Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 7/16/03:

If anyone hasn't gotten the word, check out http://donotcall.gov/ to enroll in the National Do Not Call Registry.

Fessing Up to Fats - Time Magazine, 7/21/03 - "Even small quantities of trans-fatty acids, we now know, raise bad cholesterol and other blood fats. They may also reduce levels of HDL — or good — cholesterol and increase the risk of diabetes. And because of antiquated labeling rules, products that were practically swimming in trans-fatty acids could be called "fat-free.""

Higher Folate Levels Correlate with Improved Outcome for SSRI-Treated Geriatric Patients - Doctor's Guide, 7/16/03 - "Geriatric patients who are treated with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) sertraline appear to experience greater improvement in depression if they have higher than normal folate levels at the start of therapy" - See iHerb folic acid products.  Related articles:

• B-vitamin Problems May Cause Depression in Some - Medline Plus, 7/4/03 - "The results ... could even support the suggestion that folate may prevent depression ... people who had relatively high levels of homocysteine in their blood were almost twice as likely to be depressed, relative to people with the lowest blood levels of homocysteine ... depression was also linked to a form of the gene for a folate-processing enzyme associated with poorer efficiency in the breakdown of folate"
• Low Folate Concentrations Associated With Depression - Doctor's Guide, 5/2/03 - "Physically healthy people who are depressed have detectably lower folate status than those who are not depressed" - See iHerb folic acid products.
• Folic Acid May Help Depression - Health Supplement Retailer, 3/12/03 - "folic acid supplementation may be key in recovering from depression"
• Depression and Folate Status in the US Population - Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 2003;72:80-87 - "Low folate status was found to be most characteristic of recently recovered subjects, and a large proportion of such subjects were folate deficient. Conclusions: Low folate status was detectable in depressed members of the general US population. Folate supplementation may be indicated during the year following a depressive episode"
• Mechanisms Differ Between Depression and Either Vitamin B12 Or Folate - Doctor's Guide, 12/10/02 - "hyperhomocysteinemia, vitamin B12 deficiency and, to a lesser extent, folate deficiency all were related to depressive disorders"
• Folic Acid Aids Prozac - Delicious! Online, 4/02 - "Only 6.1 percent of the women in the folic acid group failed to respond (a greater than 50 percent symptom improvement), whereas 38.9 percent failed to respond when given fluoxetine alone ... The authors suggest that men were not given enough folic acid, supported by the fact that the marker for folic acid sufficiency—serum homocysteine—did not go down in men (indicating improvement in folic acid status), whereas in women it did"

High Dietary Calcium Intake Associated with Lower Age-Related Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 7/16/03 - "In industrialized nations, SBP increases with age, whereas diastolic blood pressure (DBP) tends to decrease with age, thereby increasing pulse pressure (defined as the difference between SBP and DBP) ... higher calcium intake was associated with lower rates of age-related increases of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure ... If the calcium intake of the general population were to increase to above 1,200 mg, the incidence of isolated systolic hypertension in the elderly might be decreased" - See drugstore.com/GNC calcium supplements.

Low-Dose Antihypertensive Combinations May Increase Benefit Compared To Standard Doses Of Fewer Drugs - Doctor's Guide, 7/16/03 - "Combinations of two or three drugs at low dose are…preferable to one or two drugs at standard dose," Dr. Law and colleagues note. "Everyone at increased risk would benefit from using three drugs, apart from those with contraindications to a particular drug."

Vitamin C Cuts Heart Disease Risk in Women - HealthDay, 7/16/03 - "women who had a vitamin C intake of more than 360 milligrams a day from diet and supplements had nearly a 30 percent reduction in their risk of heart disease ... studied data from the large, ongoing Nurse's Health Study, which began in 1976 ... Interestingly, dietary intake of vitamin C seemed to have little effect on coronary heart disease risk. But if women used vitamin C supplements, their risk was reduced by 27 percent"

High Cysteine Levels Linked to Lower Rates of Breast Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 7/15/03 - "Women in the highest quintile for measured cysteine levels in this study had a 56% lower risk of invasive or in situ breast cancer than women in the lowest quintile ... The findings were more pronounced when only invasive cancer was considered ... Cysteine or its precursors might have the potential to be chemoprotective against breast cancer" - See iHerb or Vitacost cysteine products.

