Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 5/3/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Restoring Sexual Potency? - Dr. Weil, 5/4/06 - "Arginine ... Ginkgo biloba ... Ashwaganda"

Large Survey Finds Average Calcium Use Too Low Among Osteoporotic Women - Doctor's Guide, 5/2/06 - "the average daily intake of calcium among women was 660 mg/day, while the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CFII) between 1994 and 1996 found that 90% of women over 50 years consume less than the reference 1200 mg/day"

Pioglitazone Has Cholesterol Advantages Versus Rosiglitazone in Elderly Diabetics - Doctor's Guide, 5/2/06 - "patients receiving pioglitazone showed improvements from baseline compared with rosiglitazone in TG, HDL-C, as well as LCL-C particle concentration and size ... Although both agents increased HDL-C, the increase achieved with pioglitazone was significantly greater"

Melatonin Improves Mood In Winter Depression - Science Daily, 5/2/06 - "melatonin, a naturally occurring brain substance, can relieve the doldrums of winter depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder, or SAD"

Alzheimer's patients put diabetes pill [Avandia] to the test - MSNBC, 5/1/06 - "The new theory: The metabolism of neurons’ internal power factors, called mitochondria, go awry so that those cells don’t use enough sugar. That eventually leads to impaired brain cell function, including the buildup of that gunky beta-amyloid. It also means that neurons in youth and middle age don’t sprout enough communication connections, providing less “cognitive reserve” once their neurons start dying off" - See my Avandia (rosiglitazone) page.

Lack of Estrogen Linked to Hip Fractures in Men - Intelihealth, 5/1/06 - "men who have lost bone mass should take calcium and vitamin D supplements to help reverse bone loss and reduce the risk of hip fractures ... This is an interesting paper and tends to confirm that among men, estradiol (estrogen) levels may be more important to bone strength than is testosterone"

Melatonin Most Effective For Sleep When Taken For Off-hour Sleeping - Science Daily, 5/1/06 - "sleep efficiency during the six hour, 40 minute episodes was significantly higher in the groups that took melatonin during times when the body was not producing melatonin. At those times, participants taking 5.0mg of melatonin had a sleep efficiency of 83 percent and those taking 0.3mg melatonin had a sleep efficiency of 84 percent"

Hypogonadism May Result After Prostatic Disease - Doctor's Guide, 5/1/06 - "men with prostatic diseases should be evaluated for hypogonadism"

Novel Strategy to Restore Brain Cell Function - Life Extension Magazine, 5/06 - "Alzheimer’s patients taking 300 mg of phosphatidylserine daily performed significantly better on standardized memory tests at the end of the 12-week trial period than did the study participants who received placebo. Importantly, those patients who were the least afflicted by dementia demonstrated the greatest benefit from phosphatidylserine therapy. These results suggest that beginning supplementation very early on, or perhaps even before the appearance of symptoms, can help prevent age-related loss of memory and other cognitive impairments"

MIT Research Offers New Hope For Alzheimer's Patients - Science Daily, 4/27/06 - "The three compounds in the treatment cocktail - omega-3 fatty acids, uridine and choline - are all needed by brain neurons to make phospholipids, the primary component of cell membranes"

Lower Testosterone Levels Among Some Diabetic Patients May Lead to Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease - Doctor's Guide, 4/27/06 - "Men with type 2 diabetes should have their testosterone monitored, because one third of them may have low testosterone that could be related to a significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease"

On a different subject, CNBS had a segment on the Bernanke/Columbia Business School video.  I just thought it was very well done for business school grads so I'm throwing it in.

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

Note:  The reason I include so much information on thiazolidinediones such as Avandia (rosiglitazone) and Actos (pioglitazone) is that when all the research is in, I think they might be a better choice than metformin for insulin resistance and anti-aging.

Effect of rosiglitazone on endothelial function and inflammatory markers in patients with the metabolic syndrome - Diabetes Care. 2006 May;29(5):1071-6 - "After 12 months, subjects with the metabolic syndrome receiving rosiglitazone showed improved flow-mediated vasodilation (4.2%, P < 0.001) and reduced hs-CRP levels (-0.7 mg/dl, P = 0.04), compared with the placebo group. Moreover, HOMA (-0.8, P = 0.01) and serum concentrations of IL-6 (-0.5 pg/ml, P = 0.045) and IL-18 (-31 pg/ml, P = 0.036) were significantly reduced in subjects receiving rosiglitazone, whereas adiponectin levels showed a significant increment (2.3 mug/ml, P = 0.02). High-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels increased more and triglyceride levels decreased more in the rosiglitazone group compared with the placebo group. At 1 year of follow-up, 30 subjects receiving rosiglitazone still had features of the metabolic syndrome, compared with 45 subjects receiving placebo"

Effects of pioglitazone on endothelial function, insulin sensitivity, and glucose control in subjects with coronary artery disease and new-onset type 2 diabetes - Diabetes Care. 2006 May;29(5):1039-45 - "After 12 weeks, endothelial dysfunction was significantly better in the pioglitazone group ... Pioglitazone improves endothelial dysfunction independently from the observed benefits on insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function in patients with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes and CAD"

Metformin improves endothelial vascular reactivity in first-degree relatives of type 2 diabetic patients with metabolic syndrome and normal glucose tolerance - Diabetes Care. 2006 May;29(5):1083-9 - "The metformin group had decreased weight, BMI, systolic blood pressure, and FPG and improved lipid profile. Endothelium-dependent FBF responses were also improved, without any effect on endothelium-independent responses"

Insulin resistance - a common link between type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2006 May;8(3):237-249 - "In addition to lifestyle changes, PPARgamma agonists such as thiazolidinediones are frequently beneficial and have been shown to ameliorate insulin resistance, while activation of PPARalpha (e.g. by fibrates) can lead to improvements in free fatty acid oxidation and lipid profile, and a reduction in cardiovascular events. The development of agents with both PPARalpha and PPARgamma activity promises added benefits with amelioration of insulin resistance, delayed progression to and of type 2 diabetes and a reduction of CVD"

Thiazolidinedione (TZD) Use and Bone Loss in Older Diabetic Adults - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Apr 11 - "each year of TZD use was associated with greater bone loss at the whole body (additional loss of -0.61% per year; 95% CI: -1.02, -0.21% per year), lumbar spine (-1.23% per year; 95% CI: -2.06, -0.40% per year), and trochanter (-0.65% per year; 95% CI: -1.18, -0.12% per year) in women, but not men, with diabetes"

Affiliates (I could sure use some sales.  In Windows, you can drag the links onto your desktop and use them so that I get credit for the sale.  Click here for more stores):