Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 9/24/03:

Searching For A Female Viagra - Time Magazine, 9/29/03 - "Nearly 450 women who had lost their ovaries were given either a testosterone patch or a placebo. After six months of treatment, the women on 300 mcg of testosterone a day reported an 81% increase in satisfying sexual activity and a 66% increase in sexual desire" - [Doctor's Guide]

High on Testosterone - Newsweek, 9/29/03 - "Besides restoring libido, TRT has been shown to improve bone density and muscle mass. And a small study done at Boston’s McClean Hospital this year suggests that, when used in conjunction with antidepressants, testosterone may improve depression in difficult-to-treat men ... Morgentaler, whose new book, “The Viagra Myth,” explores the social impact of the popular drug, doesn’t think it’s proper to withhold TRT from older men with symptoms of low testosterone because of “theoretical, unproven concerns.”"

Testosterone Measurements in Postmenopausal Women Should Include Both Free Testosterone and SHBG Levels - Doctor's Guide, 9/24/03 - "When evaluating testosterone levels in postmenopausal women, clinicians may need to monitor both free testosterone and SHBG levels, because women who are receiving testosterone therapy can have supraphysiologic serum total T concentration, but normal free T concentrations ... We're already seeing a testosterone patch for women going into phase II/phase III trials so I think we're going to see this treatment to be a common treatment for women in the next 5 years"

Postmenopausal Women with Fracture are Under-Treated - Doctor's Guide, 9/24/03 - "The majority of postmenopausal women with low trauma fracture are not being treated with osteoporosis medications"

Low cholesterol linked to suicide - MSNBC, 9/23/03 - "depressed patients with blood cholesterol levels of less than 160 milligrams per decilitre appeared to be at increased risk"

High Blood Pressure Damages Organs - WebMD, 9/23/03 - "as blood pressure increased, so did the likelihood of kidney and heart damage. In fact: ... 7% of people with optimal blood pressure (less than 120/80) had some organ damage ... 13% with normal pressure (less than 130/85) had some damage ... 23% with high-normal pressure (130-139/85-89) had damage"

High Blood Pressure Causes Memory Lapse? - WebMD, 9/23/03 - "some short-term memory lapses often attributed to aging may actually result from having high blood pressure"

Aspirin Lowers Risk of a First Heart Attack by One-Third - Doctor's Guide, 9/23/03 - "Aspirin reduces the risk of a first heart attack by 32 percent, according to a report published in the current issue of Archives of Internal Medicine" - See Drugstore.com aspirin products.

Aspirin Therapy: How Much Is Too Much? - WebMD, 9/22/03 - "In this new study, higher doses of aspirin were no more effective than low-dose aspirin therapy at preventing heart attacks and strokes ... Just under 2% of the patients given low-dose aspirin alone experienced life-threatening bleeding events, compared with close to 4% of patients taking more than 200 mg of aspirin a day. Among patients taking aspirin and Plavix, 3% of patients in the low-dose aspirin groups experienced serious bleeding vs. 5% of those in the high-dose aspirin group"

Regular Cola Consumption Linked to Lower Bone Density in Women - Medscape, 9/22/03 - "Among the female subjects, regular cola drinkers had decreased BMD compared with the infrequent drinkers. BMD was 2.3% lower in the trochanter, 3.3% lower in the femoral neck, and 5.1% lower in Ward's area ... When phosphoric acid comes packaged with other nutrients, it's absorbed normally and everything is in balance. We think the problem with cola is that you're getting those doses of phosphoric acid without any calcium. It's not balanced, and that extra phosphorus binds with calcium and prevents it from being absorbed"

Focusing on Fiber? - Dr. Weil, 9/22/03 - "If you’ve tried but failed to lower your cholesterol with a high-carbohydrate, low-fat diet, the problem may have been the carbohydrates you were eating. Refined carbohydrates (those that are high on the glycemic index, a system of ranking foods by their effect on blood sugar) can cause rapid increases in blood sugar, prompting the pancreas to release insulin, which in turn signals the liver to pump more triglycerides into the bloodstream"

