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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 6/17/09.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

CoQ10 may boost sperm quality: Study - Nutra USA, 6/16/09 - "randomly assigned them to receive a daily CoQ10 supplement (300 mg, Kaneka, Japan) or placebo for 26 weeks. This was followed by 30 weeks with no intervention ... The Tehran-based researchers reported a significant improvement in both sperm density and motility following supplements of the coenzyme. A positive association was also found with regards to sperm count. Further analysis showed an increase in the percent of normal forms of sperm" - [Abstract] - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.

Omega-3 plus AREDS supplement works for eye health: Study - Nutra USA, 6/16/09 - "Increased intake of DHA was associated with a 27 per cent reduction in the progression to advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD), while EPA was linked to a 26 per cent reduction" - [Abstract] - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Supplement may be statin alternative for some - CNN, 6/16/09 - "Now a new study suggests that an over-the-counter dietary supplement [red yeast rice] sold at pharmacies and health-food stores may be a workable alternative for people who have statin-related muscle pain. It seems that when combined with diet and lifestyle changes, red yeast rice supplements can lower LDL, or bad cholesterol, levels by more than 20 percent without a substantial risk of muscle pain (also known as myalgia), according to a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine" - [Medscape] - See red yeast rice at Amazon.com.

Topical Fluorouracil Reduces Number of Actinic Keratoses, Improves Skin Damage - Doctor's Guide, 6/15/09 - "The number of actinic keratoses was significantly reduced following treatment, from an average of 11.6 lesions to an average of 1.5. Clinical evaluations also identified overall improvements in aging-related damage, including decreases in fine and course wrinkling, lentigines, hyperpigmentation, and sallowness" - [WebMD] - Not only that but if you get a prescription for it it only costs $250 per tube at drugstore.com.  Here's a cut and paste from my 6/3/09 newsletter that explains actinic keratoses:

  • Skin Lesion Leads To More Cancer Types Than Once Believed - Science Daily, 6/2/09 - "Two-thirds of the patients who had developed squamous-cell carcinomas, a form of treatable skin cancer, could trace their cancer to actinic keratoses. One-third of patients who ended up with basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer in the United States, could trace their cancers to actinic keratoses" - I do a lot of swimming and just had three of these frozen by a dermatologist even though I wear a sun block shirt (coolibar.com) and plaster both a high number sun block plus zinc oxide on my face.

Skip Breakfast, Get Fat - WebMD, 6/15/09 - "Forgoing the first meal of the day actually tricks your brain into thinking you want higher-calorie foods -- foods that can make you fat, or at least increase your risk for weight gain"

Treating Gum Disease May Help Rheumatoid Arthritis - WebMD, 6/12/09 - "It was exciting to find that if we eliminated the infection and inflammation in the gums, then patients with a severe kind of active rheumatoid arthritis reported improvement on the signs and symptoms of that disease"

Successful Weight Loss With Dieting Is Linked To Vitamin D Levels - Science Daily, 6/11/09 - "the authors found that baseline, or pre-diet, vitamin D levels predicted weight loss in a linear relationship. For every increase of 1 ng/mL in level of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol—the precursor form of vitamin D and a commonly used indicator of vitamin D status—subjects ended up losing almost a half pound (0.196 kg) more on their calorie-restricted diet. For each 1-ng/mL increase in the active or "hormonal" form of vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol), subjects lost nearly one-quarter pound (0.107 kg) more ... Additionally, higher baseline vitamin D levels (both the precursor and active forms) predicted greater loss of abdominal fat" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Symptoms Of Depression In Obese Children Linked To Elevated Cortisol - Science Daily, 6/11/09 - "There is evidence in adults that abnormal regulation of cortisol plays a role in both obesity and depression ... Cortisol levels in the saliva in the afternoon and evening correlated positively with symptoms of depression ... The more depressive symptoms that subjects reported, the higher the cortisol levels at those times"

Red-wine Polyphenol Called Resveratrol Demonstrates Significant Health Benefits - Science Daily, 6/11/09 - "The breadth of benefits is remarkable – cancer prevention, protection of the heart and brain from damage, reducing age-related diseases such as inflammation, reversing diabetes and obesity, and many more ... Resveratrol exhibits therapeutic potential for cancer chemoprevention as well as cardioprotection ... The simplest explanation is that resveratrol turns on the cell's own survival pathways, preventing damage to individual cells ... Further mechanisms help, including removing very reactive oxidants in the body and improving blood supply to cells ... Low doses of resveratrol improve cell survival as a mechanism of cardio- and neuro-protection, while high doses increase cell death" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.

