Vegetarian or vegan diets and blood lipids: a meta-analysis of randomized trials

AIMS

Due to growing environmental focus, plant-based diets are increasing steadily in popularity. Uncovering the effect on well-established risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death worldwide, is thus highly relevant. Therefore, a systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to estimate the effect of vegetarian and vegan diets on blood levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and apolipoprotein B.

METHODS AND RESULTS

Studies published between 1980 and October 2022 were searched for using PubMed, Embase, and references of previous reviews. Included studies were randomized controlled trials that quantified the effect of vegetarian or vegan diets vs. an omnivorous diet on blood lipids and lipoprotein levels in adults over 18 years. Estimates were calculated using a random-effects model. Thirty trials were included in the study. Compared with the omnivorous group, the plant-based diets reduced total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B levels with mean differences of -0.34 mmol/L (95% confidence interval, -0.44, -0.23; P = 1 × 10-9), -0.30 mmol/L (-0.40, -0.19; P = 4 × 10-8), and -12.92 mg/dL (-22.63, -3.20; P = 0.01), respectively. The effect sizes were similar across age, continent, duration of study, health status, intervention diet, intervention program, and study design. No significant difference was observed for triglyceride levels.

CONCLUSION

Vegetarian and vegan diets were associated with reduced concentrations of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and apolipoprotein B-effects that were consistent across various study and participant characteristics. Plant-based diets have the potential to lessen the atherosclerotic burden from atherogenic lipoproteins and thereby reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Impact of diet on ten-year absolute cardiovascular risk in a prospective cohort of 94 321 individuals: A tool for implementation of healthy diets

Background

An unhealthy diet is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease attributing to the burden of non-communicable diseases. Current dietary guidelines are not sufficiently implemented and effective strategies to encourage people to change and maintain healthy diets are lacking. We aimed to evaluate the impact of incorporating dietary assessment into ten-year absolute risk charts for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).

Methods

In the prospective Copenhagen General Population Study including 94 321 individuals, we generated sex-specific ten-year absolute risk scores for ASCVD according to adherence to dietary guidelines, using a short and valid food frequency questionnaire. To account for competing risk, we used the method of Fine-Gray.

Findings

Non-adherence to dietary guidelines was associated with an atherogenic lipid and inflammatory profile. Ten-year absolute risk of ASCVD increased with increasing age, increasing systolic blood pressure, and decreasing adherence to dietary guidelines for both sexes. The highest ten-year absolute risk of ASCVD of 38% was observed in men aged 65–69 years who smoked, had very low adherence to dietary guidelines, and a systolic blood pressure between 160 and 179 mmHg. The corresponding value for women was 26%. Risk charts replacing dietary assessment with non-HDL cholesterol yielded similar estimates.

Interpretation

Incorporation of a short dietary assessment into ten-year absolute risk charts has the potential to motivate patients to adhere to dietary guideline recommendations. Improved implementation of national dietary guidelines must be a cornerstone for future prevention of cardiovascular disease in both younger and older individuals.

Funding

The Lundbeck Foundation (R278-2018-804) and the Danish Heart Foundation.

Plasma HDL cholesterol and risk of dementia - observational and genetic studies

AIMS

The association of plasma high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol with risk of dementia is unclear. We therefore tested the hypothesis that high levels of plasma HDL cholesterol are associated with increased risk of dementia and whether a potential association is of a causal nature.

METHODS AND RESULTS

In two prospective population-based studies, the Copenhagen General Population Study and the Copenhagen City Heart Study (N = 111,984 individuals), we first tested whether high plasma HDL cholesterol is associated with increased risk of any dementia and its subtypes. These analyses in men and women separately were adjusted multifactorially for other risk factors including apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype. Second, taking advantage of two-sample Mendelian randomization, we tested whether genetically elevated HDL cholesterol was causally associated with Alzheimer's disease using publicly available consortia data on 643,836 individuals. Observationally, multifactorially adjusted Cox regression restricted cubic spline models showed that both men and women with extreme high HDL cholesterol concentrations had increased risk of any dementia and of Alzheimer's disease. Men in the 96th-99th and 100th versus the 41st-60th percentiles of HDL cholesterol had multifactorially including APOE genotype adjusted hazard ratios of 1.66 (95% confidence interval 1.30-2.11) and 2.00 (1.35-2.98) for any dementia and 1.59 (1.16-2.20) and 1.87 (1.11-3.16) for Alzheimer's disease. Corresponding estimates for women were 0.94 (0.74-1.18) and 1.45 (1.03-2.05) for any dementia and 0.94 (0.70-1.26) and 1.69 (1.13-2.53) for Alzheimer's disease. Genetically, the two-sample Mendelian randomization odds ratio for Alzheimer's disease per 1 standard deviation increase in HDL cholesterol was 0.92 (0.74-1.10) in the IGAP2019 consortium and 0.98 (0.95-1.00) in the ADSP/IGAP/PGC-ALZ/UKB consortium. Similar estimates were observed in sex stratified analyses.

CONCLUSION

High plasma HDL cholesterol was observationally associated with increased risk of any dementia and Alzheimer's disease, suggesting that HDL cholesterol can be used as an easily accessible plasma biomarker for individual risk assessment.

TRANSLATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The present study identifies very high plasma HDL cholesterol levels as an independent risk factor for any dementia and Alzheimer's disease in both men and women of the general population. Two-sample Mendelian randomization studies do not support that this association is of a causal nature, indicating HDL cholesterol as a non-causal risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. Our findings suggest that very high HDL cholesterol can be used as an easily accessible plasma biomarker to evaluate increased risk of dementia and potential identification of high-risk individuals for early targeted prevention - an area highly recommended to direct attention towards.

ABCA7 and risk of dementia and vascular disease in the Danish population

Objective

ATP‐binding‐cassette transporter A7(ABCA7) is suggested to be involved in lipid transport as well as in phagocytosis of amyloid‐β in the brain. We tested the hypothesis that a common genetic variant in ABCA7 is associated with dementia, ischemic heart disease, ischemic cerebrovascular disease, and with lipid levels in the general population, independent of the common apolipoprotein E(APOE) genotype.

Methods

For this purpose, we genotyped a common genetic variant in ABCA7, identified in genome‐wide‐association‐studies of Alzheimer's disease, in 104,258 individuals from the Danish general population, and also meta‐analyzed our results with publicly available consortia data.

Results

Multifactorially adjusted hazard ratios for Alzheimer's disease were 1.07 (95% confidence interval:0.93–1.23) and 1.72 (1.24–2.40) for GA and AA versus GG genotype. Results were similar after APOE genotype adjustment and when only APOE ɛ33 carriers were studied. Including 178,304 individuals, the meta‐analyzed odds ratio for Alzheimer's disease per one allele ABCA7 rs4147929 increase was 1.15 (1.12–1.18). ABCA7 genotype was not convincingly associated with vascular dementia, ischemic heart disease, ischemic cerebrovascular disease, or with lipid levels. Including 288,563 individuals, meta‐analyzed odds ratios for ischemic heart disease per one allele ABCA7 rs4147929 increase was 1.01 (0.99–1.03).

Interpretation

A common genetic variant in ABCA7 was associated with high risk of Alzheimer's disease independent of APOE genotype. The lack of association with vascular dementia, ischemic heart disease, ischemic cerebrovascular disease, and with lipid levels suggests that ABCA7 is not important for atherosclerosis. Thus, our findings support the suggested role of ABCA7 in Alzheimer's disease pathology and phagocytic clearance of amyloid‐β in the brain.