Dietary flavonoids link to lower mortality across CKM stages
Top-quartile flavonoid intake lowered odds of stage 2 CKM syndrome to an odds ratio of 0.53 versus stage 0 among 10,754 US adults.
Medicine
The study analyzed 10,754 US adults from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey across a median follow-up of 9.6 years. Researchers measured dietary flavonoid intake using two 24-hour recalls to evaluate its links to cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome stages and mortality.
Participants in the highest intake quartile had lower odds of stage 2 CKM compared to stage 0 (odds ratio 0.53). High intake was also associated with lower cancer mortality in CKM stages 1 to 2 (hazard ratio 0.60) and lower all-cause mortality in stages 3 to 4 (hazard ratio 0.80). An L-shaped dose-response curve showed an inflection at 218.8 mg/d, below which every 50 mg/d increment reduced risk by 9%. Isoflavones contributed 49.7% to the all-cause mortality reduction in advanced stages.
Why it matters
Cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic systems progressively decline and interact during aging. These findings suggest that specific dietary polyphenols might help mitigate systemic deterioration and mortality risk at distinct stages of metabolic syndrome.
Caveats
Because this study is observational, it cannot prove that flavonoids directly cause lower disease progression or mortality. Dietary intake was also evaluated using only two self-reported 24-hour recalls at baseline.