Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 6/11/03:

A Healthy Heart - Newsweek, 6/16/03 - "If small LDL is the kind of cholesterol you definitely don’t want to have, then HDL2B is the kind you definitely do want to have, and the more the better. HDL2B is a superefficient type of HDL, the good cholesterol that helps clear partially blocked arteries. HDL2B, the strongest possible protection against heart disease, is measured as a percentage of total HDL, and Superko likes his patients to be above 35 percent (for postmenopausal women, above 45 percent)" - See my HDL page.  Many are recommending HDL be a lot higher than that. - Ben

Extra Pounds Could Dim Your Eyesight - HealthDay, 6/11/03 - "Patients with a high body mass index (25 to 29, which constitutes "overweight," and 30 or more, which is considered "obese") experienced the fastest AMD disease progression -- nearly twice as fast as those with a lower body mass index ... those who participated in regular exercise saw a reduction in disease progression"

Inflammation Linked to Age-Related Maculopathy - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/03 - "2 physiological signs of systemic inflammation, high white blood cell (WBC) count and low serum albumin levels, were associated with long term incidence of lesions characteristic of ARM ... Specifically, higher WBC count at baseline was linked to 2 early signs of ARM, an increase in large retinal drusen and RPE depigmentation, as well as progression of ARM. Lower serum albumin was associated with a late sign of ARM, exudative macular degeneration" - See my inflammation page for ways to reduce it.

A Better Way to Gauge High Blood Pressure - HealthDay, 6/11/03 - "Blood pressure readings can be affected by a number of things, including what you've eaten or how you're feeling. For example, many people have higher-than-normal blood pressure readings at the doctor's office because they're anxious about being there ... People whose 24-hour systolic pressure had been above 135 mmHg were almost twice as likely to have had a heart attack or stroke as those with a normal systolic reading. This was true even if they had had a normal blood pressure reading at the doctor's office"

Hormone Replacement Therapy Reduces Risk of Cataracts in Post-Menopausal Women - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/03 - "Women who do not use hormone replacement therapy are twice as likely to develop lens opacities, and cataracts compared with women who do use HRT/oestrogen"

Physicians Not Aggressive Enough In The Prescribing and Monitoring of Lipid-Lowering Agents - Doctor's Guide, 6/11/03 - "Clearly physicians need to be more aggressive in putting patients with high cholesterol on lipid-lowering agents, and there needs to be more vigilance by physicians in monitoring compliance and effectiveness ... A great portion of these patients were never adequately monitored with lab tests, so [physicians] can't possibly know if the therapy is…effective if they don't order lipid-monitoring tests"

Testim Testosterone Gel Enhances Sexual Motivation and Performance In Males With Hypogonadism - Doctor's Guide, 6/10/03 - "Testim testosterone gel significantly improved sexual performance while also increasing lean body mass without exercise ... Patients treated with Testim also showed greater improvements in lean body mass, spontaneous erections, sexual desire and sexual performance as compared to patients treated with a transdermal patch or placebo ... prostate adverse events with Testim were very low, and similar to placebo"

Some Calcium Pills Fail Quality Tests; Coral Calcium Claims Debunked - WebMD, 6/10/03 - "Calcium carbonate -- the most common and least expensive -- comes from oyster shells and is absorbed best when taken with a meal ... Calcium citrate and calcium gluconate are formulated so that they can be taken without food ... Three of the 15 products failed testing ... Citracal Ultradense ... Coral Calcium Supreme ... Source Naturals" - See Calcium review - ConsumerLab.com, 6/10/03

Regulators want to stop false health claims about coral calcium supplements - USA Today, 6/10/03 - "The Federal Trade Commission is asking a federal court in Chicago to shut down an operation that sells Coral Calcium Supreme, a product advertised with one of the most widely run infomercials on cable television this year"

