Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 8/14/02:

U.S. to Re-Evaluate Hormone Therapy - ABC News, 8/14/02 - "Health officials this fall will reassess hormone replacement therapy for post-menopausal women in response to a recent study questioning the therapy's risks and benefits ... The study tested only Prempro, the leading estrogen-progestin combination not other brands that bear lower doses of estrogen or estrogen skin patches"

Long-Time Hormone Therapy Lowers Postmenopausal Homocysteine - Doctor's Guide, 8/14/02 - "long-term HRT results in lower total homocysteine concentrations in all methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase genotypes with no demonstrable difference in effect between unopposed and opposed hormone replacement therapy"

Beer may be good for you - MSNBC, 8/13/02 - "a look at 70,000 female nurses showed that those who drank moderate amounts of beer had less hypertension than did nurses who drank either wine or spirits. He also points to a survey of 128,934 adults in the Kaiser Permanente managed-care system. It showed that male beer drinkers among the group were at a statistically significant lower risk of coronary-artery disease than were men who drank red wine, white wine or spirits ... new evidence also suggests that beer, because of mechanisms that “are not all clearly understood,” may help increase bone density, thus decreasing risk of fractures. And it also could raise by 10% to 20% the so-called “good cholesterol” levels in some people, thereby helping to ward off coronary-heart disease and related afflictions such as dementia. Beer, he adds, is also rich in B-vitamins and folates (a form of water-soluble B-vitamin found in green leafy vegetables), both of which help keep homocysteine blood levels in check"

Low-Carb Diets Tax Kidneys, May Weaken Bones - ABC News, 8/13/02 - "Diets that are heavy on protein-rich foods and skimp on carbohydrates can increase the risk of kidney stones and reduce the body's ability to absorb calcium after just 6 weeks ... A dearth of carbohydrate-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables can leave the body hungry for essential vitamins and minerals, while insufficient glucose (sugar) from carbohydrates, the body's preferred fuel source, can lead to fatigue and dizziness"

Low Potassium Intake Linked to Stroke - ABC News, 8/12/02 - "those with the lowest dietary intake of potassium--a mineral found in bananas, tomato sauce and orange juice--were 1.5 times more likely to have a stroke over the next 4 to 8 years than their peers with higher intakes of potassium ... Among individuals taking diuretics, the risk of stroke was 2.5 times higher when blood levels of potassium were low"

Catch Your 40 Winks to Boost Performance - ABC News, 8/12/02 - "people who slept after learning a new motor skill were better able to perform the task than people who were kept awake after learning the finger exercise. Sleep after practice improved speed by about 34% and reduced errors by roughly 30%"

Stress Ups Heart Disease Risk Among Japanese - ABC News, 8/12/02 - "Women who feel stressed on a day-to-day basis are more likely to die from stroke and heart disease than their more mellow peers ... Mental stress can raise blood pressure and heart rate, increase the risk of developing blood clots, cause blood vessels to constrict, and make the body less sensitive to insulin" - This article doesn't get in to it but stress raises cortisol, which may be responsible for the damage.  Samaritan Pharmaceuticals just announced promising results from FDA Phase II trials it's anti-cortisol drug Anticort.  See:

• Samaritan's ``Bull a Ton'' Newsletter Announces Anticort Phase II HIV Data at First Blush is Promising - Samaritan Pharmaceuticals, 8/8/02 - "Anticort® for HIV, the most mature part of its pipeline, has promising, early, "first blush" data from its FDA Phase II clinical trial"
• Procaine HCI - aidsmap.com, 6/21/98 - "Procaine HCl is an experimental, immune-modulating drug designed to reduce levels of the stress causing hormone called cortisol - Procaine HCI is an experimental, immune-modulating drug designed to reduce levels of the stress causing hormone called cortisol. Known by the trade name Anticort, the drug has been developed by Steroidogenesis Inhibitors (STGI) and Altachem Pharma in the U.S. and Canada" - Steroidogenesis Inhibitors is now Samaritan Pharmaceuticals.  Procaine is available now as GH-3.
• The fountain of youth mysteries revealed in the new millennium - Los Altos Town Crier, 2/14/01 - "However, one, known as cortisol, a hormone that rises significantly in the body each time adrenaline is released to provide the sudden bursts of energy necessary to counter stressful situations, appears to be playing a major role in destroying the immune system and shortening lifespan ... And the research is staggering. Published studies in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology have already concluded that high cortisol levels result in loss of muscle and bone mass - the first physical symptoms of aging. Others have shown that high cortisol levels are associated with cognitive impairment and dementia"
• Georgetown Researchers Report Development of New Way to Control Excess Cortisol Levels - Georgetown University Medical Center, 6/12/00 - "Although more work is needed to understand how Anticort works, these results clearly indicate that we now have a powerful tool to control the stress response and its detrimental effects on the body"

High Calorie, Fat, and Calcium Diet Linked to Higher Prostate Cancer Risk - Medscape, 8/9/02 - "Our findings clearly show decreased risk for late-stage disease in men with diets that are low in fat and moderate in calcium, perhaps because these diets slow the progression of prostate cancer into more aggressive disease ... There was no association between prostate cancer and vitamin D or with highly unsaturated, long-chain eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic fatty acids"

