Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 6/8/05.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Soy May Improve Quality of Life During Menopause - MedlinePlus, 6/7/05 - "Compared with placebo therapy, soy therapy led to a 40-percent reduction in psychosocial complaints involving mood and depression, a 36-percent reduction in hot flashes and night sweats, as well as and a 30-percent reduction in other physical symptoms, primarily low energy"

Low-glycemic May Be Better Than Low-fat Diet - MedlinePlus, 6/7/05 - "Reducing (glycemic index) may be more effective than cutting back on fat over the long-term, both for weight loss and also for reducing risk of heart disease"

Guggul for Hypercholesterolemia - Medscape, 6/7/05 - "Studies of the efficacy of guggul for hypercholesterolemia have produced conflicting results. Information currently available indicates that guggul may be effective for lowering total cholesterol and triglycerides in patients on a non-Western diet. The one study involving a typical American diet did not show any benefits; in fact, patients taking guggul had slight increases in LDL cholesterol"

The Role of Statins in Preventing Stroke - Medscape, 6/7/05 - "statins reduce stroke through cumulative improvements in a number of different components of atherosclerosis including effects on the endothelium, thrombosis, plaque stability, and through anti-inflammatory effects"

High Glycemic Index or High Carbohydrate Diet May Not Increase Risk of Insulin Resistance - Medscape, 6/6/05 - "Habitual intake of diets with a high glycemic index and high glycemic load or diets with a high content of total carbohydrate including simple sugars was not associated with the probability of having insulin resistance ... intake of dietary fiber was inversely associated with the probability of having insulin resistance" - Related articles:

• Whole-grain intake and insulin sensitivity: the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Nov;78(5):965-71 - "Higher intakes of whole grains were associated with increases in insulin sensitivity"
• Sugary Sodas Add Pounds, Raise Diabetes Risk - WebMD, 6/7/04 - "women who went from drinking less than one non-diet soda a day to one or more sodas a day gained more weight and were nearly twice as likely to develop type 2 diabetes over a four-year period than women who drank less than one soft drink a day"

Weight Watchers Diet Produces Same Results With or Without Emphasis on Low-Glycaemic Index - Doctor's Guide, 6/6/05 - "both groups lost an average of 5% of their initial body weight ... However, those who followed the low-glycemic diet had better satiety and less hunger and craving, the key problems that are the downfall of many dieters" - This article doesn't mention fat loss.  You can have the same loss in pounds yet have different percentages of lean muscle/fat loss as in the next article.

Clearing up the confusion over carbs - MSNBC, 6/3/05 - "Both groups lost weight, and there was no difference in their weight loss or calorie intake. It should be noted, however, that the women who ate low GI foods lost more than twice as much body fat as women eating mainly high GI foods"

Low zinc intake may sap exercisers' energy - Reuters, 6/3/05 - "Based on the men's exercise performance, the low-zinc diet "made it much more physiologically challenging to perform,""

Does a New Pill Contain the Fountain of Youth? - ABC News, 6/2/05 - "Experiments to see if mice live longer are about to get under way ... Studies have not yet been conducted to determine whether Protandim can prevent disease ... Right now, all we know is that this preparation decreases oxidative stress ... It is a combination of five plant ingredients. Two of them are pretty commonplace — green tea and turmeric, a spice used in Indian cooking" - Related article:

• The Uncertain Antiaging Pill - Betterhumans, 11/29/04

Beta-Sitosterol and the Aging Prostate Gland - Life Extension Magazine, 6/05 - "A study using the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP (an androgen-dependent tumor) showed that beta-sitosterol decreased cancer cell growth by 24% and induced apoptosis (programmed cell death) fourfold ..." - See iHerb beta sitosterol products.

CLA’s success rests on science - ffnmag.com, 6/05 - "Tonalin is heavily researched and backed by clinical science, whereas most of the competition is backed by marketing dollars, not research ... CLA has been on the market since 1996 and continues to grow steadily, as we market responsibly based on clinical research"

I was doing some research on Avandia (rosiglitazone) to lower cortisol.  The following are select articles:

