Title

Comparative cross-sectional study of vegan and omnivorous diets and their impact on cardiac function among endurance athletes

Authors

Glenn Jo¹, Shubhi Tamrakar², Sorabh Sharma³, Shanmukha Koppolu⁴, E Emi Goldy^5,* & Sailesh I S Kumar⁶

Affiliation

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Kerala State Medical Council, Kerala, India; ²Department of Physiology, MGM Medical College Panvel, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India; ³Department of Medicine, University of Arizona, Arizona, USA; ⁴Department of Trauma and Orthopaedics, Barts NHS Trust, London, England, United Kingdom; ⁵Department of Biochemistry, Panimalar Medical College Hospital and Research Institute Varadharajapuram, Poonamallee, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; ⁶Department of Surgery, Madras Medical College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Glenn Jo - E-mail: Drglennjo@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9731182257
Shubhi Tamrakar - E-mail: shubhitamrakar30@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8349977993
Sorabh Sharma - E-mail: Sorabh.gmch@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9084050291
Shanmukha Koppolu - E-mail: kshanmukha3@gmail.com; Phone: +44 7448304208
E Emi Goldy - E-mail: emigoldy@gmail.com; Phone: +91 8111098107
Sailesh I S Kumar - E-mail: Sailesh.isk@gmail.com; Phone: +91 9486813072

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received November 15, 2025; Revised December 15, 2025; Accepted December 15, 2025, Published December 15, 2025

Abstract

Vegan and omnivorous diets are both common in endurance sport; however, the chronic effects of these diets on cardiac function remain uncertain. Therefore, it is of interest to compare echocardiographic, vascular and exercise performance between endurance athletes on vegan or omnivorous diets. Data shows there is comparable systolic function; however, vegans displayed superior diastolic function and arterial compliance; whilst omnivores maintained higher hemoglobin and ferritin levels. Thus, we show that diet can influence distinct aspects of cardiovascular adaptation without limiting endurance capacity.

Keywords

Vegan diet, omnivorous diet, endurance athletes, cardiac function, echocardiography, VO₂ max

Citation

Jo et al. Bioinformation 21(12): 4350-4354 (2025)

Edited by

A Prashanth

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.