Aspirin May Be Better Than Ticlopidine for Recurrent Stroke Prevention... - Medscape, 6/10/03 - "Ticlopidine (Ticlid; Roche) does not appear to be superior to aspirin in preventing recurrent strokes in African-American patients"

Light Drinking May Cut Diabetes Risk - Intelihealth, 6/10/03 - "women who had about half a drink to two drinks a day were 58 percent less likely than nondrinkers to develop type 2 diabetes ... those who had more than two drinks of hard liquor a day faced more than double the risk of nondrinkers ... Small amounts of alcohol are believed to help the body make better use of insulin"

Healthy Diet Now, Lower Health Costs Later - HealthDay, 6/9/03 - "switching to a diet high in fruits and vegetables at that stage in life translates into lower health-care costs during old age ... The 237 men in the high group had the lowest total annual Medicare charges ($11,416) and the lowest charges related to coronary heart disease and cardiovascular disease. The 290 men in the low group had annual Medicare charges of $14,655"

Statins, Lifestyle Changes Cut Artery Plaque - HealthDay, 6/9/03 - "Taking cholesterol-lowering drugs and making healthy lifestyle changes can reduce dangerous plaque in heart arteries by a third" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See iHerb and Vitacost red yeast products.

Iron May Increase Risk of Parkinson's Disease - WebMD, 6/9/03 - "The rate of Parkinson's disease was almost double in those with the highest intake of iron and the trace mineral manganese ... To put it in perspective, a person's lifetime risk of getting Parkinson's disease is about one in 1,000, so doubling that means the risk would be two in 1,000"

FDA Approves New Strength of Prempro, Low Dose Hormone Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 6/9/03 - "Prempro 0.3 mg/1.5 mg is approved for the treatment of moderate to severe symptoms associated with menopause, such as hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness; and for the prevention of postmenopausal osteoporosis."

Disappointing Data Confound Claims For DHEA Effectiveness [against Alzheimer's] - Psychiatric News, 6/6/03 - "Twenty-eight patients were blindly chosen to receive 50 mg of DHEA twice a day for six months ... The dose of DHEA, Wolkowtiz said, was targeted to achieve blood levels of the hormone at or slightly above the top of the normal range of DHEA levels found in healthy young adults ... numerically, DHEA did have a benefit on cognitive ratings, but overall, on the CIBIC-Plus, there was no significant benefit shown ... at three months, the DHEA group, compared with placebo, showed a trend toward improvement on the ADAS-Cog, but the improvement only narrowly missed being statistically significant ... DHEA has been reported to reduce cortisol, the so-called "stress hormone," which in response to stress is released in large quantities that have been linked to neuronal stress and damage" -  Does anyone detect bias in that title?  I don't know if DHEA helps Alzheimer's or not but I feel the title should have been something like "Alzheimer's Shows Trend Toward Improvement with DHEA at 3 Months".  Their attitude seems to be that nothing works except what they write prescriptions for.  The way I understand it, Alzheimer's usually gets worse, not better and cholinesterase inhibitors slow the disease, they don't reverse it and three months is a short time to determine if it is working.  For example, see the following  in the same issue of Clinical Psychiatry News.  See iHerb or Vitacost DHEA products. - Ben

• NSAIDs May Protect Against Alzheimer's - Clinical Psychiatry News, 6/03 - "Long-term use of NSAIDs—24 months or longer—was associated with a significant protective effect"- See drugstore.com ibuprofen products.

St. John’s Wort - Psychiatric News, 6/6/03 - "The National Institute of Mental Health may be wasting $4 million in the projected study of St. John’s wort for minor depression (Psychiatric News, April 18). Depressions that are not even severe enough to meet the elastic criteria for dysthymia are doubtful candidates to qualify as clinical disorders" - I still feel they used way to low of a dose regarding the study with severe depression.  For example, the dosage for Effexor is from 75 mg or 375 mg, a factor of 5.  They didn't even go close to a factor of 2 with the SJW study.