• Diabetes Drugs May Help Cushing's Syndrome - Reuters Wire, 11/07/2002 - "Cushing's syndrome results from high levels of the hormone cortisol, and can cause fat accumulation in the upper body and face, and thinning of the arms and legs. Patients can experience high blood pressure and high blood sugar, along with depression, fatigue, irritability and weakened bones ... a protein called PPAR-gamma, which is found on pituitary gland tumor cells, appears to be linked to overproduction of ACTH ... researchers injected mice with ACTH-secreting pituitary tumor cells and then treated them with commonly used diabetes drugs, rosiglitazone (Avandia) and troglitazone, or an inactive placebo ... There was an 85% reduction in ACTH and a corresponding 96% reduction in their cortisol-like hormone"
• Caution Urged With Diabetes Drugs - WebMD, 12/8/03 - "in some people, Actos and Avandia may cause fluid retention, a condition known as edema, and swelling of the feet. Edema is also a classic symptom of congestive heart failure"
• Diabetes Pill Helps Early Alzheimer's Disease - WebMD, 7/20/04 - "the diabetes pill Avandia may improve memory and thinking in people with early Alzheimer's disease"
• Hormone Therapy May Need to be Used Cautiously in Patients Taking Rosiglitazone - Doctor's Guide, 9/19/03 - "rosiglitazone reduced glucose levels from a mean of 9.15 to 7.5 mM/L; (P=0.013), insulin from 11.7 to 8.8 mU/L (P=0.026), haemoglobin A1c from 8.0% to 6.9% (P=0.001), triglycerides from 2.3 to 1.8 mM/L (P=0.009), systolic BP from 130 to 117 mm Hg (P=0.02), diastolic BP from 72 to 67 mm"
• Rosiglitazone May Improve Small Artery Elasticity in Patients With Diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 8/19/03 - "Rosiglitazone increased small artery elasticity significantly, with a mean increase of up to 50% ... Systolic blood pressure decreased from 144 to 124 mmHg, and diastolic blood pressure decreased from 80 to 68 mmHg"
• Rosiglitazone Improves Cholesterol Profile in Patients with Type 2 diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 4/4/03 - "Rosiglitazone increases high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLC) levels and improves the ratio of HDLC to total cholesterol in patients with type 2 diabetes ... mean HDLC levels increased 15%, from 45.3 to 51.9 mg/dL"
• Avandia (Rosiglitazone) Lowers Markers for Cardiovascular Inflammation in Diabetic Patients - Doctor's Guide, 6/17/02 - "rosiglitazone, a widely used insulin sensitizer, has a profound inhibitory effect on oxygen free radicals ... At week 6, blood glucose concentration decreased from 157+/-16 to 127+/-9 mg/dL and insulin concentration fell from 32.6+/-4.6 to 16.1 ... Rosiglitazone treatment also reduced plasma MCP-1 (75 percent of the basal level; p<0.05) and CRP (70 percent of basal; p<0.05)"
• Avandia Positively Impacts On Factors Linked With Insulin Resistance - Doctor's Guide, 9/18/00 - "Increased deposits of fat around the internal organs and in the liver are commonly associated with insulin resistance and are found in many type 2 diabetes patients ... Avandia helps prevent accumulation of fat around the internal organs and significantly reduces hepatic fat"
• Avandia (Rosiglitazone Maleate) Effective In Long-Term Blood Sugar Control In Type 2 Diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 6/21/00 - "the researchers noticed that improvements in blood sugar control seen with Avandia were associated with an increase in high-density lipoproteins (HDL)-cholesterol, and an initial increase in low-density lipoproteins (LDL)-cholesterol, returning to baseline overtime"
• Avandia Reduces Insulin Resistance, Lowers Blood Sugar - Doctor's Guide, 6/15/99 - "In patients given Avandia monotherapy, insulin resistance decreased by an average of 16 and 25 percent and the estimate of beta-cell function increased by an average of 50 and 60 percent for 4 and 8 mg/day, respectively"
• See Avandia at OffshoreRx1.com or SuperSaverMeds.com.

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics:

The effect of gamma-tocopherol administration on alpha-tocopherol levels and metabolism in humans - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jun 1 - "The plasma alpha-tocopherol concentration decreased significantly during gamma-tocopherol administration" - The opposite is also true.  See:

• Effect of oral supplementation with D-alpha-tocopherol on the vitamin E content of human low density lipoproteins and resistance to oxidation - J Lipid Res. 1991 Aug;32(8):1325-32 - "gamma-Tocopherol significantly decreased in plasma and LDL during vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) supplementation"

Magnesium Intake, C-Reactive Protein, and the Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome in Middle-Aged and Older U.S. Women - Diabetes Care. 2005 Jun;28(6):1438-1444 - "women in the highest quintile of magnesium intake had 27% lower risk of the metabolic syndrome ... compared with those in the lowest quintile of intake"

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