Lower lifetime dietary fiber intake is associated with carotid artery stiffness: the Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study.

Background: Fiber intake is associated with lower cardiovascular disease risk. Whether arterial stiffness is influenced by lifetime fiber intake is not known. Any such association could explain, at least in part, the cardioprotective effects attributed to fiber intake.

Continuing smoking between adolescence and young adulthood is associated with higher arterial stiffness in young adults: the Northern Ireland Young Hearts Project.

Objectives: To investigate the associations between smoking in adolescence and adulthood, and changes in smoking behaviour between these age periods, with arterial stiffness in young adults; and whether any such associations could be explained by concomitant smoking-related levels of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction.

Methods: We studied 424 individuals (216 women) in whom smoking status was assessed in adolescence (age 15 years) and again in young adulthood (mean age of 22.6 ± 1.