Vegetarian Diets Get Green Light - HealthDay, 6/6/03 - "Vegetarians have been reported to have healthier body weight than non-vegetarians, as well as lower rates of death from heart disease, lower blood cholesterol levels and lower rates of high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and prostate and colon cancer"

Vitamin D May Aid Breast Cancer Treatment - HealthDay, 6/6/03 - "a derivative of vitamin D known as EB1089 may yield some powerful anti-cancer properties, particularly when combined with radiation therapy"

Sunny Carotenoids for Better Health - Health Supplement Retailer 06/03 - "Comparing 65 patients with prostate cancer to 132 cancer-free controls, they found an inverse association between lycopene, zeaxanthin, lutein and cryptoxanthin levels and prostate cancer incidence ... "In vitro studies have shown that sometimes isolated, synthetic lycopene does not work as well as tomatoes or natural tomato extract," said Diane Fremont, sales director for Lycored, the Beer-Sheva, Israel-based supplier of Lyc-O-Mato® natural lycopene complex. "There is a synergistic effect with a combination of phytonutrients."" - See Lycosorb (contain Lyc-O-Mato®) at iHerb.

Mirtazapine Lifts Mood of Older Depressed Patients - Clinical Psychiatry News, 6/03 - "The drug's anxiolytic and sleep-improving properties, minimal gastrointestinal side effects, low risk of drug-drug interactions, and modest associated weight gain are significant advantages" - Mirtazapine is the one that may reduce cortisol.

Transdermal MAO Inhibitor Patch Effective for ADHD - Clinical Psychiatry News, 6/03 - "A transdermal patch containing the selective monoamine oxidase inhibitor selegiline applied daily appeared effective and well tolerated in a pilot study of children and adolescents with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder ... Selegiline is a specific monoamine oxidase (MAO) type B inhibitor, so it “is essentially devoid of the tyramine-cheese effect we think about with MAO [type A] inhibitors" - Selegiline is used my many for anti-aging.

Pretty in Pink: Atlantic Salmon Under Fire - Natural Foods Merchandiser, 6/03 - "farm-bred salmon—which accounts for 95 percent of Atlantic salmon—is naturally gray. Wild salmon, on the other hand, derives its familiar pink hue from its diet of small crustaceans. So salmon farmers add a dye to their fish feed mix, making it indistinguishable from wild salmon and more appealing to consumers ... Many consumers, however, seek to avoid farm-raised salmon because of concerns about its exposure to antibiotics and PCBs, its higher fat content and its lower omega-3 profile. Research also suggests that canthaxanthin, the most common colorant, may cause an accumulation of pigments in the retina, resulting in impaired vision"

A Cup of Tea Helps Boost T Cells - Natural Foods Merchandiser, 6/03 - "In initial in vitro tests, researchers mixed gamma delta T cells, a main weapon for the immune system, with ethylamine, which is produced when the liver breaks down the amino acid L-theanine ... The mixture resulted in a tenfold increase in gamma delta T cells, producing high levels of disease-fighting chemicals and a stronger immune response ... After four weeks, blood samples from the tea drinkers showed five times more disease-fighting chemicals than samples from the coffee drinkers" - See iHerb L-theanine products.

Answering the Fish or Flax Question - Natural Foods Merchandiser, 6/03 - "ALA's only known essential role is to serve as a precursor to EPA and DHA. Although one study reported conversions of up to 15 percent,2 most researchers believe adults can only convert a small amount of ALA to EPA/DHA (perhaps less than 1 percent)" - ALA is the form of omega-3 in flax oil. - Ben

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

Vitamin D Deficiency Masquerading as Pseudohypoparathyroidism Type 2 - Journal of The Association of Physicians of India, 6/03 - "Phenytoin and phenobarbitone are well known to cause vitamin D deficiency by decreasing intestinal absorption and increasing metabolism of 25 (OH) D in liver ... vitamin D deficiency can mimic PHP-II and therefore before considering this rare diagnosis vitamin D deficiency must be excluded"

