Peanuts and Neurocognitive / Cardiovascular Health in Black Individuals

The overall research objective of this proposal is to determine the impact of increased daily peanut consumption on indices of neurocognitive and physiological health in BL individuals

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cardiovascular Diseases; Hypertension; Healthy; Diet; Cognitive Decline
• Intervention / Treatment: Dietary supplement: Peanut group

Detailed Description

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 40
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Texas
    • Arlington, Texas, United States, 76019
      • UT Arlington - Science and Engineering Innovation and Research Building

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Individuals that self-identify as white or black and who have at least one biological parent who identifies as their own self-identified race/ethnicity will be included in this study. Both men and women will be included in this study. Individuals must be between the ages of 18-50.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Individuals who have donated more than 550 ml of blood within the past 8 weeks will not have blood drawn from them in this protocol. However, if they remain interested in the study, and otherwise meet the inclusion criteria, then we may still opt to proceed with data collection.
• Individuals with peanut allergy
• Individuals in hypertensive crisis
• Pregnant women
• Breast feeding
• Allergies to spandex/lycra

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Peanut Consumption; Peanuts are rich in polyphenols and also have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.	Dietary supplement: Peanut group; These are commercially available peanuts that are high in antioxidants and are believed to be beneficial for physiological health
No Intervention: Non-peanut consumption; The non-peanut consumption will simply not be consuming any additional supplements in their diet

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Endothelial Function	Flow medicated dilation of the brachial artery	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Neurocognitive Function	Performance on the NIH Toolbox Cognitive battery	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Arterial stiffness	assessment of pulse wave velocity and pulse wave analysis	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Systolic blood pressure in brachial artery (mmHg)	standard blood pressure measures	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Plasma concentration of total Cholesterol (Total-C)	assessment of total Cholesterol (Total-C)	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Diastolic blood pressure in brachial artery(mmHg)	standard blood pressure measures	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Mean blood pressure in brachial artery (mmHg)	standard blood pressure measures 9(mmHg)	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Plasma concentration of Low density lipoprotein (LDL)	assessment of Low density lipoprotein (LDL)	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Plasma concentration of High density lipoprotein (HDL)	assessment of High density lipoprotein (HDL)	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption
Plasma concentration of Very Low density lipoprotein (VLDL)	assessment of Very Low density lipoprotein (VLDL)	baseline & following 8 weeks of daily peanut consumption

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The University of Texas at Arlington
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Robert M Brothers, PhD, University of Texas at Arlington

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 31, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): July 31, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 12, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 12, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): March 19, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): April 1, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 26, 2025
• Last Verified: March 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: cognition; endothelial function; brain blood flow
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Neurocognitive Disorders; Cognition Disorders; Cognitive Dysfunction; Cardiovascular Diseases
• Other Study ID Numbers: 2022-0541

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO
• IPD Plan Description: There is not plan to share IPD

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No