NSAID Use Linked to Lower Rates of Breast Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 7/15/03 - "Ten years or more of ibuprofen use reduced a patient's risk nearly in half (RR=0.51, P<0.04), and just 1 to 4 years of regular use was associated with a 29% reduction in risk. The effect of acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) was weaker, with 10 years of use of full-strength Aspirin associated with a 21% risk reduction that did not achieve significance ... Neither acetaminophen nor low-dose Aspirin was associated with a reduction in breast-cancer risk ... he found the evidence of a chemoprotective effect compelling enough to treat himself with 200 mg of ibuprofen per day" - See Drugstore.com ibuprofen products.

On paper (I'm not a doctor), it would seem that ibuprofen or cysteine (see above) would counter the effect of HRT on breast cancer.  See:

• Study Confirms HRT Ups Breast Cancer Risk - WebMD, 2/12/02 - "The risk of ductal cancer -- the most common form of breast cancer -- increases by 50% in women who have used HRT for five recent years ...If our results are correct, then nonusers of HRT would have an incidence of ductal cancer of about 230 per 100,000 women per year, whereas women with five years of recent HRT use would have a rate of 349 per 100,000 women per year"

You Want Statins With That? - Newsweek, 7/14/03 - "Promising new research is underway to investigate statins as a treatment for a number of other disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis and even cancer"

Test Yourself: Cholesterol - Newsweek, 7/14/03 - "Although so-called dietary cholesterol does raise blood cholesterol in most people, the chief culprit is saturated fat. The most effective way to control blood cholesterol is to reduce foods high in saturated fat, such as full-fat cheese, cream, butter and meat"

Hormone Melatonin Slows Breast Cancer - WebMD, 7/14/03 - "The nighttime hormone melatonin puts breast cancer cells to sleep. It also slows breast cancer growth by 70%" - See iHerb or Vitacost melatonin products.

What do you think of the new study showing that antioxidants don’t cut the risk of heart disease - Dr. Weil, 7/14/03 - "If you want to supplement your diet, take a product that provides as many members of this family of protective pigments as possible: alpha-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin, lycopene, etc. As for vitamin E, most studies use synthetic alpha-tocopherol. I recommend using natural vitamin E supplements that provide all four tocopherols and all four tocotrienols" - I've been saying for some time that beta-carotene is just one of over 600 carotenoids and taking just one may cause a deficiency of the others.  Same for vitamin E.  See:

• Effect of oral supplementation with D-alpha-tocopherol on the vitamin E content of human low density lipoproteins and resistance to oxidation - Medline, 8/91 - "gamma-Tocopherol significantly decreased in plasma and LDL during vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) supplementation"

Our mother's bones - US News & World Report, 7/14/03 - "Sadly, when they are in their prime bone-forming years, young people turn away from calcium-rich milk and cheese to diet drinks and fast food. A supplement is often the only way to get them the 1,300 milligrams of calcium a day they need ... elevation of the stress hormone cortisol, which sucks calcium from bones ... [in men] It is hastened by the inevitable downward drift of testosterone, which in turn starves bone tissue of its favorite hormone--estrogen. (Bone tissue uses a special enzyme, aromatase, to convert testosterone into estrogen.) Other factors, such as modern treatments for prostate cancer that block testosterone production to inhibit prostate cell growth, add to the pool of men at risk for bone fractures" - See drugstore.com/GNC calcium plus vitamin D supplements.

Pelvic floor exercises counter erectile dysfunction - HealthDay, 7/11/03 - "men with erectile dysfunction who did pelvic floor exercises had the same overall improvement as men in a large trial of Viagra" - See:

• Pelvic floor exercises for men - health.gov.au - "Why the pelvic floor muscles may weaken ... constipation"

Cholesterol: Finding Right Mix - CBS News, 7/11/03 - "High-density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is known as the "good" cholesterol. It helps move the bad cholesterol through the body's system to get rid of excess amounts. With enough "good" cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol doesn't get a chance to build up ... Your total cholesterol should be less than 200. Levels of "good" cholesterol should be below 40. Levels of "bad" cholesterol should be less than 130, or less than 100 if you already have heart disease ... Certain foods such as soy, whole grain oats or fish containing omega-3 fatty acids can lower cholesterol" - See my HDL page.  I believe that "Levels of "good" cholesterol should be below 40" should be "above" not "below".  The following on 7/14/03 answers that question:

• Metabolic syndrome also warns of heart disease - HealthDay, 7/14/03 - "three of the five following risk factors would be considered to have metabolic syndrome ... Low HDL cholesterol, the "good" kind, under 40 milligrams per deciliter for men, 50 for women ... And adding another element, blood levels of C-reactive protein, which is involved in inflammation, improved the predictive power substantially ... A diet that is balanced, low in fat and rich in vegetables, fruits and bread grains is an effective measure"

