Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 8/13/03:

FDA approves controversial statin - MSNBC, 8/12/03 - "Rare cases of a potentially fatal, muscle-destroying condition called rhabdomyolysis occurred in patients taking higher-than-recommended doses of Crestor ... The 80-mg Crestor dose also was linked to a few puzzling cases of kidney abnormalities, including protein and blood leaking into urine ... Like all statins, patients also need regular monitoring for signs of another rare problem, liver damage"

Popular Herb Doesn't Help Bad Cholesterol - WebMD, 8/12/03 - "In this study, 103 men and women -- all with high cholesterol -- were separated into three groups. One group took three, 1,000 mg doses of guggulipid daily -- a standard dose; the second group got a 2,000 mg dose of guggulipid -- a high dose, and the third group got placebo pills ... Those taking the placebo had 5% lower LDL cholesterol, whereas the guggulipid group had higher LDL levels. Those taking the standard dose had 4% higher LDL levels, and the high-dose group had 5% higher LDLs"

Low Dietary Calcium May be Major Cause of Nutritional Rickets Among North American Infants - Doctor's Guide, 8/12/03 - "New research shows that some North American infants are not receiving enough dietary calcium and, as a result, are developing rickets -- a disease usually attributed to a lack of vitamin D or insufficient exposure to sunlight -- at a higher level than previously thought"

New Diet Approach May Fight Child Obesity - WebMD, 8/12/03 - "a reduced-glycemic-load diet that emphasizes foods with a low to moderate glycemic index and allows children to eat until they're full was more effective than a traditional low-fat, calorie-restricted diet in helping obese children shed pounds and slow the progression of insulin resistance, a risk factor for diabetes ... Complex carbohydrates, such as whole-grain bread and cereals, brown rice, and vegetables, are foods with a low to moderate glycemic index"

Eating Fish Lowers Heart Rate - WebMD, 8/12/03 - "This current study involves more than 9,700 men -- all between 50 and 59 years old -- who had no signs of heart disease. Researchers kept track of them from 1991 to 1993, documenting their heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol, and other heart disease risk factors ... Fish eaters had the lowest heart rates. It's important information because even small reductions in heart rate can make a difference in sudden heart death" - See Mega Twin EPA at Vitacost or iHerb.

Hormone Replacement Therapy Associated with Increased Risk for Breast Cancer; Risk is Higher with Oestrogen-Progestagen Combinations - Doctor's Guide, 8/12/03 - "Compared with women who had never used HRT, those who were users of HRT at the time of recruitment had a 1.66 adjusted relative risk to develop breast cancer and a 1.22 adjusted relative risk to die from breast cancer. Conversely, women who had used HRT 5 to 9 years previously, compared with never users, did not show an increased risk for incident breast cancer ... or fatal breast cancer"

Oral, but Not Transdermal, Oestrogen Replacement Therapy Associated with Increased Risk of Venous Thromboembolism - Doctor's Guide, 8/12/03 - "Women currently using oral oestrogen-replacement therapy (ERT), compared with those using transdermal ERT and those not using ERT, show an increased risk for venous thromboembolism"

Osteoporosis Ails Males, Too - ABC News, 8/11/03 - "men over 50 are at greater risk of osteoporosis-related fractures than they are of prostate cancer"

Oral but not Transdermal Estrogen Replacement Therapy may Increase CRP Levels - Doctor's Guide, 8/11/03 - "Transdermal oestrogen appears to have no effect on C-reactive protein (CRP) levels after 6 months. In contrast, oral oestrogen may significantly increase CRP concentrations ... CRP is thought to promote the inflammatory component of atherosclerosis, and increased levels may be a strong predictor of cardiovascular events"

Exercise, Vitamin E Combo Can Slow Aging - HealthDay, 8/11/03 - "those who exercised regularly and took vitamin E supplements became healthier and greatly decreased their levels of a blood marker that signals destruction of certain cells ... people who didn't exercise, but took vitamin E, had large decreases in oxidative stress and blood pressure ... Cells, tissues and organs are damaged by the oxidation caused by free radicals. Previous research has shown that free radicals play a role in the development of cancer, obstructed arteries, Alzheimer's disease and some 200 other diseases, as well as the aging process itself"

Can Vitamins Help Kids With High Cholesterol? - HealthDay, 8/11/03 - "All of the participants followed the National Cholesterol Education Program Step II diet for the entire six months of the study ... After an initial six-week period, the participants were randomly assigned to receive either 500 milligrams of vitamin C and 400 international units of vitamin E per day or placebos for the next six weeks ... The diet had no effect on endothelial dysfunction ... The vitamin supplements, however, improved endothelial function to almost normal levels"

Copper may play role in Alzheimer’s - MSNBC, 8/11/03 - "This is something we need to investigate ... The Environmental Protection Agency has a maximum contaminant level goal for copper in drinking water of 1.3 parts per million ... Levels in the rabbits’ drinking water were well below that. ”We are working at one-tenth that,” ... But he believes that copper somehow interferes with the body’s ability to clear out the amyloid-beta protein that is an important component of the senile plaques that clog up the brain of an Alzheimer’s patient"

Increased Cortisol Levels Linked to Decrease in Attention - Medscape, 8/11/03 - "Corticosteroids may be responsible for cognitive complaints symptoms in patients who take high doses of the medication chronically"

Cancer Fighter: Vitamin B-6 - Physician's Weekly, 8/11/03 - "Washington State University researchers suggest that consuming more vitamin B-6 can ward off cancer. The vitamin Converts folate to a form the body can use to produce thymine, a component of DNA"

Inflammation May Be Culprit in Osteoarthritis - HealthDay, 8/8/03 - "nearly one-third of patients ready to undergo joint replacement surgery for osteoarthritis (OA) had severe inflammation in the synovial fluid that surrounds and protects the joints. This inflammation, already known to cause rheumatoid arthritis, could be a contributing factor in osteoarthritis as well, the researchers suggest" - See my inflammation page for other diseases being blamed on inflammation and for ways to reduce it.

