Tier 2 — strong

Non-Linear Association of Dietary Polyamines with the Risk of Incident Dementia: Results from Population-Based Cohort of the UK Biobank

Mingxia Qian, Na Zhang, Rui Zhang, Min Liu, Yani Wu, Ying Lu, Furong Li, Liqiang Zheng

Nutrients 2024 16(16):2774

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 39203912
PubMed Central: PMC11357304
DOI: 10.3390/nu16162774
Funding: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82073645) and the Key Research and Development Project for the Introduction of High-level Talent in Lvliang City (No. 2022RC27).
Competing interests: Authors declared no relevant financial relationships or competing activities.

Study snapshot

Design	Population-based prospective cohort
Model	UK Biobank participants aged 60 years and older without dementia at baseline
Sample	77,092; 1,087 incident all-cause dementia cases
Intervention	No intervention; estimated dietary spermidine, spermine and putrescine intake
Duration	Median 12 years
Endpoints	All-cause dementia; Alzheimer disease; Vascular dementia

What the study showed, in plain terms

In UK Biobank, selected intermediate-to-higher dietary spermidine levels were associated with lower incident dementia risk, but the relationship was U-shaped rather than simply 'more is better'.

Key findings

The fourth spermidine quintile versus the lowest was associated with HR 0.68 for all-cause dementia, 0.62 for Alzheimer disease and 0.56 for vascular dementia. Risk reduction was not significant across every quintile.

What this study can and cannot tell us

Observational dietary exposure, potential healthy-diet confounding, estimated rather than measured spermidine intake and non-linear associations. Results do not establish a supplement dose or treatment effect.

Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

Khaled Mahmoud