Trans Fatty Acids - WebMD, 7/11/03 - "Saturated fats and trans fat have bad effects on cholesterol levels. Polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats (such as olive oil, canola oil, soybean oil, and corn oil) have good effects ... If the ingredient list includes the words "shortening," "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" or "hydrogenated vegetable oil," the food contains trans fat. Because ingredients are listed in descending order of predominance, smaller amounts are present when the ingredient is close to the end of the list"

Inflammation Linked to Cognitive Decline - HealthDay, 7/11/03 - "The scientists took blood levels of three known markers of inflammation, including interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein and tumor necrosis factor. They repeated the tests two years later ... If their IL-6 result was high, they were 34 percent more likely to have cognitive decline than those whose scores on the tests were in the lower third. If their C-reactive protein levels were in the top third, they were 41 percent more likely to have cognitive decline than those in the lower third ... research looking at anti-inflammatory drugs shows more promise as a preventive option, rather than as a treatment"

Skip Breakfast, Get Fat - HealthDay, 7/11/03 - "late eaters are no more likely to be overweight than anyone else ... Americans who regularly skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be fat ... those who eat four or more meals a day are actually on the thinner side ... people who ate more than three times a day were about half as likely to be fat as those who ate three or fewer times a day. Ma suspects the difference may have something to do with fewer spikes in blood sugar levels among the frequent eaters"

Brushing Right After Drinking Soda May Harm Teeth - Medline Plus, 7/7/03 - "The loss of material was less when the participants waited with cleaning for between 30 and 60 minutes ... tooth enamel appears to suffer less damage when brushing occurs after the tooth has had time to mount its own defense against acidic erosion"

Isoflavones Reduce Arterial Stiffness in Healthy Men and Women - Medscape, 7/4/03 - "took red clover-derived isoflavones and placebo for two 6-week periods ... Subjects were given a total daily dose of 80 mg ... Treatment with the formononetin-enriched isoflavones "significantly reduced arterial stiffness with improved systemic arterial compliance...attributable to a reduction in total peripheral resistance...and a corresponding reduction in central pulse wave velocity,""

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

The importance of omega-3 fatty acids for behaviour, cognition and mood - Scandinavian Journal of Nutrition, Volume 47, Number 2/2003 - "There is mounting evidence that functional deficiencies or imbalances in certain highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA) of the omega-3 and omega-6 series may contribute to a wide range of developmental and psychiatric conditions, including dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, depression, bipolar disorder and the schizophrenia spectrum. These nutrients are essential to the development and function of the brain, but the omega-3 HUFA in particular (eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids) are often lacking from modern diets ... The evidence presented here therefore has implications for the general population, and indicates that an adequate dietary intake of omega-3 fatty acids in particular may be crucial for optimal mental health and functioning" - See TwinLab Mega Twin EPA at Vitacost or iHerb.

Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in elderly women in Italy: clinical consequences and risk factors - Osteoporos Int. 2003 Jul 11 - "Vitamin D deficiency is extremely common among elderly Italian women ... Hypovitaminosis D is associated with worsening of the ability to perform activities of daily living and higher hip fracture prevalence. This finding should lead to an urgent population-based strategy to remedy this condition" - See drugstore.com/GNC calcium plus vitamin D supplements.

Aspirin–Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor Coadministration and Mortality in Patients With Heart Failure - Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:1574-1579 - "the combination of high-dose aspirin with an ACEI was independently associated with the risk of death ... and that the combination of low-dose aspirin with an ACEI was not" - See Drugstore.com low dose aspirin products.

High-Density vs Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol as the Risk Factor for Coronary Artery Disease and Stroke in Old Age - Arch Intern Med. 2003;163:1549-1554 - "low HDL cholesterol level was associated with a 2.0-fold higher risk of fatal cardiovascular disease ... The mortality risk of coronary artery disease was 2.0 ... and for stroke it was 2.6" - See my HDL page for ways to increase HDL.

Aripiprazole, an Antipsychotic With a Novel Mechanism of Action, and Risperidone vs Placebo in Patients With Schizophrenia and Schizoaffective Disorder - Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2003;60:681-690 - "It is the first non-D2 receptor antagonist with clear antipsychotic effects and represents a novel treatment development for psychotic disorders" - See my aripiprazole page.

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