women) from the Moli-sani Study (2005–2010). Food intake was recorded by a 188-item food-frequency questionnaire. The polyphenol antioxidant content (PAC)-score was constructed to assess the total dietary content of polyphenols. Total antioxidant capacity was measured in foods by these assays: trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC), total radical-trapping antioxidant parameter (TRAP) and ferric reducing-antioxidant power (FRAP). A deep neural network, based on 36 circulating biomarkers, was used to compute biological age and the resulting Δage, which was tested as outcome in multivariable-adjusted linear regressions. Δage was inversely associated with the PAC-score (β = −0.31; 95%CI −0.39, −0.24) but not with total antioxidant capacity of the diet. A diet rich in polyphenols, by positively contributing to deceleration of the biological aging process, may exert beneficial effects on the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease and possibly of bone health.
Highlights
In the last century, the average life expectancy at birth has increased remarkably, from roughly 45 years in the early 1900s to approximately 80 years today
The analysed population consisted of 2381 women (51.8%) and 2211 men (48.2%) with a mean chronological age (CA) of 55.6 y (±11.7), biological age (BA) of 54.8 y (±8.6) and ∆age of −0.75 (±7.72)
Other assessments of biological aging might show a higher accuracy than blood age, e.g., brain age [10], but these are based on expensive instrumental assessments (i.e., Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and not applicable to large population-based cohorts. Results from this Mediterranean cohort indicate that a diet rich in polyphenols is associated with decelerated biological aging, a novel predictor of cardiovascular disease risk, possibly through mechanisms that go beyond their antioxidant activity
Summary
The average life expectancy at birth has increased remarkably, from roughly 45 years in the early 1900s to approximately 80 years today. By 2050, over 21% of the global population will be over 60 years of age and this will lead to an increase in many age-related diseases and disabilities, with tremendous costs for public health systems [1,2,3]. Aging is characterized by a time-dependent functional decline that affects most living organisms [4], and is usually indicated by chronological age (CA) [5]. Recent studies proposed that CA can no longer sufficiently reflect the health status of individuals [6], and biological age (BA), the hypothetical underlying functional age of an organism, has gained increasing attention in recent years [7]. BA and CA may often differ within an organism and for this reason it is reasonable to compute a difference between BA and CA (hereafter called ∆age), which may be positive (suggesting accelerated biological aging) or negative (indicating decelerated biological aging) [7]
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