> “The same things we recommend for heart health turn out to be important for cognition,” she told me. “It’s a blossoming field.”

Well, the article just mentions exercise, but you can obviously also take dietary steps to improve artery function, and that includes certain food supplements. So either none of the tested supplements mentioned earlier in the article improve artery function, or there is something else going on that warrants further research.

Anyway, to continue the "foods for a healthier vascular system" train of thought, nutritionfacts.org has a lot of information on what kind of foods cause stiffer arteries, and which ones help improve artery function. I know from past discussions that this is a controversial site on HN, presumably since it so makes extraordinary claims about a plant-based diet being a cure-all for many illnesses associated with Western lifestyles. However, it is not exactly controversial to call the Western diet unhealthy. Furthermore, the website actually cites nutrition research papers that it bases its claims on. That is a whole lot better than food blogs without scientific sources, or worse: people getting defensive over their food habits and sharing their unsourced opinions on what is and isn't a healthy diet.

The short version is: avoid meat, lots of foods rich in phytonutrients, fibres, and polyphenols. So vegetables, leafy greens, legumes, fruits and berries.

As for magical supplements: crushed flax seeds and the Indian gooseberry both appear to have very positive effects on artery health, cholesterol levels (healthy and unhealthy kinds) and hypertension[0][1][2][3].

Sugar spikes/crashes from foods that are too easy to digest can be mitigated when eaten together with the right ingredient, like blue-berries, cocoa, and vinegar[4][5][6][7][8][9]. On top of being a good thing on its own, it indirectly helps because it reduces overeating.

Both coffee and tea also improve artery function, as long as you avoid adding milk[10][11]. Hibiscus tea works even better, but contains so much manganese that you should probably not drink more than one cup of it per day[12][13].

Oh, and that "one or two glasses of wine is better than none" story? False: the research that this claim comes from did not control for people who don't drink alcohol for other health reasons. Fix that and drinking no alcohol at all is the healthiest option[14]. Sorry.

So yeah, all of that together probably will improve your chances at staying healthy into your old age, especially if you have a family history of hypertension (like me). And that might include a reduced chance of dementia.

[0] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/flax-seeds-for-hypertension...

[1] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/which-are-better-chia-seeds...

[2] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/amla-versus-diabetes/

[3] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/amla-vs-drugs-for-cholester...

[4] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/benefits-of-blueberries-for...

[5] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/The-Benefits-of-Acai-vs-Blu...

[6] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/cocoa-good-chocolate-bad/

[7] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/vinegar-mechanisms-side-eff...

[8] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/can-vinegar-help-with-blood...

[9] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/apple-cider-vinegar-help-we...

[10] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/tea-and-artery-function/

[11] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/does-adding-milk-block-the-...

[12] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/hibiscus-tea-vs-plant-based...

[13] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/how-much-hibiscus-tea-is-to...

[14] https://nutritionfacts.org/video/is-it-better-to-drink-littl...