New Alternative For Weight Loss Without The Pep Pill - NPI Center, 9/22/03 - "One example is heavyweight boxer Shannon Briggs, who lost over 40 pounds taking this new product and is currently challenging Mike Tyson to a match. Another celebrity, Anna Nicole Smith, recently lost 40 pounds with this new product" - I think they are talking about Trim Spa.  See trimspa.com and Newsday article.  See ihealthtree.com or drugstore.com Trim Spa products.

Higher Fruit, Vegetable Intake Associated With Lower Stroke Risk - Medscape, 9/18/03 - "Investigators observed a protective effect for infarction and a clearer one for hemorrhage associated with daily fruit and vegetable consumption; risk reduction for intracerebral hemorrhage was 32% in men and 30% in women"

Best Ways To Fight Osteoporosis - CBS News, 9/18/03 - "64 percent of women don't know how much calcium they need every day ... women from 19- to 50-years-old should consume 1,000 mg; and women over 50-years-old should consume 1,200 mg ... a high calcium intake will not protect a person against bone loss caused by estrogen deficiency, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol abuse or various medical disorders or treatments" - See drugstore.com/GNC calcium products.

Better Diet Even Late in Life May Prolong It - HealthDay, 9/18/03 - "We found that within just 48 hours of being switched from a high nutrient intake to dietary restriction, flies were no more likely to die than those that had been under dietary restriction constantly throughout their adult life"

St John's Wort Alters Enzymes Involved in the Metabolism of About 50% of Over-the-Counter and Prescription Medications - Doctor's Guide, 9/18/03 - "long-term administration of St John's wort may result in diminished clinical effectiveness or increased dosage requirements for all CYP 3A4 substrates, which represent at least half of marketed medications" - The way I understand it, the CYP 3A4 enzyme protects the liver.  Plus it's just rehashing previous studies.  JAMA always seems to be biased against supplements, which might be why they didn't mention that.  Have they ever mentioned the pitfalls of prescription drugs?  For example, why didn't they mention a 3.34 times increase in diabetes with some prescription drugs.  Or how about a story in JAMA about Zoloft (an antidepressant)  increasing cortisol, while some feel high cortisol is a cause of depression.  Another example of bias from the same issue of JAMA:

• Internet Rife With Bogus Claims on Herbs - HealthDay, 9/16/03

Dietary Changes Can Reduce Cholesterol and C-Reactive Protein as Much as Medication - New Hope Natural Media, 9/18/03 - "One group was treated with a statin medication (20 mg of lovastatin per day) and another received placebo. A third group ate a modified daily diet that included an additional 2 grams of plant sterols provided in a margarine, 20 grams of insoluble fiber from psyllium, oats and barley, 43 grams of soy protein from soy milk and soy meat-substitutes, and 1 ounce of whole almonds. At the end of the study, total cholesterol levels had decreased 6% in the placebo group, 23% in the statin group and 22% in the modified-diet group. Levels of LDL-cholesterol dropped 8% in the placebo group, 31% in the statin group and 29% in the modified-diet group. CRP levels decreased 10% in the placebo group, 33% in the statin group and 28% in the modified-diet group" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See iHerb or Vitacost red yeast rice products.

The Chromium Connection - Natural Foods Merchandiser, 9/03 - "The body requires certain nutrients to control glucose metabolism, especially chromium, zinc and vitamins B and C ... Diabetes is devastating because of its consequences. The condition often leads to hypertension, lipid disorders, cardiovascular disease, blindness, skin problems, nerve damage, kidney disorders and loss of limbs. Although it appears chromium picolinate may benefit your customers with type 2 diabetes, supplementation represents just one facet of treatment" - See iHerb or Vitacost chromium products.