Stress Makes Your Hair Go Gray - Science Daily, 6/11/09 - "Those pesky graying hairs that tend to crop up with age really are signs of stress, reveals a new report in the journal Cell"

Less Sleep Associated With High, Worsening Blood Pressure In Middle Age - Science Daily, 6/11/09 - "After excluding patients taking medication for high blood pressure and controlling for age, race and sex, the researchers found that individuals who slept fewer hours were significantly more likely to have higher systolic (top number) and diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure ... Each hour of reduction in sleep duration was associated with a 37 percent increase in the odds of developing high blood pressure"

Hormone Therapy Plus Physical Activity Reduce Belly Fat, Body Fat Percentage After Menopause - Science Daily, 6/10/09 - "Older women who take hormone therapy to relieve menopausal symptoms may get the added benefit of reduced body fat if they are physically active"

Stopping Diabetes Damage With Vitamin C - Science Daily, 6/10/09 - "While neither therapy produced desired results when used alone, the combination of insulin to control blood sugar together with the use of Vitamin C, stopped blood vessel damage caused by the disease in patients with poor glucose control" - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

Efficacy of coenzyme Q10 on semen parameters, sperm function and reproductive hormones in infertile men - J Urol. 2009 Jul;182(1):237-48 - "were randomly assigned to receive 300 mg coenzyme Q10 (Kaneka, Osaka, Japan) orally daily (106 in group 1) or a similar placebo regimen (106 in group 2) during a 26-week period, followed by a 30-week treatment-free phase ... Coenzyme Q10 supplementation resulted in a statistically significant improvement in certain semen parameters" - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.

Does eating particular diets alter risk of age-related macular degeneration in users of the age-related eye disease study supplements? - Br J Ophthalmol. 2009 Jun 12 - "Independent of AREDS supplementation, higher intakes of DHA (>/= 64.0 vs. < 26.0 mg/d) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.73, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.57, 0.94), EPA (>/= 42.3 vs. < 12.7 mg/d) (HR = 0.74, 95% CI, 0.59, 0.94), and lower dGI (dGI, < 75.2 vs. >/= 81.5) (HR = 0.76, 95% CI, 0.60, 0.96) were associated with lower risk for progression to advanced AMD. Participants consuming lower dGI and higher DHA or EPA had the lowest risk (P for synergistic interaction < 0.001) ... Our findings show an association of consuming a diet rich in DHA with lower progression of early AMD" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Fish-oil supplementation induces antiinflammatory gene expression profiles in human blood mononuclear cells - Am J Clin Nutr. 2009 Jun 10 - "A high EPA+DHA intake changed the expression of 1040 genes, whereas HOSF intake changed the expression of only 298 genes. EPA+DHA intake resulted in a decreased expression of genes involved in inflammatory- and atherogenic-related pathways, such as nuclear transcription factor kappaB signaling, eicosanoid synthesis, scavenger receptor activity, adipogenesis, and hypoxia signaling. CONCLUSION: These results are the first to show that intake of EPA+DHA for 26 wk can alter the gene expression profiles of PBMCs to a more antiinflammatory and antiatherogenic status" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D is related to indicators of overall physical fitness in healthy postmenopausal women - Menopause. 2009 Jun 6 - "Serum 25(OH)D was the common contributor to physical fitness indices (androidal fat mass, lean mass, balance, handgrip strength) in healthy postmenopausal women" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Quercetin inhibits fatty acid and triacylglycerol synthesis in rat-liver cells - Eur J Clin Invest. 2009 Jun 8 - "In hepatocytes from normal rats, the quercetin-induced decrease in both de novo fatty acid and TAG synthesis, with a consequent reduction in VLDL-TAG formation, may represent a potential mechanism contributing to the reported hypotriacylglycerolemic effect of quercetin" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.

