Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 1/2/02:

Nutritional Supplements Boost Immunity in Elderly - ABC News, 1/2/01 - "adults over the age of 65 can benefit from a daily multivitamin and mineral supplement, as well as additional supplements to bring their daily intake of zinc to 20 milligrams (mg), selenium to 100 micrograms and vitamin E to 200 mg ... Available evidence suggests these supplements are likely to enhance immune function and may boost vaccine responses in healthy older adults, and reduce the risk of infectious illness in both healthy and frail elders ... Published data also suggest that elderly people with recurrent urinary tract infections would probably benefit from drinking cranberry juice daily ... there are many forms of vitamin E, but only a few have been examined in clinical studies, and they may not all be equivalent"

A Drink a Day Cuts Heart Risk in Male Diabetics - ABC News, 1/2/02 - "Men with type 2 diabetes who consume between one-half and two alcoholic drinks per day reduce their risk of heart disease ... men who consumed half a drink or less per day cut their heart disease risk by 24%, while those who drank one-half to two drinks daily cut their risk by 36%. And men who drank more than two drinks a day had a 41% lower risk of heart disease"

Hormone In Contraceptive Fights Cancer - Intelihealth, 1/2/02 - "Progestin is the ingredient in oral contraceptive pills that provides the highest level of protection against ovarian cancer ... the cancer risk was cut by about 50 percent in all women taking pills containing the hormones estrogen and progestin ... However, women who took pills containing high levels of progestin reduced their risk of ovarian cancer by an additional 50 percent"

Vitamin A Raises Older Women's Bone Risk - Study - ABC News, 1/1/02 - "Heavy doses of Vitamin A either in the diet or in supplement form may weaken older women's bones, unless they also happen to be undergoing estrogen therapy"

Chronic Migraine Linked to Hypothalamic Hormonal Dysfunction - Medscape, 1/2/02, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "There is a potential benefit from melatonin supplementation in these patients ... Chronic migraineurs also had higher cortisol levels"

Vegetarian Diet, Stress Management Slows PSA Rise in Prostate Cancer Patients - Medscape, 1/2/02, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "A vegetarian diet combined with a program of stress management increases prostate specific antigen (PSA) doubling time in men who had undergone prostatectomy for adenocarcinoma ... PSA doubling time increased from 6.5 months at baseline to 17.7 months after the study ... changes associated with the intervention, including increased dietary fiber intake and exercise level, and decreased body weight, were specific predictors of these outcomes"

Higher Consumption of Dietary Antioxidants Protects Against Asthma - Medscape, 12/31/01, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "A British study finds that consumption of apples and intake of selenium are inversely associated with asthma in adults. In addition, a higher consumption of red wine might reduce the severity of asthma in some people"

Overfeeding Rapidly Induces Insulin Resistance in Rats - Medscape, 12/31/01, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "The researchers induced overfeeding in the experimental animals "simply by making available to them unlimited amounts of a highly palatable food. Just three days of overfeeding were sufficient to induce severe defects in the action of leptin and insulin on metabolism and on food intake.""

Hormone Replacement Therapy May Delay Cognitive Decline In Older Women - Doctor's Guide, 12/27/01 - "Lifetime exposure to hormone replacement therapy (HRT) may be associated with better maintenance of cognitive function in older women free of dementia ... those who also stand to lose the most cognitively -- women over age 85 -- appear to gain the most from HRT exposure"

Turmeric Compound May Help Heal Wounds Via Antioxidant Effect - Medscape, 12/27/01, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "The main finding in this study is that curcumin has a strong antioxidant effect against hydrogen peroxide on skin cells in culture ... The finding in this study could explain in part the therapeutic properties of curcumin for wound healing"

Diabetes Drug [Glucophage/metformin] May Fight Obesity - WebMD, 12/26/01 - "Pediatricians at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine put 24 obese adolescents on a low-calorie diet: 1,500 calories a day for the girls and 1,800 calories a day for the boys. They also gave half the teens Glucophage and half a placebo ... After eight weeks, dieting teens who took the placebo lost 3.8 % of their body weight. But those taking Glucophage lost 6.5 % of their body weight -- nearly twice as much ... The teens taking Glucophage also had lower blood levels of fasting insulin, leptin, cholesterol, and triglycerides -- substances thought to increase the risk for diabetes and heart disease" - Related articles:

• Metformin - Ward Dean, M.D. - "metformin may prove to be one of the most promising anti-aging; life extending drugs available"
• I recently heard that Glucophage is considered an appetite suppressant - Intelihealth
• Note: International Anti-aging Systems (no affiliation) has metformin

Some interesting articles I ran across on magnesium:

• Magnesium: The Multi-Purpose Mineral - Think Muscle Newsletter - "If you take high amounts of calcium daily, you may have a magnesium deficiency. Most experts suggest that your calcium: magnesium ration should be 2:1. In other words, if you take 1500 mg of calcium daily through diet and supplementation, you should try to consume at least 750 mg of magnesium daily as well"
• If you had to recommend just one supplement product to customers or colleagues, what would it be and why? - Nutrition Science News, 9/00 - "If there was only one nutrient that I could recommend, it would probably be magnesium. The average American consumes less than the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for magnesium, and requirements appear to be increased by various physical, mental and environmental stresses--including noise, to which many of us are exposed repeatedly. Symptoms of magnesium deficiency include fatigue, depression, anxiety, insomnia and muscle spasms. Magnesium has been used successfully to treat a wide range of medical problems, including heart disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, asthma, migraines, cardiac arrhythmias and some types of urinary incontinence. Magnesium has also been shown to increase bone density in postmenopausal women. Rarely does a patient leave my office without receiving a recommendation to increase his or her magnesium intake." Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Professor of Therapeutic Nutrition, Bastyr University

Which Form of Vitamin E Should I Take: Tocotrienols or Tocopherols? - Dr. Weil, 12/11/01 - "you should know that vitamin E is not a single compound. Instead, it is made up of eight different compounds, four tocopherols and four tocotrienols, (in both cases called alpha, beta, gamma, and delta). In other words, vitamin E, like vitamin B, is a complex. Until recently, most vitamin E supplements provided only one of these components, alpha-tocopherol ... Scientists now believe different components in vitamin E may be responsible for different actions. For example, gamma-tocotrienol appears to have the ability to lower serum cholesterol levels, while gamma-tocopherol may be better at helping prevent cancer, specifically prostate cancer ... I feel that the ideal vitamin E product should provide a daily dose of 80 mg of the whole complex, including mixed tocopherols and mixed tocotrienols in their natural forms, and at least 10 mg of that should be tocotrienols" - Related study:

• 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"
• Note: With every study I've read on vitamin E, they've just used the alpha-tocopherol even though it has been shown to decrease the gamma.  I feel that that should invalidate the study.  It's like they don't even do their homework on the basics.  On one vitamin E study, the Life Extension Foundation had an article tearing it apart.  I emailed it to the doctor in charge of the study.  He had his secretary email back and wanted to submit a rebuttal provided that I would put it on the Internet unedited.  I said fine and asked if he would specifically comment on only using the alpha when it had been shown to reduce the gamma.  I emailed back three more times.  His secretary said he was getting the emails but I guess he changed his mind.  Another example of not doing their homework, on every study I've read regarding calcium for osteoporosis they did not include magnesium even though taking only calcium has been shown to cause a magnesium deficiency.  I could go on and on. - Ben

I've taken an affiliation with Gero Vita International.  That is the brand that Robert Culp is plugging - "Culp stuck with products manufactured by Gero Vita International and "got great relief." He now volunteers his time for the company."

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