Bridging the Gap: The Need to Implement Dietary Guidance to Address Cardiovascular Health.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and globally.

Bidirectional Relationship Between Sickle Cell Disease and Food Insecurity: Scoping Review.

Introduction: In the United States, sickle cell disease (SCD)-the homozygous inheritance of a point mutation within the beta-globin chain of hemoglobin-affects between 80,000 and 100,000 people. Adequate nutrition can influence the pathophysiology of SCD, and individuals with SCD who are undernourished are more likely to have impaired immune function and disease exacerbation. Undernourishment is often caused by food insecurity (FI), which is defined as "a household-level economic and social condition of limited or uncertain access to adequate food" by the USDA.

Nature-based virtual reality intervention to manage stress in family caregivers of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients: a two-phase pilot study protocol.

Unlabelled: Millions of family members and/or friends in the U.S. serve as unpaid caregivers for individuals with chronic conditions, such as cancer.

Assessing Acceptability: The Role of Understanding Participant, Neighborhood, and Community Contextual Factors in Designing a Community-Tailored Cooking Intervention.

Background: Cooking is an identified dietary strategy that is positively associated with optimal diet quality. Prior to initiating cooking interventions, evaluating the prospective acceptability of the intervention among community members living within low food access areas and understanding geospatial food shopping locations may aid in designing community-tailored interventions.

Methods: A sequential mixed methods study was conducted to determine the prospective acceptability of a planned community-located cooking intervention among African American adults living in a low food access area and with at least one cardiovascular disease risk factor.

Associations between neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation, IFNγ, and high-density lipoprotein particle size: Data from the Washington, D.C. cardiovascular health and needs assessment.

Introduction: Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation is associated with increased cardiovascular risk factors, including inflammation. Inflammation plays an important role in modifying the cardioprotective function of high-density lipoprotein (HDL). Moreover, recent studies suggest that very high HDL is associated with adverse cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes.

Geographic social vulnerability is associated with the alpha diversity of the human microbiome.

As a risk factor for conditions related to the microbiome, understanding the role of SVI on microbiome diversity may assist in identifying public health implications for microbiome research. Here we found, using a sub-sample of the Human Microbiome Project phase 1 cohort, that SVI was linked to microbiome diversity across body sites and that SVI may influence race/ethnicity-based differences in diversity. Our findings, build on the current knowledge regarding the role of human geography in microbiome research, suggest that measures of geographic social vulnerability be considered as additional contextual factors when exploring microbiome alpha diversity.

Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and individual-level socioeconomic status are associated with dopamine-mediated changes to monocyte subset CCR2 expression via a cAMP-dependent pathway.

Social determinants of health (SDoH) include socioeconomic, environmental, and psychological factors that impact health. Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation (NSD) and low individual-level socioeconomic status (SES) are SDoH that associate with incident heart failure, stroke, and cardiovascular mortality, but the underlying biological mechanisms are not well understood. Previous research has demonstrated an association between NSD, in particular, and key components of the neural-hematopoietic-axis including amygdala activity as a marker of chronic stress, bone marrow activity, and arterial inflammation.

Interleukin-8 (IL-8) as a Potential Mediator of an Association between Trimethylamine N-Oxide (TMAO) and Proprotein Convertase Subtilisin/Kexin Type 9 (PCSK9) among African Americans at Risk of Cardiovascular Disease.

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO)-a microbial metabolite derived from the hepatic-gut axis-is linked to inflammation, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9), which is largely hepatically expressed, blocks low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor recycling, also leading to hyperlipidemia. The primary objective of this study was to investigate a previously hypothesized potential relationship between TMAO and PCSK9 in order to explore novel mechanisms linking TMAO and CVD risk.

Going virtual during the COVID-19 pandemic: adaptation of a mixed-methods dietary behavior study within a community-based participatory research study of African-American adults at risk for cardiovascular disease.

Background: Identifying mechanisms to maintain CBPR studies during an infectious disease pandemic is vital. The current paper describes the changes in methods and processes conducted within a CBPR mixed-methods study to a virtual setting during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Method: The DC Community Organizing for Optimal Culinary Knowledge study with Heart (DC COOKS with Heart) was designed to assess the feasibility of a dietary behavior intervention among African-American adults that are at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Use of a focus group-based cognitive interview methodology to validate a cooking behavior survey among African-American adults.

Disparities in diet-related diseases persist among African-Americans despite advances in risk factor identification and evidence-based management strategies. Cooking is a dietary behavior linked to improved dietary quality and cardiometabolic health outcomes. However, epidemiologic studies suggest that African-American adults report a lower frequency of cooking at home when compared to other racial groups, despite reporting on average cooking time.

