Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 3/6/02:

Elderly Need More Folic Acid-- UK Health Study - ABC News, 3/6/02 - "elderly people need to boost the amount of folic acid vitamins they take to cut the risk of stroke and heart disease ... Britain's Committee on Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy recommended an extra intake of 200 micrograms a day for people over 50 on top of the 300 micrograms recommended daily allowance ... But we discovered it should be almost three times that amount ... The authors warn that adding too much folic acid causes people with a deficiency of vitamin B12 to develop irreversible nerve damage ... But they said elderly people could avoid this risk by taking supplements of both vitamins. Folic acid is essential for normal DNA growth and repair and is known to help prevent spina bifida in pregnancy"

Private Groups Step In To Test Herbal Supplements - Intelihealth, 3/6/02 - "In independent tests, up to 30 percent of some supplements contained significantly less of the active ingredients than listed on the label"

Warning Against 'Anti-Aging' Medicine - WebMD, 3/6/02 - Articles like this burn me up. Most people will be six feet under before those studies come in.  I feel you need to go with the best scientific information available at the time. Also, Dr. Smith’s comment that "There is as yet no convincing evidence that administration of any specific compound, natural or artificial, can globally slow aging in people, or even in mice or rats" is absolutely false. Take for example the study published in the 2/19/02 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on alpha lipoic acid and acetyl-l-carnitine or the studies with deprenyl and rats or the studies on advanced glycation end product inhibitors? And what about the free radical theory on aging and antioxidants' effect on free radicals?   I could go on and on.  Some doctors think that the three credits in nutrition they received back in 1985 from text books written in the 70’s allow them to make bold lies without even reading the research.  I agree with the following statement by Dr. Klatz: "To become a physician, you have to take the Hippocratic Oath, in which you swear to "do no harm." But there are many ways to interpret that phrase. As all Catholics are aware, there are sins of omission and sins of commission. Cutting off the wrong leg of a diabetic or operating on the wrong side of the head in a patient with a brain tumor as happened recently in two New York hospitals is clearly doing harm. But what about not keeping abreast of the latest diagnostic treatment or advances? Or failing to inform a patient of lifestyle changes or options that could drastically lower risk of disease? Or taking a authoritarian, I-know-better-than-you attitude that effectively cuts off all questions about alternative measures and treatments? All these "sins of omission" may end up doing you harm in terms of accelerated aging, disease, and death." - Ben

Air Pollution Increases Lung Cancer Risk - WebMD, 3/5/02 - "the strongest evidence to date that long-term exposure to fine particulate air pollution common to many metropolitan areas is an important risk factor for [death from heart disease] ... Significant increases in lung cancer [deaths]" were also linked with air pollution ... sulfur oxide pollution -- from automobile exhaust -- was significantly associated with all deaths including heart disease and lung cancer"

Mouse study links gum-disease bug to artery plaque - Reuters, 3/4/02 - "investigators found that animals inoculated with the gum disease pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis generally developed larger artery-clogging plaques than non-inoculated animals did. This bacterium has been strongly associated with the common gum disease periodontitis ... One theory is that when gum disease bacteria get released into the bloodstream over time, this leads to a chronic inflammatory response that injures blood vessels and helps instigate or worsen artery plaques ... mice given weekly injections of the bacterium tended to develop atherosclerosis earlier and to a greater degree--but only if they were fed a high-fat diet or had a genetic susceptibility ... Our data ... support the contention that the infectious agent alone does not cause atherosclerosis but could contribute to accelerate its progression"

Soy Isoflavone May Be Safe, Effective Alternative to Estrogen Replacement - Medscape, 3/4/02, user=benhess, pwd=asdfgh - "Daily soy isoflavone use significantly reduces menopausal symptoms in postmenopausal women and may also help prevent cardiovascular disease ... Furthermore, because isoflavones have estrogenic and anti-estrogenic effects depending on the target tissue, their use may not predispose to endometrial cancer as estrogen replacement therapy does ... Treatment with isoflavone was linked to a significant reduction in total cholesterol and LDL levels compared with baseline (p < 0.001) and the placebo group (p < 0.01), but appeared to have no effect on blood pressure, plasma glucose, HDL levels, and triglyceride levels"

