Recent Longevity News for the week ending 10/17/01:

Animal Fat Ups Risk of Stomach, Esophageal Cancer - ABC News, 10/17/01 - "Total fat intake and intake of saturated fat each doubled the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma ... Saturated fat also raised the risk of gastric cardia, which affects the upper part of the stomach, and another type of cancer of the esophagus--esophageal squamous cell carcinoma ... Intake of fiber, beta-carotene, folate, vitamin C and vitamin B6 were associated with a lower risk of all four cancer types studied. Use of a vitamin C supplement at least once a week for 6 or more months also showed a significant association with a lower risk of these cancers ... Intake of salt and nitrites were each linked with risk of noncardia gastric cancer"

Now in Grocery Stores: Drug-Resistant Bugs - WebMD, 10/17/01 - "one in five of the meats carried salmonella. Even scarier is the finding that the vast majority of these germs were resistant to treatment with at least one antibiotic. More than half of the bugs could laugh at more than three different kinds of antimicrobial drug ... Five of the meat samples carried typhoid fever germs resistant to 12 different antibiotics"

Blood Pressure Drugs May Help People Avoid 'Type 2' Disease, but Healthy Habits Still Best - WebMD, 10/16/01 - "people at high risk for developing diabetes who take the drug Altace [ramipril] were 34% less likely to develop diabetes than those who did not get the drug ... for patients with type 2 diabetes, the most significant complications in terms of the time spent in hospitals and death are ... problems like heart attack and stroke ... The study's primary focus was to determine if taking Altace, a type of drug called an ACE inhibitor, prevented heart attacks in people at high risk for having one ... As hoped, significant reductions in deaths from heart attack, strokes, or other cardiovascular diseases were seen among participants taking the ACE inhibitor. But the reduction in diabetes incidence was unexpected"

Night shift may up breast cancer risk - MSNBC, 10/16/01 - "Breast cancer risk increases by 8 percent to 60 percent for women who work the night shift for many years ... Melatonin is produced by the pineal gland during the night. Studies have shown that bright lights reduces the secretion of melatonin. In women, this may lead to an increase in estrogen production and increased estrogen levels have been linked to breast cancer ... changes in melatonin levels in men doing nighttime shift work may increase the risk of some types of male cancer, such as prostate, but he knows of no study that has addressed this specifically"

Moderate Daily Drinking Linked With Reduced Diabetes Risk in Men - Medscape, 10/15/01, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "Researchers found that men who consumed 15 to 29 grams of alcohol daily had a 36% lower risk of diabetes over 12 years, compared with men who did not drink and with men who were lighter drinkers. Findings were similar when it came to beer, white wine or liquor"

Vitamin K Deficiency Linked to Low Bone Mineral Density in Women - Doctor's Guide, 10/15/01 - "Low consumption of dietary vitamin K is associated with low bone mineral density in women but not in men"

Antidepressants Reduced Heart Attack Risk - ABC News, 10/15/01 - "smokers who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, reduced their chances of a heart attack by 65 percent compared with smokers who didn't ... one possible explanation is that the drugs act like a blood thinner, reducing the risk of clots that cause heart attacks" - See my Blood Thinners page for supplements that thin the blood.

Common Food Additive's Safety Questioned - ABC News, 10/15/01 - "A number of studies have found that the widely used food additive carrageenan causes cancer in laboratory animals ... Carrageenan, an extract from red seaweed, is used in a variety of foods such as milk products and processed meat as a thickener, stabilizer and texturizer. It can be found in products such as ice cream, whipped cream, pudding and yogurt ... Tobacman reviewed 45 previously published animal studies and found that carrageenan is associated with the formation of ulcers in the intestines and cancerous tumors in the gut"

Tackling High Blood Pressure Important for Young and Old Alike - WebMD, 10/15/01 - "Most of the time, doctors think treating systolic hypertension is useless in older patients if they have additional risk factors [for heart disease or stroke] ... We have demonstrated very clearly that this is not true. The patients who often aren't treated are exactly the ones who should be treated"

Whole grains stressed in new dietary guidelines - MSNBC, 10/12/01 - "At first, only soluble fiber in oatmeal and certain other foods was thought to lower cholesterol and protect the heart. But a review of articles on the impact of whole grains on health recently appeared in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. It points out several studies in which soluble fiber alone did not account for all the benefits from whole grains. A variety of natural substances found in whole grains are now believed to work together to offer protection. In the Iowa Women’s Health Study, above average whole-grain consumption was linked to a 20 percent lower incidence of heart disease ... Whole grains also tend to cause a slower rise in blood sugars than refined grains. Some studies suggest that this may help maintain normal insulin levels, helping to control and perhaps even prevent diabetes ... Experts recommend aiming for at least three standard-size servings of whole-grain foods each day. Yet many consumers cannot accurately identify whole-grain foods. They see “wheat” in a bread or cereal name, or a tan color (which can come from caramel coloring) and mistakenly think the food must be whole wheat. The real key is in the list of ingredients. Check and make sure that a whole grain, such as whole-wheat flour or oats, is first in this list"

Zinc, Antioxidants Prevent Some Forms of Vision Loss - WebMD, 10/12/01 - "people at risk of losing more sight due to a condition called "age-related macular degeneration" (AMD) could prevent further vision loss by taking a combination of zinc and antioxidants, including vitamins C and E and beta-carotene ... The antioxidants were taken once a day at a dose of 500 mg of vitamin C, 400 IU of vitamin E, and 15 mg of beta-carotene. Zinc was given as 80 mg of zinc oxide along with 2 mg of copper in the form of cupric oxide to prevent anemia, which can occur from too much zinc ... the high levels of dietary supplements that were taken in this study are very difficult to achieve from diet alone"

Vitamin Regimen Can Prevent Blindness - Intelihealth, 10/12/01 - "High doses of zinc can cause anemia, but participants also took 2 milligrams of copper daily to counter that effect" - The medical establishment burns me up with their comment on nearly every vitamin article saying there are no long term studies on the use of supplements.  You could also use that argument for nearly every prescription drug on the market so why don't they have that statement at the end of every article discussing a prescription drug?  Also, I don't think there is any disagreement among experts that taking mass doses of only one of over 600 carotenoids can cause a deficiency of the ones you're not taking.  So why are they still using just one carotenoid (beta-carotene) in a study?  They don't even do their homework before designing the study.

Here is ABC News' take on the same story.  They didn't do their homework either.  It was just a theory that vitamin C could cause kidney stones and the opposite was proved quit a while ago.

Supplements May Prevent Age-Related Vision Loss - ABC News, 10/12/01

• Intake of vitamins B6 and C and the risk of kidney stones in women - J Am Soc Nephrol 1999 Apr;10(4):840-5 - "Large doses of vitamin B6 may reduce the risk of kidney stone formation in women. Routine restriction of vitamin C to prevent stone formation appears unwarranted"
• No contribution of ascorbic acid to renal calcium oxalate stones - Ann Nutr Metab 1997;41(5):269-82 - "those groups in the highest quintile of vitamin C intake (> 1,500 mg/day) had a lower risk of kidney stones than the groups in the lowest quintiles"
• A prospective study of the intake of vitamins C and B6, and the risk of kidney stones in men - J Urol 1996 Jun;155(6):1847-51 - "These data do not support an association between a high daily intake of vitamin C or vitamin B6 and the risk of stone formation, even when consumed in large doses"

Scientific Review Supports Omega-3 Fatty Acids For The Prevention Of Heart Disease - Intelihealth, 10/11/01 - "omega-3 fatty acids (from both marine and plant sources) can reduce heart disease risk as effectively as some lipid-lowering drugs"