Half Hour Works Out - WashingtonPost.com, 9/16/03 - "On average women who exercised vigorously for 60 minutes a day lost almost 20 pounds, but those who exercised moderately for 60 minutes lost slightly more than 18 pounds. Those who exercised moderately for 30 minutes lost nearly 14 pounds, while women who exercised vigorously for 30 minutes lost slightly more than 15 pounds ... all the women experienced about the same improvement in the health of their hearts"

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

Usual dietary isoflavone intake and body composition in postmenopausal women - Menopause. 2003 Sep-Oct;10(5):427-32 - "A significant inverse relation was shown between genistein consumption and weight, body mass index, waist circumference, and total body fat mass by bioelectric impedance analysis ... This study suggests that usual dietary isoflavone intake is associated with reduced total body fat and may consequently have a role in the prevention of chronic disease"

The potential of metformin for diabetes prevention - Diabetes Metab. 2003 Sep;29(4):104-11 - "Treatment with metformin significantly reduced the incidence of diabetes in subjects with IGT and high-normal fasting plasma glucose in the DPP. Moreover, metformin was well tolerated, and health economic analyses suggest that metformin treatment is cost-effective in the US and Europe ... The results of the DPP identify metformin as an effective option for the prevention of diabetes in subjects with IGT and impaired fasting glucose" - See LowPriceMedicine.com (Glucophage) or USAMedicine.com metformin products.  Metformin is a prescription drug in the US.

Beneficial effects of metformin on haemostasis and vascular function in man - Diabetes Metab. 2003 Sep;29(4):44-52 - "Metformin is a biguanide compound which is antihyperglycaemic, reduces insulin resistance and has cardioprotective effects on lipids, thrombosis and blood flow. Metformin has a weight neutral/weight lowering effect and reduces hypertriglyceridaemia, elevated levels of PAI-1, factor VII and C-reactive protein. In addition recent studies indicate that metformin has direct effects on fibrin structure/function and stabilises platelets, two important components of arterial thrombus. The United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS) reported that metformin was associated with a 32% reduction in any diabetes related endpoint (p<0.002), a 39% reduction in myocardial infarction (p<0.01) and a non-significant 29% fall in microvascular complications. The figures for macrovascular complications compare favourably for those described for other cardioprotective agents such as ACE inhibitors and statins. These findings confirm metformin as first line therapy in the management of obese insulin resistant type 2 diabetes and in the prevention of the vascular complications of this common condition"

Potential contribution of metformin to the management of cardiovascular disease risk in patients with abdominal obesity, the metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes - Diabetes Metab. 2003 Sep;29(4):53-61 - "metformin has been shown to not only contribute to a better glycaemic control but also to induce some weight loss (especially in the visceral depot) which may contribute to the improvement of the features of the metabolic syndrome. Thus, metformin treatment may represent a relevant element of an integrated lifestyle modification-pharmacotherapy to prevent not only type 2 diabetes but also cardiovascular disease"

Metformin: drug of choice for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular complications in high-risk subjects - Diabetes Metab. 2003 Sep;29(4):121-2 - "Metformin is unique in being not only as effective as any other oral antidiabetic therapy in controlling blood glucose, but also having an unparalleled clinical database relating to improved clinical outcomes in pre-diabetic subjects, and patients with established type 2 diabetes"

Do effects on blood pressure contribute to improved clinical outcomes with metformin? - Diabetes Metab. 2003 Sep;29(4):62-70 - "Metformin improves insulin sensitivity in liver and muscle as its primary antihyperglycaemic mechanism of action, and intensive glycaemic management with metformin significantly reduced the risk of macrovascular diabetic complications in the UK Prospective Diabetes Study. The clinical outcome benefits in the metformin group included a significant reduction in the risk of stroke (- 41% vs + 14% with sulphonylurea or insulin treatment, p=0.032) ... metformin significantly improved endothelial function, a key regulator of vascular tone and blood pressure, in type 2 diabetic patients"

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