Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 6/19/02:

The Disappearing Mind - Newsweek, 6/24/02 - "Alzheimer’s runs its decades-long course, it replaces the brain’s exquisite circuitry with mounds of sticky plaque and expanses of dead, twisted neurons ... San Diego researchers have found that seniors who score inconsistently on different mental tests are at increased risk of dementia—even if their scores are generally high ... Though experts still quarrel about the ultimate cause of Alzheimer’s, many agree that the trouble starts with a scrap of junk protein called amyloid beta (A-beta for short) ... beta secretase now looks like a safer target for therapy ... Vaccinated mice reduced their amyloid burdens by an astounding 96 percent in just three months. The vaccine proved toxic in people" - See the "Alternative News" on my Alzheimer's page for research on prevention.

Your Health - Time Magazine, 6/24/02 - "High-fat, high-calorie fast-food meals don't just make you fat; they may also raise the level of free radicals in the blood, triggering inflammation that can damage the lining of blood vessels. That's the bad news. The good news is that taking a few antioxidant vitamins such as E and C with your fast food can nullify the inflammatory response"

Nuts May Lower Risk of Diabetes - Medscape, 6/19/02 - "New data presented June 16-17 at the 62nd Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association suggest that eating nuts helps prevent the development of diabetes and that zinc supplementation in obese, insulin-resistant women improves insulin sensitivity, even in the absence of zinc deficiency ... In this prospective, double-blind, clinical interventional study, 56 obese women with normal glucose tolerance were randomized to treatment with zinc, 30 mg daily, or placebo for four weeks ... Insulin resistance as measured by a homeostasis model assessment did not change in the placebo group, but it decreased from 5.8 +/- 2.6 to 4.3 +/- 1.7 (P<.05) in the zinc-supplemented group. Insulin decreased from 28.8 +/- 14.1 to 21.2 +/- 8.1 mU/mL (P<.05) in the zinc group but was unchanged in the placebo group"

Tobacco Even More Cancerous - ABC News, 6/19/02 - "Tobacco smoke is even more cancerous than previously thought, for both smokers and nonsmokers who breathe in the fumes, causing cancer in many more parts of the body than previously believed ... Types of cancer newly declared to be caused by smoking were cancers of the stomach, liver, cervix, uterus, kidney, nasal sinus and myeloid leukemia ... Cancers already identified as being caused by smoking include lung, oral cavity, gullet, larynx, pharynx, pancreas and bladder"

No vasectomy-prostate cancer link - MSNBC, 6/18/02 - "Contrary to some previous research that suggested men who undergo a vasectomy are at increased risk of contracting prostate cancer, a major study has failed to find any connection between the two"

High Blood Pressure Treatment Also Improves Heart Function - Intelihealth, 6/18/02 - "Our results prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that there are benefits for heart muscle from effective, sustained control of hypertension. This is yet one more reason for doctors to be very persistent in helping patients reduce their blood pressure to normal levels ... The study included 647 hypertensive patients who had enrolled in the Losartan Intervention for Endpoint (LIFE) Echocardiography Sub Study ... Left ventricular mass was reduced from an average of 234 grams (g) to 194g. Ventricular contractility improved from 97 percent to 105 percent of the predicted value"

Many Diabetics Unaware of Their Heart Disease Risk - ABC News, 6/18/02 - "Doctors warn their diabetic patients that they have an increased risk of heart disease, but patients may not be getting the message ... Diabetes is the biggest risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease, with diabetics up to four times more likely than others to develop heart disease or suffer a stroke ... doctors tended not to treat their diabetic patients as aggressively as their heart patients, even though diabetics have the same risk of suffering a heart attack as someone who has already had a heart attack in the past"

Vitamins: Just Do It - WebMD, 6/18/02 - "In the June 19 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, two Harvard researchers give us the lowdown on which vitamins work -- and which ones don't -- in the fight against heart disease and cancer ... Virtually everyone in the general population is at risk, because we just don't eat right, Fletcher and Fairfield say. But elderly people, vegans, and alcoholics are at even higher risk"

Older Heart Patients Not Getting Cholesterol Drug - ABC News, 6/18/02 - "Underprescribing of statins has been widespread in all age groups but it is worse in older people" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin.  See VitaminShoppe red yeast rice products.