Low HDL-cholesterol is associated with the risk of stroke in elderly diabetic individuals: Changes in the risk for atherosclerotic diseases at various ages - Diabetes Care. 2009 Jun 9 - "IHD and CVD occurred in 1.59% and 1.43% of participants over 2-year period. The relation of lower HDL-cholesterol and/or higher LDL-cholesterol to occurrence of IHD in subjects<65 y.o. was significant. Lower HDL-cholesterol was also significantly related to CVD in subjects >=65y.o. and especially those>=75 y.o. (n=1016; odds ratio, 0.511*; 95%CI, 0.239- 0.918, *P<0.05). Stepwise multiple regression analysis with onset of CVD as a dependent variable showed same result. Conclusion: Lower HDL-cholesterol is an important risk factor for not only IHD but also CVD, especially in the diabetic elderly" - See niacin at Amazon.com (niacin increases HDL).

Combination of vitamin K(2) and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor ameliorates cumulative recurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma - J Hepatol. 2009 May 15 - "A 48-month follow-up revealed that the combination treatment with VK and ACE-I markedly inhibited the cumulative recurrence of HCC in association with suppression of the serum level of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF); a central angiogenic factor. The serum level of lectin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein was also suppressed almost in parallel with VEGF. These beneficial effects were not observed with single treatment using VK or ACE-I" - See vitamin K at Amazon.com.

Effect of contraceptive pill on the selenium and zinc status of healthy subjects - Contraception. 2009 Jul;80(1):40-3 - "Use of OCP resulted in a significant decrease in serum zinc levels (p</=.009, t=-3.666) and alteration of selenium levels but not significantly (p=.08, t=0.935)"

Effect of Coffee and Green Tea Consumption on the Risk of Liver Cancer: Cohort Analysis by Hepatitis Virus Infection Status - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2009 Jun;18(6):1746-1753 - "Compared with almost never drinkers, increased coffee consumption was associated with a reduced risk of liver cancer in all subjects (hazard ratio for <1, 1-2, and >/=3 cups/d; P(trend) = 0.67, 0.49, 0.54, and 0.025). A similar risk tendency was observed in those with either or both HCV and HBV infection. In contrast, no association was observed between green tea consumption and the risk of liver cancer in all subjects"

Pioglitazone Improves Endothelial Function with Increased Adiponectin and High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels in Type 2 Diabetes - Endocr J. 2009 Jun 9 - "After treatment, HbA1c levels equally decreased in both groups, but PIO-treated group had significantly increased high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels, and decreased triglyceride, fasting insulin levels and HOMA-R. After treatment, increases in %FMD, plasma HDL-C and adiponectin (APN) levels were significantly greater in PIO-treated group than those in control group. Changes of %FMD showed significant positive correlations with those of plasma APN and HDL-C levels. In conclusion, the present study showed that treatment of T2DM improved endothelial function with greater increases in %FMD, APN and HDL-C levels in PIO-treated group than those in control group, suggesting the beneficial effect of PIO on endothelial function in T2DM" - See pioglitazone at OffshoreRx1.com.  Some may think I'm crazy but I still take pioglitazone for antiaging (decreasing advanced glycation end products, decrease chances of diabetes in addition to above).

Zinc Deficiency Reduces Bone Mineral Density in the Spine of Young Adult Rats: A Pilot Study - Ann Nutr Metab. 2009 Jun 9;54(3):218-226 - "These findings indicate that severe zinc deficiency initiated during adolescence may have important implications for future bone health, especially with regards to bone consolidation in the spine"

Neat Tech Stuff :

  • Does Microsoft's Bing have Google running scared? -  CNET News, 6/14/09 - "In a story headlined "Fear grips Google," the New York Post reports that the launch of Microsoft's Bing search engine has so upset Google co-founder Sergey Brin that he has top engineers working on "urgent upgrades" to Google's service" - See Bing.com.  I made a web page (click here) with both a Google and Bing search block of my website and did a search of "ginkgo" and the Google returned much better results.

Supplement Focus (Co-enzyme Q10):

News & Research:

Abstracts:

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