Venlafaxine Appears More Effective Than Fluoxetine In Treating Depression With Concomitant Anxiety - Doctor's Guide, 8/9/02 - "An overall response was seen in 75 percent of patients receiving venlafaxine and 51 percent of patients receiving fluoxetine. At their final visit, 59 percent of patients taking venlafaxine and 40 percent taking fluoxetine were virtually asymptomatic"

Peripheral Arterial Disease Responds to Glutathione Infusion - Medscape, 8/9/02 - "Oxidative stress is considered an important condition in the atherosclerotic process, favoring cellular and vascular damage ... Forty subjects with Fontaine stage II PAD received intravenous glutathione or saline solution twice daily for five days. Those receiving glutathione had significant improvements in pain-free walking distance (196 +/- 15 vs. 143 +/- 11 m; P<.04), macrocirculatory flow after treadmill test with plethysmography, postischemic hyperemia with laser Doppler flowmetry, and reduced time to flow motion" - Related articles:

• Taking Out Toxins - Delicious! Magazine, 5/00 - "Glutathione is too large a molecule to effectively pass through the intestine into cells, so supplementing with glutathione alone is not helpful. But when taken with vitamin C, which protects it from oxidative damage, glutathione is recycled and becomes effective."
• Staying Young Forever, Putting new research findings into practice - Life Extension Magazine, 12/99 - "lipoic acid is the only antioxidant that can boost the level of intracellular glutathione, a cellular antioxidant of tremendous importance. Besides being the body's primary water-soluble antioxidant and a major detoxification agent, glutathione is absolutely essential for the functioning of the immune system"

Popular Summer Drinks Called Desserts in Disguise - ABC News, 8/9/02 - "summer thirst quenchers like the Coffee Coolatta sold at Dunkin' Donuts and the Starbucks standby Tazoberry and Cream can supply a meal's worth of calories and more than a day's worth of saturated fat if consumers aren't careful ... Dunkin' Donuts' Vanilla Bean Coolatta, which in a large-sized cup boasts about 880 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat--the artery-clogging kind; Starbucks' large Tazoberry and Cream, which weighs in at 750 calories and 22.5 grams of saturated fat; and Au Bon Pain's large-sized Frozen Mocha-Blast, which supplies 480 calories and 3 grams of saturated fat"

Sex after the HRT scare - MSNBC, 8/8/02 - "The endocrine system goes into overdrive in an attempt to squeeze every available bit of estrogen out of the ovaries. Despite all that, estrogen levels decrease 80 percent, which has myriad effects ... The hypothalamus becomes less effective in regulating temperature, hence the hot flashes, flushes and night sweats ... Let’s not forget the decline in testosterone. Women do have some — though about 10 times less than men. In both sexes, testosterone stimulates sexual desire and general vivacity. Goodbye testosterone, hello exhaustion" - Note:  For testosterone, some are getting the 0.5% compounded gel from Women's International Pharmacy.  The price is around $20.  A prescription is required.  See my prescription and change the 50 to a 5.  MedQuest fills my prescription for about $55, but it's ten times stronger.  I assume they do the lower women's version also.

Natural Treatment Found Effective for Enlarged Prostate - New Hope Natural Media, 8/8/02 - "took a combination of four different natural products: cernitin (a mixture of rye, timothy, and corn pollens), saw palmetto, beta-sitosterol and vitamin E ... After three months, the men taking the natural products improved to a significantly greater extent than the control group with respect to a number of different measures, including frequency of urination, nighttime urination and total urinary symptoms"

New Views on Atherosclerosis - Life Extension Magazine, 8/02 - "A drug company has patented a product called FOLTX that cardiologists are now prescribing to their patients for the purpose of lowering homocysteine. Each tablet of FOLTX contains: 2.5 mg of folic acid, 1.0 mg of vitamin B12, 25 mg of vitamin B6.  The cost for 90 tablets of FOLTX from www.drugstore.com is $38.08—or about double the retail price of these same potencies of vitamins when purchased in a health food store"

Testosterone Deficiency & Depression, Does DHEA Raise the Levels of Bioavailable Testosterone in Men? - Life Extension Magazine, 8/02 - "As testosterone replacement for women is becoming increasingly commonplace, women too report not just restored libido, but also improved mood and greater energy, less anxiety and more assertiveness ... low levels of free testosterone were the best predictor of depression, regardless of age ... the study [in men] showed no correlation between depression and free estradiol ... The mood-improving action of testosterone is more likely to be due to the direct action of testosterone on the brain-possibly through raising the levels of dopamine, a very important "reward" neurotransmitter ... We know that as cortisol rises, testosterone levels tend to drop ... It is insufficient to have your total testosterone tested; men should insist on a blood test for free testosterone ... The transdermal route (cream or gel), however, is widely regarded as the best, producing steady levels and the least stress on the liver. Methyl-testosterone is to be avoided, since it is harmful to the liver; in fact, it has been banned in Europe ... a well-controlled study published in the prestigious Journal of Clinical and Experimental Endocrinology and Metabolism did in fact find a significant rise in free testosterone in men aged 60 to 84 years, after three months on 100 mg of DHEA ... Some men on testosterone drug replacement therapy develop dangerously high estrogen levels. Estrogen can be suppressed by taking an aromatase-inhibiting drug like Arimidex (0.5 mg twice a week) or using a supplement like Super Mira Forte (six capsules daily)"

Risks of Menopause, Benefits of HRT: Perception vs. Reality - The American Society for Reproductive Medicine - Good CME slide show on the benefits of HRT.

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