ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Epidemiology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1589962
This article is part of the Research TopicNutritional Strategies for Enhancing Longevity and Healthy AgingView all 5 articles
Serum Sodium within the Normal Range and Its U-shaped Relationship with Biological Aging in US Adults
Provisionally accepted
- Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
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Background: This cross-sectional study evaluated the correlation between serum sodium levels (135-145 mmol/L) and biological aging in U.S. adults. Biological age, derived from multi-system biomarkers, provides a more accurate assessment of aging than chronological age. Hydration balance, reflected by serum sodium, may modulate age-related diseases and mortality, but its link to biological aging remains underexplored.Methods: Using NHANES data (1999-2018), we focused on normonatremic adults (≥20 years). The final cohort included 18,301 participants. Biological age was estimated using the Klemera and Doubal method, and ∆age (biological agechronological age) was calculated. Associations were assessed using multivariate regression, generalized additive models, and threshold analysis. Subgroup analyses were conducted for variations across different populations.Results: Nonlinear analysis revealed a U-shaped relationship between serum sodium and biological age. The lowest biological age occurred at 139.3 mmol/L: each 1 mmol/L increase below this threshold was associated with a reduction of 0.10 years in biological age (95% CI: -0.15, -0.05), whereas values above it showed a 0.08-year increase (95% CI: 0.04, 0.13). For ∆age, a negative association was observed below 141.2 mmol/L, with each increase linked to a 0.07-year decrease (95% CI: -0.10, -0.04). Subgroup analyses revealed significant interactions in diabetic and smoking populations.Maintaining serum sodium levels within an optimal range (138-142 mmol/L) may help delay biological aging. Hydration management may serve as a modifiable factor for healthy aging, particularly in high-risk groups such as individuals with diabetes or tobacco use.
Keywords: Serum sodium, biological age, hydration, Aging, Hydration management
Received: 08 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tong, Wang and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mengxue Liu, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
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