Tier 2 — strong

The association of dietary spermidine with all-cause mortality and CVD mortality: The U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2003 to 2014

Huanyu Wu, Jianing Wang, Hongyan Jiang, Xin Liu, Xinyi Sun, Yunyan Chen, Cong Hu, Zheng Wang, Tianshu Han, Changhao Sun, Wei Wei, Wenbo Jiang

Frontiers in Public Health 2022 10:949170

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 36249217
PubMed Central: PMC9554131
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.949170
Funding: Supported by HMU Marshal Initiative Funding (HMUMIF-21011 and HMUMIF-21013).
Competing interests: Authors reported no commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Study snapshot

Design	Prospective cohort analysis of NHANES with mortality linkage
Model	U.S. adults in NHANES 2003-2014
Sample	23,894 participants; 2,365 deaths including 736 CVD deaths
Intervention	No intervention; estimated dietary spermidine intake
Duration	Mortality follow-up after NHANES enrollment
Endpoints	All-cause mortality; Cardiovascular mortality; Food-source-specific spermidine intake

What the study showed, in plain terms

In NHANES mortality follow-up, adults in the highest quartile of estimated dietary spermidine had lower adjusted all-cause and cardiovascular mortality than those in the lowest quartile.

Key findings

Highest-versus-lowest quartile hazard ratios were 0.70 for all-cause mortality and 0.68 for cardiovascular mortality. These associations do not prove a supplement effect and may partly reflect healthier spermidine-rich foods or dietary patterns.

What this study can and cannot tell us

Observational dietary-exposure study using food-intake estimates, with potential residual confounding and no measurement of supplement efficacy or circulating/tissue spermidine.

Editorial review

Reviewed by the Biohack Blueprint research team

Khaled Mahmoud