The role of the oral microbiome in smoking-related cardiovascular risk: a review of the literature exploring mechanisms and pathways.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Oral health is associated with smoking and cardiovascular outcomes, but there are gaps in knowledge of many mechanisms connecting smoking to cardiovascular risk. Therefore, the aim of this review is to synthesize literature on smoking and the oral microbiome, and smoking and cardiovascular risk/disease, respectively.

Feasibility of a Home-Delivery Produce Prescription Program to Address Food Insecurity and Diet Quality in Adults and Children.

Produce prescription programs aim to improve food insecurity (FI) and nutrition but their effectiveness is unclear. We conducted a pilot study to demonstrate the feasibility and explore the potential impact of a family-based, home-delivery produce prescription and nutrition education program. We measured enrollment, satisfaction, participation, and retention as measure of feasibility.

Associations between neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and severity of depression: Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2011-2014.

Neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage may contribute to depression. This study examined associations between neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage, measured as deprivation, and depression severity within a broadly representative sample of the U.S.

Perspectives: on Precision Nutrition Research in Heart, Lung, and Blood Diseases and Sleep Disorders.

The release of the 2020-2030 Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research (SPNR) and its emphasis on precision nutrition has provided an opportunity to identify future nutrition research that addresses individual variability in response to diet and nutrition across the life span-including those relevant to the Strategic Vision of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The SPNR and the NHLBI's Strategic Vision were developed with extensive input from the extramural research community, and both have 4 overarching strategic goals within which are embedded several objectives for research. For the SPNR, these include 1) spur discovery science and normal biological functions (e.

LDL associates with pro-inflammatory monocyte subset differentiation and increases in chemokine receptor profile expression in African Americans.

Background: In the United States, African Americans (AAs) have greater risk for Class III obesity and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Previous reports suggest that AAs have a different immune cell profile when compared to Caucasians.

Methods: The immune cell profile of AAs was characterized by flow cytometry using two experimental setups: ex vivo (N = 40) and in vitro (N = 10).

Social Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease.

Social determinants of health (SDoH), which encompass the economic, social, environmental, and psychosocial factors that influence health, play a significant role in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors as well as CVD morbidity and mortality. The COVID-19 pandemic and the current social justice movement sparked by the death of George Floyd have laid bare long-existing health inequities in our society driven by SDoH. Despite a recent focus on these structural drivers of health disparities, the impact of SDoH on cardiovascular health and CVD outcomes remains understudied and incompletely understood.

Use of a community advisory board to build equitable algorithms for participation in clinical trials: a protocol paper for HoPeNET.

Introduction: Participation from racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials has been burdened by issues surrounding mistrust and access to healthcare. There is emerging use of machine learning (ML) in clinical trial recruitment and evaluation. However, for individuals from groups who are recipients of societal biases, utilisation of ML can lead to the creation and use of biased algorithms.

Reigniting Dr. Martin Luther King's call to action: the role of the behavioral scientist in the movement for social justice and racial equity.

A call to action for behavioral scientists to utilize the field’s collective set of knowledge and skills to conduct and support research to prevent racism and combat the effects of racism on health outcomes

Introducing the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group: Considering the Microbial Components of Social, Environmental, and Health Justice.

Humans are inextricably linked to each other and our natural world, and microorganisms lie at the nexus of those interactions. Microorganisms form genetically flexible, taxonomically diverse, and biochemically rich communities, i.e.

Neighborhood Environment Associates with Trimethylamine-N-Oxide (TMAO) as a Cardiovascular Risk Marker.

Background: Neighborhoods and the microbiome are linked to cardiovascular disease (CVD), yet investigations to identify microbiome-related factors at neighborhood levels have not been widely investigated. We sought to explore relationships between neighborhood deprivation index (NDI) and the microbial metabolite, trimethylamine-N-oxide. We hypothesized that inflammatory markers and dietary intake would be mediators of the relationship.

Well-Being and Cooking Behavior: Using the Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (PERMA) Model as a Theoretical Framework.

The prevalence of psychosocial distress is increasing in the United States. At the same time, the American default lifestyle has steadily displaced household food production with industrial food production, despite increased cultural interest in cooking. An important focus of cooking research to date has been on cooking's association with nutrition and dietary quality.

Health Disparities in COVID-19: Addressing the Role of Social Determinants of Health in Immune System Dysfunction to Turn the Tide.

It is evident that health disparities exist during the COVID-19 pandemic, a pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Underlying reasons for COVID-19 health disparities are multi-factorial. However, social determinants, including those regarding socioeconomic status, social inequalities, health behaviors, and stress, may have implications on these disparities.