Nutrition

Leafy Greens Benefit Heart Structure, Function

Consumption of leafy green vegetables, including kale, parsley, broccoli, and spinach, may benefit heart structure and function in adolescents.

The association between vitamin K consumption and cardiac structure and function in adolescents has not been fully investigated.
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For their study, researchers assessed diet and physical activity in 766 adolescents (aged 14 to 18 years) by three to seven 24-hour recalls and accelerometry.

Left ventricular (LV) structure and function were assessed with echocardiography, and compared across tertiles of vitamin K intake. The researchers also examined the prevalence of LV hypertrophy by vitamin K tertiles.

Overall, LV hypertrophy prevalence progressively decreased across tertiles of vitamin K intake (adjusted odds ratio 3.3 for those in the lowest tertile compared with the highest tertile).

They also observed a significant downward trend for LV mass index and wall thickness when comparing across vitamin K intake tertiles, with a 6.5% difference when comparing tertile 1 with tertile 3. Significant upward trends across vitamin K intake tertiles were also observed for midwall fractional shortening, with a 3.4% difference when comparing tertile 1 with tertile 3.

“In conclusion, our data suggest that greater [vitamin K] consumption may favorably influence subclinical markers of cardiac structure and function in a population of US adolescents,” the researchers concluded.

“This could eventually lead to [vitamin K]interventions in childhood aimed to improve cardiovascular development and to reduce the subsequent risk of CVD.”

—Michael Potts

Reference:

Douthit MK, Fain ME, Nguyen JT, et al. Phylloquinone Intake Is Associated with Cardiac Structure and Function in Adolescents. J Nutr. 2017;147(10):1960-1967.