Insulin Resistance May Be a Common Cause of Treatment-Resistant Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 8/7/03 - "They suggest that hyperinsulinaemia may increase blood pressure by several mechanisms, including stimulating the sympathetic nervous system, increasing renal sodium re-absorption, activating the Na+/H+ countertransport, and enhancing vessel wall cell proliferation and reactivity"

Estrogen Patch May Have Lower Clot Risk - WebMD, 8/7/03 - "the odds of having a venous thromboembolism for users of oral HRT was more than three times greater than the risk found among estrogen patch and gel users or women who weren't on HRT" - Related patch articles:

• Hormone Studies: What Went Wrong? - NY Times, 4/22/03 - "He said it was possible that estradiol, the estrogen women naturally produce and that goes directly to their bloodstream is protective. The estrogen in pills, metabolized by the liver before entering the blood, may be harmful. Neither the nurses' study nor the Women's Health Initiative addressed that question, Dr. Rossouw said"
• Estrogen Patch More Heart-Friendly Than Pills - WebMD, 4/15/03 - "the C-reactive protein increased to an average of almost twice their baseline levels when the women took oral estrogen replacement, but not when they were on the estrogen patch"

Sun Exposure May Reduce Multiple Sclerosis Risk - WebMD, 8/6/03 - "Researchers say the findings suggest there may be a link between multiple sclerosis and insufficient ultraviolet radiation or vitamin D -- or both"

E and C May Give Older Women a Mental Edge - Natural Foods Merchandiser, 8/03 - "The women who had taken vitamin C and E supplements for more than 10 years scored an average of 1.5 years younger in cognitive function than those not taking vitamins. The results were even more marked for those with low dietary vitamin E intake: Women with the lowest 30 percent of dietary vitamin E intake who did not take supplements tested two years older in mental function than women who compensated for low dietary intake with antioxidant supplements"

Vitamins And Minerals To Help You Reach Your Weight And Fitness Goals - Delicious! Online, 8/03 - "Calcium ... Chromium ... Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) ... Magnesium ... Vitamin C ... Vitamin D"

Herbal Remedies For Those At Risk For Or Already Diagnosed With Type 2 Diabetes - Delicious! Online, 8/03 - "Bilberry ... Dandelion ... Fenugreek ... Guar gum ... Stevia"

Beyond the Mediterranean Diet: The Role of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in the Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease - Medscape, 8/1/03 - "The current US consumption of n-3 fatty acids is significantly below recommended levels and new American Heart Association recommendations suggest consuming at least two fish meals per week. Although additional trials are needed, the favorable safety profile and existing clinical trials suggest n-3 fatty acids should be considered a new important adjunct to existing cardiovascular prevention strategies" - See Mega Twin EPA at Vitacost or iHerb.

Try Mirtazapine or Escitalopram for Speedy Onset - Clinical Psychiatry News, 8/03 - "When you need the quickest possible antidepressant effect, consider choosing mirtazapine or escitalopram for treatment or combining a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor with pindolol or olanzapine"

Remission Rates Shown Higher With Venlafaxine Than SSRIs - Clinical Psychiatry News, 8/03 - "Venlafaxine outperformed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in achieving remission in major depression, according to a pooled analysis of data from 33 randomized, double-blind, comparative clinical trials"

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics and this month's American Journal of Psychiatry:

Fish oil prevents the adrenal activation elicited by mental stress in healthy men - Diabetes Metab. 2003 Jun;29(3):289-295 - "In control conditions, mental stress significantly increased heart rate, mean blood pressure, and energy expenditure. It increased plasma epinephrine from 60.9 +/- 6.2 to 89.3 +/- 16.1 pg/ml (p<0.05), plasma cortisol from 291 +/- 32 to 372 +/- 37 micromol/l ... After 3 weeks of a diet supplemented with n-3 fatty acids, the stimulation by mental stress of plasma epinephrine, cortisol, energy expenditure, and plasma non esterified fatty acids concentrations, were all significantly blunted ... Supplementation with n-3 fatty acids inhibits the adrenal activation elicited by a mental stress" - See Mega Twin EPA at Vitacost or iHerb.

Is it possible to prevent type 2 diabetes? - Ann Endocrinol (Paris). 2003 Jun;64(3 Suppl):37-44 - "Four prospective randomised long-term studies have been recently completed and published ... Both of them clearly demonstrate the possibility to delay and/or prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes in at high-risk subjects with impaired glucose tolerance, through changes in lifestyle (dietary intervention, weight reduction, increased physical activity) or drug treatment (metformin, acarbose, orlistat)"

Short-term use of estradiol for depression in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women: a preliminary report - Am J Psychiatry. 2003 Aug;160(8):1519-22 - "Some perimenopausal women with depression may benefit from short-term use of estrogen therapy"

Fish Oil Supplementation Reduces Severity of Exercise-Induced Bronchoconstriction in Elite Athletes - Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2003 Aug 6 - "These data suggest that dietary fish oil supplementation has a markedly protective effect in suppressing EIB in elite athletes and this may be attributed to their anti-inflammatory properties" - See Mega Twin EPA at Vitacost or iHerb.

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