Dietary carotenoids and risk of coronary artery disease in women - Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jun;77(6):1390-9 - "Higher intakes of foods rich in alpha-carotene or beta-carotene are associated with a reduction in risk of CAD"

Dietary intakes and plasma concentrations of carotenoids and tocopherols in relation to glucose metabolism in subjects at high risk of type 2 diabetes: the Botnia Dietary Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jun;77(6):1434-41 - "The data suggest an advantageous association of carotenoids, which are markers of fruit and vegetable intake, with glucose metabolism in men at high risk of type 2 diabetes"

Calcium intake, body composition, and lipoprotein-lipid concentrations in adults - Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jun;77(6):1448-52 - "divided into 3 groups on the basis of their daily calcium intake: groups A (< 600 mg), B (600-1000 mg), and C (> 1000 mg) ... In women, a significantly greater ratio of total to HDL cholesterol (P < 0.05) was observed in group A than in group C after correction for body fat mass and waist circumference. In women, body weight, percentage body fat, fat mass, body mass index, waist circumference, and total abdominal adipose tissue area measured by computed tomography were significantly greater (P < 0.05) in group A than in groups B and C, even after adjustments for confounding variables. Comparable trends were observed in men, but not after adjustment for the same covariates. CONCLUSION: A low daily calcium intake is associated with greater adiposity, particularly in women. In both sexes, a high calcium intake is associated with a plasma lipoprotein-lipid profile predictive of a lower risk of coronary heart disease risk compared with a low calcium intake"

Isoflavones and cognitive function in older women: the SOy and Postmenopausal Health In Aging (SOPHIA) Study - Menopause. 2003 May-Jun;10(3):196-202 - "Women randomized to active treatment (n = 27) took two pills per day, each containing 55 mg of soy-extracted isoflavones (110 mg total isoflavones per day ... Comparisons of percentage change in cognitive function between baseline and follow-up showed greater improvement in category fluency for women on active treatment as compared with the case of those on placebo (P = 0.02) and showed (nonsignificantly) greater improvement on the two other tests of verbal memory"

Oral vitamin D3 decreases fracture risk in the elderly - J Fam Pract. 2003 Jun;52(6):431-5 - "Despite a seemingly large dose averaging 800 IU per day, this regimen is a safe, cheap (<$2 per year), and effective therapy for primary prevention of fractures"

Not all fish products prevent heart disease - J Fam Pract. 2003 Jun;52(6):438-41 - "For patients aged >65 years, modest consumption of tuna and other broiled/baked fish is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease and fatal arrhythmias. The same is not true of fried fish or fish burgers"

Hesperidin, a Citrus Flavonoid, Inhibits Bone Loss and Decreases Serum and Hepatic Lipids in Ovariectomized Mice - J. Nutr. 133:1892-1897, June 2003 - "These results suggest a possible role for citrus flavonoids in the prevention of lifestyle-related diseases because of their beneficial effects on bone and lipids"

Omega-3 fatty acids and non-communicable diseases - Chin Med J (Engl). 2003 Mar;116(3):453-8 - "omega-3 PUFA has beneficial effects on increasing heart rate variability, decreasing the risk of stroke, reducing both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, insulin resistance and glucose metabolism. Long chain omega-3 PUFA has anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory activities. omega-3 PUFA has also been reported to have a beneficial effect on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and schizophrenia, and may be effective in managing depression in adults. CONCLUSIONS: Results from epidemiological and dietary intervention studies have shown that omega-3 PUFA represent powerfully a class of bioactive compounds and that dietary intake of omega-3 PUFA plays a critical role in human health in relation to non-communicable diseases" - See Mega Twin EPA at iHerb or Vitacost.

Affiliates (I could sure use some sales.  Click here for more stores):