Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 12/17/03:

Anger, isolation raise risk of gum deterioration, study finds - HealthDay, 12/17/03 - "stress is associated with poor oral hygiene, increased glucocorticoid secretion (which can depress immune function), and increased insulin resistance. All these factors can increase the risk of gum disease"

Echinacea is Effective if you use an Effective Product - Dr. Murray's Natural Facts, 12/17/03 - "The bottom line here is that echinacea is effective if you use an effective product ... I recommend Echinamide, a patented, super-extracted Echinacea product developed and marketed by Natural Factors" - See iHerb Echinamide products.

• ConsumerLabs claims 44 percent of echinacea products failed testing - Herbs.org - I feel that's the reason for conflicting studies with echinacea. - Ben

European Wrinkle Smoother Approved - HealthDay, 12/17/03 - "The treatment, an injectable gel called Restylane, has long been used in Europe and is the third injectable wrinkle treatment to win FDA approval"

Citrus Nutrient Helps Slow Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 12/16/03 - "Every day, patients took 18 capsules of pectin: Each contained 14 grams of pectin, equaling 800 mg a day ... Fourteen months later, 70% of the men had significant increases in the time it took to produce PSA -- it took longer for prostate cells to produce a doubling of blood PSA levels" - See iHerb or Vitacost apple pectin products pectin products.

Metabolic Syndrome Players Deadly When Combined - HealthDay, 12/16/03 - "it is estimated that conservatively that approximately 25 percent of the U.S. adult population has metabolic syndrome and it increases with age. When you have people over 40, it's as many as 40 percent ... High triglycerides increased the odds of having a heart attack or stroke by 66 percent, while high blood pressure raised the odds by 44 percent. Insulin resistance elevated the risk by 30 percent and low HDL ("good") cholesterol by 35 percent"

Human Growth Hormone (HGH) and Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) Supplements - ConsumerLab.com, 12/14/03 - "The amino acids arginine, glutamine, histidine, methionine, phenylalanine, and lysine all appear to cause a rise in growth hormone that lasts for an hour or so ... the effects are very short-lived ... HGH spiked for a half hour or so after use of supplement, but then fell back to its original level"

Low-Dose DHEA Increases Androgen, Estrogen Levels in Menopause - Medscape, 12/12/03 - "Testosterone and dihydrotestosterone plasma levels, and plasma E1 and E2 levels increased significantly and progressively in both groups ... Cortisol F plasma levels progressively decreased throughout the study. Both groups also experienced significantly reduced LH and FSH plasma levels. GH and IGF-1 levels significantly increased in both groups. Supplementation did not induce changes in endometrial thickness ... These data support and confirm that DHEA must be considered a valid compound and drug for [hormone therapy] in postmenopausal women and not just a 'dietary supplement" - See iHerb or Vitacost DHEA products.

The Herbal Way To Keep Flu at Bay - WebMD, 12/12/03 - ""Astragalus is an immune-enhancing herb to ward off flu," Weil says ... I also use a mushroom product called Host Defense, an extract of seven mushrooms ... I think it is useful to be on a good multivitamin, multimineral supplement" - See iHerb Host Defense products.

Protein linked to longer life - MSNBC, 12/11/03 - "We have shown that if you reduce TOR activity artificially or even knock it out you enhance longevity. That is the way food may be linked to longevity. No food, low food, TOR goes down and age (longevity) goes up"

Combinination Levothyroxine/Liothyronine Shows No Obvious Benefit Over Levothyroxine Alone in Patients With Primary Hypothyroidism - Doctor's Guide, 12/11/03 - "Patients who are treated with a combination of levothyroxine plus liothyronine for primary hypothyroidism gained no apparent benefit compared with patients treated with levothyroxine monotherapy" - Note:  That contradicts previous studies and my own experience.  Also, I wonder if they had anyone with high cortisol or people with depression in the study.  See:

• Wilson's Reverse T3 Dominance Syndrome - knoxintegrativemed.com - "However, when a person experiences prolonged stress, the adrenal glands respond by manufacturing a large amount of cortisol. Cortisol inhibits the conversion of T4 to T3 and favors the conversion of T4 to RT3. If stress is prolonged, a condition called Reverse T3 Dominance occurs and persists even after the stress passes and cortisol levels fall. Apparently, RT3 itself acts like cortisol and blocks the conversion of T4 to T3"
• Thyroid Hormones Accelerate Depressive Response to Drug Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 10/30/01 - "Five of the six studies found T3 to be significantly more effective than placebo in accelerating clinical response ... Investigators say they found that the average effect was highly significant"
• Replacing T4 With Triiodothyronine Improves Cognition And Mood In Hypothyroidism - Doctor's Guide, 7/5/00 - "Substituting T3 for a portion of T4 changed the concentrations of thyroid hormones and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) as well as improving cognition and mood"
• Adding Natural Hormone Boosts Brain Function In Hypothyroidism - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/99 - "We found there wasn't much difference between the two treatments in terms of metabolic effects or effects on various peripheral organs," Prange said. "There were big differences, however, in the mental state of the patients. If these findings hold up, they will be very important."

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

Dietary linolenic acid is inversely associated with plasma triacylglycerol: the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Family Heart Study - Am J of Clin Nutr, Vol. 78, No. 6, 1098-1102, 12/03 - "We used generalized linear models to estimate adjusted mean triacylglycerol concentrations according to categories of total dietary linolenic acid (alpha- and gamma-linolenic acid) intake ... Consumption of total linolenic acid is inversely related to plasma triacylglycerol concentrations in both white men and white women. This suggests a pathway by which dietary linolenic acid might reduce cardiovascular disease risk" - The way I understand it, by linolenic acid they are talking about alpha (omega-3) and gamma (GLA, an omega-6). - Ben

Lycopene, ß-carotene, and colorectal adenomas -Am  J  of Clin Nutr, Vol. 78, No. 6, 1219-1224, 12/03 - "Our findings support the hypothesis that lycopene contributes to the protective effect of high tomato intakes against the risk of colorectal adenomas"

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