{"doi":"10.20944/preprints202502.0506.v2","title":"Tree Nut and Extra Virgin Olive Oil Supplementation and Epigenetic Aging—A Feasibility Study","abstract":"Tree nut and extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) supplementation can improve cardiometabolic health. However, the effects of tree nut and EVOO consumption on aging biology is unknown. We carried out an exploratory four-week tree nut and EVOO supplementation intervention in 33 adults 48 – 81 years of age (mean age: 68 ± 9 years) with metabolic syndrome to generate preliminary data on a measure of biological aging – epigenetic aging, and qualitatively explored participants’ interest in knowing their epigenetic aging measures. Epigenetic aging was measured in all participants at baseline and after the 4-week intervention (DunedinPACE and GrimAge). At baseline, participants had advanced epigenetic aging measured by the DunedinPACE biomarker but not the GrimAge biomarker, with 100% of participants having DunedinPACE>1 (Wilcoxon test, p=3.73E-9), and 38% of participants having AgeAccelGrim>0 (Wilcoxon test, p=0.48). 84% of participants reported they thought they could participate in a similar 3-4 year study. The majority (77%) of participants educated about epigenetic aging reported they very much wanted to know their epigenetic age (77%), and that they would be somewhat likely (29%) or very likely (57%) to eat tree nuts and EVOO daily if it slowed biological aging. There was not a significant (p<0.05) change in epigenetic aging measures from baseline to after the 4-week intervention. This study further substantiates advanced epigenetic aging in individuals with metabolic syndrome. This pilot study also demonstrates participant interest in learning about biological age and supports the potential for biological aging measures to motivate behavior change.","journal":"Preprints.org","year":2025,"id":562221,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9466,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":324237,"name":"Timothy D. Howard","orcid":"0000-0003-2518-4902","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":130814,"name":"Carl D. Langefeld","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":291140,"name":"Mara Z. Vitolins","orcid":"0000-0002-0348-0113","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":291136,"name":"Lindsay M. Reynolds","orcid":"0000-0001-6157-0144","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:56:05.550545Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}