Low Dietary Magnesium Changes Cardiac Rhythm - Doctor's Guide, 3/4/02 - "Low intakes of dietary magnesium may increase supraventricular ectopy ... people who live in areas with soft water, who use diuretics, or who are predisposed to magnesium loss may need to take in more dietary magnesium than others ... Magnesium is central to a variety of cellular mechanisms that control activity of muscle and nerve cells. Cardiac muscle seems to have been more sensitive to this intake than was skeletal muscle ... They point out some women may habitually eat a diet similar to the one in this study and for long periods of time"

Tomatoes Lower Prostate Cancer Risk - WebMD, 3/4/02 - "This newest investigation "confirmed our previous findings," ... "Frequent tomato or lycopene intake was associated with a reduced risk of prostate cancer. Intake of tomato sauce, the primary source of [ready available] lycopene, was associated with an even greater reduction in prostate cancer risk." ... Although all evidence points to lycopene as the beneficial ingredient, that remains to be proved" - See Lyco-Sorb.

Moderate Alcohol Use Decreases Cardiovascular Risk In Older Women - Doctor's Guide, 3/4/02 - "Moderate alcohol consumption - one or two drinks per day - decreases cardiovascular risk in postmenopausal women by up to 13 percent ... Moderate consumption of alcohol decreased low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, apolipoprotein B and triacylglycerol concentrations and increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol and apolipoprotein A-1 concentrations in postmenopausal women"

Stopping Statins Can Be Deadly - WebMD, 3/4/02 - "the study adds evidence that statins may do more than just lower cholesterol, and that the drugs may protect the heart in other important ways ... recent research has shown that statins can reduce harmful inflammation in the arteries that can lead to blood clots ... also supports the idea that statins increase the release of protective nitric oxide in the inner walls of the heart. Animal research has shown that when the statins are suddenly withdrawn, a rebound effect occurs, and the nitric oxide levels drop below normal -- increasing the risk of heart attack or other cardiac events" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a none prescription statin.

More Evidence That Folate Cuts Alzheimer's Risk - ABC News, 3/1/02 - "The findings complement a recently published study linking elevated levels of the amino acid homocysteine with an increased risk of the degenerative disease, since folic acid is known to reduce homocysteine levels ... Maintaining a sufficient daily intake of folic acid will keep brain cells healthy and may protect against Alzheimer's disease ... In mice genetically predisposed to develop Alzheimer's-related brain deposits, the low folic acid diet--which increased homocysteine levels more than 10-fold--led to considerable loss of neurons. In contrast, normal mice on the low-folate diet did not experience abnormal loss of brain cells"

Insulin resistance poses many risks - MSNBC, 3/1/02 - "While several low carbohydrate diets claim this research supports their use for weight control and good health, Circulation recently published a review that strongly disputes the claims for several such diets. The excess fat consumption that often results from these “fad” diets clearly raises risk of cancer, heart disease and other health problems. Eating carbohydrate foods (including bread, potatoes and pasta) in large portions may lead to high insulin levels, weight gain and unhealthy consequences. But completely avoiding carbohydrates — which supply fiber, vitamins and health-protective phytochemicals — is not the answer — portion control is" - See syndrome X.

I have read that Indole-3-Carbinol (I3C) actually increases the activity of aromatase enzyme and that DIM does not - Life Extension Magazine, 3/01 - "In one study, men received I3C for one week; a profile of 13 estrogens was measured. The results were that I3C significantly increased the urinary excretion of C-2 estrogens. The urinary concentrations of nearly all other estrogen metabolites, including levels of estradiol, estrone, estriol and 16 alpha-hydroxyestrone, were lower after I3C treatment [J Natl Cancer Inst 1997 May 21;89(10):718-23]. On the other hand, studies have shown that DIM can actually induce aromatase activity with a two-fold increase [Toxicol Sci 2001 May;61(1):40-8]" - The following are the two references for that statement:

• 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and Diindolylmethanes Differentially Induce Cytochrome P450 1A1, 1B1, and 19 in H295R Human Adrenocortical Carcinoma Cells - Toxicol Sci 2001 May;61(1):40-8 - "DIM, but not TCDD, induced aromatase activity with an apparently maximal 2-fold increase at 10 µM; higher concentrations of DIM and many of its analogs were cytotoxic"
• Changes in levels of urinary estrogen metabolites after oral indole-3- carbinol treatment in humans - J Natl Cancer Inst 1997 May 21;89(10):718-23 - "In both men and women, I3C significantly increased the urinary excretion of C-2 estrogens. The urinary concentrations of nearly all other estrogen metabolites, including levels of estradiol, estrone, estriol, and 16alpha- hydroxyestrone, were lower after I3C treatment" - So if C-2 estrogens are increased, is that bad in men?  I don't know. The following are all I could find:
  • Estrogen Metabolism - immunacare.com - "C-2 metabolites are essentially devoid of peripheral biological activity, as shown in studies on uterine weight, gonadotrophin secretion, and cell proliferation {1}. 2-Hydroxyestrogen has even been found to exert a modest anti-estrogenic effect {2,3}, and has been called "the good estrogen" {4}. The 16a-hydroxylated metabolites, 16a-hydroxyestrone (16OHE1) and estriol (E3), are estrogen agonists {5}."
  • Effects of Pesticides on the Ratio of 16/2-Hydroxyestrone: A Biologic Marker of Breast Cancer Risk - Environmental Health Perspectives 103, Supplement 7, October 1995 -"Estradiol metabolism proceeds by hydroxylation at one of two mutually exclusive sites at C-2 and C-16. The catechol pathway yields the weakly estrogenic 2-hydroxyestrone (2-OHE1), which inhibits breast cell proliferation" - If that means, and I think it does, that the C-2 metabolites inhibit breast cell growth, that would definitely be a good thing for men.
  • Breast-Cancer Risk - Pondicherry.com, 6/00 - "Earlier research has shown that hydroxylation at the C-2 position produces metabolites with little or no estrogenic activity and thus might be associated with decreased breast-cancer risk ... Women with predominately C-2 pathway by-products (those with low activity) were 40 percent less likely to have developed breast cancer during those five years"

The following are two studies comparing Nexium (esomeprazole) and Prevacid (lansoprazole).  In one, Prevacid was better, in the other study, the opposite was shown, however, one study used the high dose for both and the other study used the low dose for both.  It would be interesting to see who paid for which study.

• Nexium (Esomeprazole) Achieves Greater Healing, Higher Remission Rates than Prevacid (Lansoprazole) in GERD-Related Esophagitis - Doctor's Guide, 2/28/02 - "77 percent of patients who receive acute (40 mg once daily) and maintenance (20 mg once daily) therapy with Nexium are successfully in remission six months later, compared with 66 percent of patients receiving lansoprazole (30mg once daily, then 15 mg once daily) (4). Among patients with more severe initial damage (LA grades C or D), the difference between the two drugs is even greater; 65 percent of Nexium patients are in remission after six months compared with 43 percent of patients receiving lansoprazole"
• Lansoprazole Highly Effective In Healing Erosive Esophatigitis - Doctor's Guide, 2/28/02 - "the percentages of healed patients after an eight-week treatment cycle for lansoprazole 30 mg were 91.4 percent and for esomeprazole 40 mg were 89.1 percent. The percentages of heartburn-free patients (day or night) after one day, three days, and one week of treatment for lansoprazole were 34.5 percent, 27.3 percent, 23.1 percent, respectively and for esomeprazole were 27.3 percent, 22.3 percent, 18.7 percent, respectively"

Quercetin Bests Vitamin C As Cancer Preventer - Natural Foods Merchandiser, 3/02 - "Quercetin ... has been credited with reducing heart attack and stroke risk by protecting blood vessels against free radical damage. This research indicates quercetin may be an important player in the fight against cancer as well ... Our results showed that quercetin had a more inhibitory effect than vitamin C on prevention of gap junction communication induced by hydrogen peroxide"

Fighting Fatigue: Iron Overload vs. Anaemia - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 2/02 - "Menstruating women are more likely to feel tired because of an iron deficiency, whereas men 40 years and older are more likely to tire from iron overload ... the anaemia rate of adults older than 85 may be similarly high—ranging from 17 to 28 per cent ... In a state of iron overload, fatigue is often accompanied by arthritis, diabetes, infertility, male impotence, skin pigmentation, and liver or heart disease ... unexplained fatigue may be a physical symptom of masked depression"

Chronic Fatigue: Its Own Entity - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 2/02 - "Ninety per cent of patients with chronic fatigue who took omega-3 fatty acids for 3 months improved fatigue scores, with two-thirds regaining full-time duties."

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