No light smoking - US News & World Report, 6/17/02 - "one or two cigarettes a day limits the ability of blood vessels to dilate–the first step toward dangerous plaque buildup. Heavy smokers (a pack or more a day) and light smokers (a pack or less in a week) had the same damage"

Inflammation May Be Diabetes Risk Sign - Intelihealth, 6/17/02 - "Investigators have concluded in recent years that heart disease may be linked to inflammation, and they are trying to determine the cause. Now there is increasing evidence that type 2 diabetes, which is strongly linked to heart disease, may be related to inflammation ... it took longer for patients' diabetes to get worse if they were taking statins ... It was remarkable that those who used statins needed insulin nearly a year later than the other group ... Previous studies have shown that people who take statins have a 33 percent lower risk of developing diabetes" - Note: Red yeast rice is a none prescription statin. See VitaminShoppe red yeast rice products.

Soy Supplements May Help Control Blood Sugar - Intelihealth, 6/17/02 - "After 12 weeks, the women taking the soy supplement showed significantly better control over their blood sugar, according to several standard tests, and their levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (so-called "bad cholesterol") dropped"

Americans Becoming Fatter, Faster - WebMD, 6/17/02 - "They found 27% of the people were obese by 1999, and 61% weighed more than is considered healthy. That's more than double the number of people who were obese in 1960-1962, and a 20% increase in the number of overweight Americans compared with nearly 40 years ago"

Top 12 Weight-Training Tips for Women - ABC News, 6/17/02 - "post-menopausal women can reduce their body fat, increase muscle mass, build up their bones, and improve their balance by lifting moderately heavy weights on a regular basis ... Biologically, these women were about 20 years younger then they were at the start of the year"

St. John's Wort as Effective as Zoloft® against Depression - New Hope Natural Media Online, 6/13/02 - "St. John's wort (SJW), a popular herbal remedy, is at least as effective as the prescription drug sertraline (Zoloft®) in the treatment of depression and causes fewer side effects, according to a new study published in Canadian Family Physician (2002;48:905–8). This report confirms dozens of other studies demonstrating SJW is an effective treatment for mild-to-moderate depression, and contradicts two controversial studies suggesting the herb is of little or no benefit ... After 12 weeks, the severity of depression had decreased by an average of 50.2% in the SJW group and by 41.6% in the sertraline group" - Just reinforces my letter to the NIH.

Essential Fatty Acids Improve Thought Process and Behavior in Children with ADHD - New Hope Natural Media Online, 6/13/02 - "ADHD is characterized by impulsive behavior, lack of concentration, restlessness and, in some cases, learning disabilities ... The children were given either a supplement containing 186 mg of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), 480 mg of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), 96 mg of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), 864 mg of linoleic acid, and 60 IU of vitamin E per day, or a placebo ... the children who took the essential fatty acid supplement had significant improvement in symptom scores related to learning and behavior" - See EFAs at iHerb (discount code "qc")

Diet and Lifestyle Changes Slow Progression of Prostate Cancer - New Hope Natural Media Online, 6/13/02 - "The recommendations included a low-fat vegetarian diet, smoking cessation, stress management training and moderate exercise ... The men who received no treatment showed no change in their PSA levels. In contrast, men who followed the Ornish protocol had an average PSA decrease of 6.5%, a finding suggestive of disease regression"

Urine Test Predicts Alzheimer's Disease - Doctor's Guide, 6/13/02 - "One hypothesis is that, in AD, healthy brain tissue is damaged by the local formation of large amounts of free radicals," said Praticò. "Isoprostanes are the byproducts of fats in the human body that were warped by free radical attack. They then accumulate in CSF, blood, and urine as the body works to get rid of them."

I was doing some more research on aromatization. One thing that really opened my eyes was that 100 mg per day of DHEA raised the 17beta-estradiol in men (average age 58) from 510 pmol/L to 700. That’s nearly a 40% increase.  I tried to find out how much testosterone replacement increased estrogen. Both the androderm.com and androgel.com don’t give and exact amount. The androgel.com site just says “Serum estradiol (E2) concentrations increased significantly within 30 days”. Testosterone Magazine, which may or may not be a good source, claims that testosterone replacement increases estrogen by 50%. If that is true, the combination of DHEA and testosterone, which many anti-aging clinics are recommending seems like a serious problem to me with regard to increased estrogen in men.  The Keto form of DHEA has been shown not to cause the increase in estrogen. The following are the important references I found:

• Androgel prescribing information - androgel.com - "Serum estradiol (E2) concentrations increased significantly within 30 days of starting treatment with AndroGel® 5 or 10 G/day and remained elevated throughout the treatment period but remained within the normal range for eugonadal men"
• Biotransformation of oral dehydroepiandrosterone in elderly men: significant increase in circulating estrogens - J Clin Endocrinol Metab 1999 Jun;84(6):2170-6 - "Serum testosterone and dihydrotestosterone remained unchanged after DHEA administration. In contrast, 17beta-estradiol and estrone significantly increased in a dose-dependent manner to concentrations still within the upper normal range for men [placebo vs. 50 mg DHEA vs. 100 mg DHEA; AUC 0-12 h for 17beta-estradiol, 510 +/- 198 vs. 635 +/- 156 vs. 700 +/- 209 pmol/L x h (P < 0.0001); AUC 0-12 h for estrone, 1443 +/- 269 vs. 2537 +/- 434 vs. 3254 +/- 671 pmol/L x h (P < 0.0001)]"
• Clinical Safety and Endocrine Effects of 7-KETO™ DHEA - Presented at Experimental Biology 98, April 19-22, 1998, San Francisco, CA - "End-of-trial levels of dihydrotestosterone, estradiol, cortisol and insulin were not different from baseline values"
• Aromatase Inhibition Corrects Endocrinopathy In Infertile Men - Doctor's Guide, 4/9/01 - "investigators found that men with severe infertility had significantly lower testosterone (328 versus 543 ng/dl) and significantly higher oestradiol (58.4 versus 43.5 ng/l) than the fertile controls. As a result, the infertile men had much lower testosterone-to-oestradiol ratios ... These abnormalities were corrected in the 45 men who received testolactone and their testosterone-to-oestradiol ratios rose into the normal range"
• Rarely Discussed [gynecomastia] But Common Male Problem - ABC News, 3/23/01 - "About one-third of all men have some degree of gynecomastia ... Permanent gynecomastia occurs when normal levels estrogens in the body stimulate the tiny amount of breast tissue that all men have, causing it to grow ... Steroid and marijuana use can sometimes worsen the condition. It is also common for elderly men to grow breast tissue as their bodies start to produce smaller amounts of the male hormone testosterone"
• Evidence of a Treatable Endocrinopathy in Infertile Men - J. of Urology, 3/01 - "We identified an endocrinopathy in men with severe male factor infertility that is characterized by a decreased serum testosterone-to-estradiol ratio. This ratio can be corrected by aromatase inhibition, resulting in a significant improvement in semen parameters in oligospermic patients"
• Treatable (with Teslac®/testolactone) Endocrinopathy Linked to Severe Male Factor Infertility - Medscape, 3/13/01 - "Abnormal T/E [testosterone-to-estradiol] ratio is a correctable abnormality common in infertile men and may be of diagnostic value," co-author Dr. Marc Goldstein, from Cornell University, told Reuters Health. "Correcting the abnormality will increase testosterone levels and may enhance fertility, libido and sexual function."
• Replenish Testosterone Naturally - Life Extension Magazine, 1/00 - "Through a variety of mechanisms, aging men suffer from the dual effects of having too little testosterone and excess estrogen. The result is a testosterone/ estrogen imbalance that can severely inhibit sexual desire and performance ... Too much estrogen plays havoc with a man's sex life by binding to testosterone receptor sites and may contribute to the over-production of SHBG. SHBG binds free testosterone in a way that makes it unavailable to receptor sites in the brain, nerves and genitals."
• Estrogen suppression in males: metabolic effects - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Apr;86(4):1836-8 - "First, a dose-response study of 12 males (mean age, 16.1 +/- 0.3 yr) was conducted, and blood withdrawn at baseline and after 10 days of oral Arimidex given as two different doses (either 0.5 or 1 mg) in random order with a 14-day washout in between. A sensitive estradiol (E2) assay showed an approximately 50% decrease in E2 concentrations with either of the two doses ... There was a 58% increase in serum T"
• Anastrozole (Arimidex) - anabolic-androgenic-steroids.com - "Anastrozole (Arimidex) is the aromatase inhibitor of choice ...With moderate doses of testosterone 0.5 mg/day is usually sufficient and in some cases may be too much"
• The Never Ending Cycle - Testosterone Magazine - "In the group that only received Testosterone, they found a 50% reduction of LH and a 50% increase of estradiol"
• Arimidex (anastrozole) at International Anti-Aging Systems - sells Arimidex ($195) no prescription required.
• Arimidex (anastrozole) at CanadianMedsUSA.com - sells Arimidex ($130), prescription required.  That price seems realistic.  At half a tablet (1/2 milligram) per day, the cost would be $65 per month.  At a quarter tablet per day, the cost would be $32.50 per month.  A half tablet per day with every third day off would be $43.33 per month.
• Alternative options are I3C and chrysin

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