Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 10/31/01:

Is High-Normal Blood Pressure a Medical Misnomer? - WebMD, 10/31/01 - "the risk of heart attack, stroke, or heart failure was roughly twice as high for people with blood pressure readings that were in the high-normal range, compared to people with levels considered to be optimal ... High blood pressure is defined in adults as a systolic pressure (top number) of 140 or higher and a diastolic level (bottom number) of 90 or more ... roughly 13% of adult Americans have high-normal blood pressure, defined as systolic pressure between 130 and 139 and a diastolic pressure of 85 to 89. Those with lower levels have readings considered to be either normal (between 120 and 129 systolic/80 to 84 diastolic), or optimal (a systolic level less than 120 and a diastolic level less than 80)"

Sleep Experts Call for Siestas - ABC News, 10/31/01 - "sleep deprivation is an epidemic in this country ... Sleep deprivation usually manifests itself in feeling especially drained in the afternoon, say sleep experts. It's the time of day when serotonin and dopamine levels, which regulate mood, sleep and emotion, naturally dip. And if you are already sleepy, this dip is even more dramatic"

Sleep Deprivation May Trigger Insulin Resistance - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/01, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "sleep deprivation leads to the release of tumor necrosis factor-, which triggers cortisol release, and that, in turn, causes insulin resistance"

Sleep Patterns Predict Depression in Adolescents - Medscape, 10/30/01, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "Among adolescents who were diagnosed as depressed, 60% of those with higher levels of cortisol had recurrent episodes of depression or went on to develop a substance use disorder. In contrast, 12% of those who were depressed and had low cortisol levels developed either recurrence or a substance use disorder"

Probiotic LP299V Could Help Patients With Irritable Bowel - Doctor's Guide, 10/31/01 - "The probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum 299V (LP299V) appears to have a beneficial effect on patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) ... All patients treated with LP299V reported resolution of their abdominal pain as compared to 11 patients from the placebo group"

Chemical Derived From Hawaiian Mollusk [kahalalide F] Show Activity Against Prostate Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 10/31/01 - "A chemical isolated from a Hawaiian mollusk plucked from Kahala Bay shows activity in patients with refractory prostate cancer ... patient's pain levels decreased as did his need for pain killers ... the patient's PSA levels dropped by at least 50 percent"

Evidence Builds for Herbal Treatment Against Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 10/30/01 - "Evidence continues to mount in support of the herbal combination treatment PC-SPES for prostate cancer. This brawny botanical appears to kill cancer cells while at the same time stimulating the body's own immune system to help fight the cancer"

Who's Prone to Alzheimer's? - ABC News, 10/29/01 - "Alzheimer's Risk Factors ... Staying mentally active appears to reduce the risk ... High blood pressure and high cholesterol may increase risk later in life ... Staying fit helps keep the mind healthy and decreases the risk ... Fresh fruits and vitamins like C and E fight free-radical damage to the brain"

Study: Power Lines May Aid Cancer Cells - Intelihealth, 10/29/01 - "electromagnetic fields disrupted the functioning of the hormone melatonin in individual cells ... Scientists have accepted since 1987 that the substance suppresses the multiplication of cancer cells ... They exposed two batches of the [breast cancer] cell to two different levels of electromagnetic field ... In both cases, the ability of melatonin to suppress the growth of the cancer cells was found to have declined. In some cells with smaller concentrations of melatonin, the suppressive effect was entirely absent"

Calcium, Vitamin D Help You Hold on to Those Pearly Whites - WebMD, 10/29/01 - "examined 145 healthy men and women aged 65 and older who had taken either calcium plus vitamin D supplements or placebo ... The calcium was given at a dose of 500 mg and vitamin D at 700 IU daily ... 27% of the placebo group, but only 13% of the supplement group, lost one or more teeth during the three-year study ... Once the study was finished, the researchers continued to count teeth for a couple of more years. Again, they found that those taking in at least 1,000 mg of calcium each day were able to hold on to more teeth"

Exercise Can Reduce Arthritis Risk - Intelihealth, 10/29/01 - "The participants were divided into three groups. One walked for 40 minutes three times a week. Another spent the same amount of time on weight training - two sets of 12 repetitions of nine exercises, most of them for the legs. The third did no exercise and served as a comparison group ... After 18 months, 53 percent of the non-exercise group reported they had lost some or all ability to transfer from a bed to a chair, bathe, use the toilet or dress. In comparison, about 37 percent of exercisers did, and the difference between walking and weight training was so slight that researchers considered the benefits alike" - see arthritis

Vitamin C Shows Promise in Heart Failure Patients - ABC News, 10/29/01 - "researchers had found in experiments that exposing endothelial cells to vitamin C kept certain inflammatory proteins from pushing the cells to "commit suicide"--a process called apoptosis ... Similarly, when they examined blood samples from the patients, they found that those who received vitamin C showed far less evidence of apoptosis in endothelial cells than they had before treatment. Placebo patients showed no such change"

Moderate Drinking, Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Negatively Linked - Doctor's Guide, 10/29/01 - "Alcohol intake is negatively associated with development of increased low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in middle-aged Japanese men"

Fat vs. Fat - ABC News/Men's Health, 10/26/01 - "The saturated fat in a strip of steak appears to be better for your cholesterol level than the trans fatty acid in a serving of fries ... Compared with the saturated-fat regimen, the trans fat diet led to a 29 percent greater loss of blood-vessel function and a 20 percent greater decrease in levels of HDL cholesterol (the good stuff)" - Note:  Trans fatty acids are also in most margarines (except Smart Basics) and most peanut butter (if it says "hydrogenated oils").

Report: Caffeine Can Help Soldiers - Intelihealth, 10/26/01 - "Caffeine can help increase reaction time and improve performance ... 100 to 600 mg of caffeine, the equivalent of one to six cups of coffee, can help "maintain cognitive performance," especially in times of sleep deprivation ... it can be used in maintaining speed of reactions and visual and auditory vigilance, which in military operations could be a life or death situation ... A similar dose of caffeine, about 200-600 mg, also appears effective in "enhancing physical endurance and may be especially useful in returning some of the physical endurance lost at high altitude," ... The military also is considering other drugs, including modafinil, a drug sometimes used to counteract narcolepsy"

Pets Diminish Blood Pressure Responses To Stress - Intelihealth, 10/25/01 - "pets may help people with high blood pressure deal with stress more effectively than the leading medication"

Striking Arterial Changes Found In Very Obese Children - Doctor's Guide, 10/25/01 - "Striking differences in arterial stiffness and elasticity of the arterial wall and endothelium function has been found in a cohort of severely obese children ... This vascular dysfunction in children "may be an early step in the development of atherosclerosis"