Peanuts and Neurocognitive / Cardiovascular Health in Black Individuals

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality and affects all individuals; however, its prevalence is highest in the non-Hispanic Black (BL) population. This racial disparity is present in the primary risk factors for CVD, including hypertension, atherosclerosis, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Furthermore, this population has the highest prevalence of various neurocognitive conditions and cerebral vascular diseases including cognitive dysfunction, dementia, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease. While the association between the BL population, neurocognitive complications/cerebral vascular diseases, and CVD is multifactorial, a common link in other populations is impaired vascular function. Indeed, vascular dysfunction.

A hallmark of impaired vascular function is elevated arterial stiffness, a decrease in the vasodilator capacity, and/or heightened sympathetic vascular transduction (i.e. vasoconstrictor response and increase in peripheral vascular resistance and arterial blood pressure to efferent sympathetic neural outflow). BL individuals have impaired endothelial function evidenced by a blunted vasodilatory response to a variety of stimuli. Reduced nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability, due to elevated oxidative stress, systemic inflammation and reduced L-arginine bioavailability, is implicated as a primary contributing factor for these attenuated vasodilatory responses. Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that an intervention targeting these pathways could abolish or minimize this elevated risk. One such intervention could be increased dietary peanut consumption which has a beneficial effect on physiological outcomes associated with neurocognitive conditions, as well as cerebral vascular and CVD risk including, cholesterol, lipid profile, insulin sensitivity / type II diabetes, cognitive health, arterial stiffness, blood pressure, and NO bioavailability and subsequently vascular function / health. However, to our knowledge the effect of increased peanut consumption on neurocognitive and CVD risk factors in the BL population remains unknown.

Therefore, the overall research objective is of this proposal is to determine the impact of increased daily peanut consumption on indices of neurocognitive and physiological health in BL individuals. The following objectives / aims will be explored:

1. Primary Aim - The primary endpoint is the effect of increased daily peanut consumption on outcomes associated with elevated risk for various neurocognitive and pathophysiological conditions/diseases. These outcomes include cognitive function, central and peripheral arterial blood pressure, cerebral and peripheral blood vessel function/health, autonomic function - i.e. vasoconstrictor responsiveness to efferent sympathetic neural outflow (sympathetic vascular transduction), and blood biomarkers (e.g., indices of inflammation, oxidative stress, insulin resistance/diabetes risk, and lipid profile).
2. Secondary Aim - A secondary endpoint is the effect of daily peanut consumption on the following variables: body composition, body weight, and body mass index (BMI).
3. Tertiary Aim - A tertiary endpoint is to examine the relationship between the various indices of physiological health with measures of Social Determinants of Health that are well known to influence the physiological outcomes that are being measured.