Dietary nitrate and diet quality: An examination of changing dietary intakes within a representative sample of Australian women

Dietary nitrate is increasingly linked to a variety of beneficial health outcomes. Our purpose was to estimate dietary nitrate consumption and identify key dietary changes which have occurred over time within a representative sample of Australian women. Women from the 1946–1951 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health with complete food frequency questionnaire data for both 2001 and 2013 were included for analysis. Dietary nitrate intakes were calculated using key published nitrate databases. Diet quality scores including the Australian Recommended Food Score, the Mediterranean Diet Score and the Nutrient Rich Foods Index were calculated along with food group serves as per the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Wilcoxon matched pairs tests were used to test for change in dietary intakes and Spearman’s correlations were used to examine associations. In our sample of 8161 Australian women, dietary nitrate intakes were on average 65–70 mg/day, and we detected a significant increase in dietary nitrate consumption over time (+6.57 mg/day). Vegetables were the primary source of dietary nitrate (81–83%), in particular lettuce (26%), spinach (14–20%), beetroot (10–11%), and celery (7–8%) contributed primarily to vegetable nitrate intakes. Further, increased dietary nitrate intakes were associated with improved diet quality scores (r = 0.3, p \u3c 0.0001). Although there is emerging evidence indicating that higher habitual dietary nitrate intakes are associated with reduced morbidity and mortality, future work in this area should consider how dietary nitrate within the context of overall diet quality can facilitate health to ensure consistent public health messages are conveyed

Vegetable Nitrate Intakes Are Associated with Reduced Self-Reported Cardiovascular-Related Complications within a Representative Sample of Middle-Aged Australian Women, Prospectively Followed up for 15 Years

Nitric oxide (NO) facilitates anti-atherosclerotic effects. Vegetables are a major source of dietary nitrate. Experimental data indicates that dietary nitrate can significantly reduce major risk factors for atherosclerosis and subsequent cardiovascular disease (CVD), as nitrate can be metabolized to produce NO via the nitrate-nitrite-NO pathway. The purpose of this study was to prospectively investigate the association between habitual dietary nitrate intakes and the incidence of self-reported CVD-related complications within a representative sample of middle-aged Australian women (1946–1951 cohort of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health). Women free from disease at baseline who had completed the food frequency questionnaire data were included. Generalized estimating equations were used to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) across quartiles for nitrate intakes. Of the 5324 women included for analysis, there were 1951 new cases of CVD-related complications over 15-years of follow-up. Women reporting higher total dietary nitrate intakes (Q4 > 78.2 mg/day) and vegetable nitrate intakes (Q4 > 64.4 mg/day) were 25% and 27% reduced risk of developing CVD-related complications respectively, compared with women reporting low total (Q1 < 45.5 mg/day) and vegetable nitrate intakes (Q1 < 34.8 mg/day). Our findings were consistent with other observational data indicating that dietary nitrate may explain some of the cardiovascular benefits of vegetable consumption

Genome-wide linkage and association analysis of cardiometabolic phenotypes in Hispanic Americans

Linkage studies of complex genetic diseases have been largely replaced by Genome-Wide Association studies (GWAS), due in part to limited success in complex trait discovery. However, recent interest in rare and low-frequency variants motivates reexamination of family-based methods. In this study we investigated the performance of two-point linkage analysis for over 1.6 million SNPs combined with single variant association analysis to identify high impact variants which are both strongly linked and associated with cardiometabolic traits in up to 1 414 Hispanics from the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Family Study (IRASFS). Evaluation of all 50 phenotypes yielded 83 557 000 LOD scores with 9 214 LOD scores ≥ 3.0, 845 ≥ 4.0, and 89 ≥ 5.0, with a maximal LOD score of 6.49 (rs12956744 in the LAMA1 gene for TNFα receptor 2). Twenty-seven variants were associated with p < 0.005 as well as having a LOD score > 4, including variants in the NFIB gene under a linkage peak with TNFα receptor 2 levels on chromosome 9. Linkage regions of interest included a broad peak (31Mb) on chromosome 1q with acute insulin response (max LOD = 5.37). This region was previously documented with type 2 diabetes in family-based studies, providing support for the validity of these results. Overall, we have demonstrated the utility of two-point linkage and association in comprehensive genome-wide array-based SNP genotypes

Erratum to: Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits

In the version of this article originally published, the name of author Martin H. de Borst was coded incorrectly in the XML. The error has now been corrected in the HTML version of the paper

Genetic analysis of over one million people identifies 535 novel loci for blood pressure

High blood pressure is the foremost heritable global risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We report the largest genetic association study of blood pressure traits to date (systolic, diastolic, pulse pressure) in over one million people of European ancestry. We identify 535 novel blood pressure loci that not only offer new biological insights into blood pressure regulation but also reveal shared loci influencing lifestyle exposures. Our findings offer the potential for a precision medicine strategy for future cardiovascular disease prevention

Genetic analysis of over 1 million people identifies 535 new loci associated with blood pressure traits

High blood pressure is a highly heritable and modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease. We report the largest genetic association study of blood pressure traits (systolic, diastolic and pulse pressure) to date in over 1 million people of European ancestry. We identify 535 novel blood pressure loci that not only offer new biological insights into blood pressure regulation but also highlight shared genetic architecture between blood pressure and lifestyle exposures. Our findings identify new biological pathways for blood pressure regulation with potential for improved cardiovascular disease prevention in the future