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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 9/18/02:

Strategies Outlined For Primary, Secondary Prevention of Stroke - Doctor's Guide, 9/18/02 - "The most recent evidence suggests that there are four primary prevention strategies for stroke: adequate blood pressure reduction, treatment of hyperlipidemia, antithrombotic therapy in atrial fibrillation patients and antiplatelet therapy in myocardial infarction patients"

Toxic gardens? - MSNBC, 9/18/02 - "A GROWING NUMBER of communities, physicians and medical researchers are concerned that the overly liberal use of insecticides, herbicides and other chemicals on home lawns and gardens may be hazardous to human health ... These substances, some of which include potential carcinogens and hormone disrupters, may present hazards to people who apply them and may leach into groundwater ... Children, who may be exposed by rolling around in the grass, for instance, are especially vulnerable since they are still developing, and they absorb more of the chemicals into their bodies, pound for pound, than adults"

Avoiding Weight Gain Has A Major Role In Cancer Prevention - Doctor's Guide, 9/13/02 - "Obesity is linked to colon, breast (in postmenopausal women), endometrium, kidney, and oesophagus ... associations with cancer risk could be explained by alterations in the metabolism of endogenous hormones, including sex steroids, insulin, and insulin-like growth factors. These can lead to distortion of the normal balance between cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis"

Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Ease Depression - ABC News, 9/16/02 - "After four months, "half of the placebo cases had already relapsed into depression, where as only two out of the 15 fish-oil patients had gotten sick, and that was a huge difference," ... "People should not fall below 650 milligrams [of omega-3] per day," says Hibbeln. "A 100-gram serving of fish on average is going to contain about a gram or 1,000 milligrams of omega-3. So, 650 milligrams is about a serving of fish every other day." ... However, for most people it may be unrealistic, or unappealing, to eat fish every other day. For those people, doctors recommend fish oil supplements that can be found in any health-food or nutrition store ... Omega-3s have also proved promising in preliminary results for the prevention and treatment of certain cancers, including colon cancer, and with inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis" - Note that the omega-3 in a supplement is the total of the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) and docosahexaenoic acids (DHA).  I believe that the author is incorrect that a 100-gram serving of fish contains 1,000 mg of omega-3.  That would assume that the oil in the fish was 100% omega-3 when in reality it is around 33.44%.  (ref.).  TwinLab TwinEPA is the highest potency I've been able to find. - Ben*

Fat Abnormalities Hold Gehrig's Clue - Intelihealth, 9/16/02 - "Free radicals have long been thought to play a role in ALS, and some ALS specialists advise taking antioxidant vitamins in hopes of curbing them. In Mattson's experiment, published in this month's Annals of Neurology, free radicals caused ceramides to rise inside those crucial nerve cells ... Indeed, doctors like Newman expect medications, not diet, to ultimately hold the key. For now, Newman advises patients just to eat the moderate-fat diet the government already recommends for a healthy heart and take antioxidants such as vitamin E as a precaution"

Wine Drinking Linked to Lower Lymphoma Risk - ABC News, 9/16/02 - "it is not clear if the wine itself--or some other lifestyle-related factor--is responsible for the risk reduction ... There was no link between consumption of beer or spirits ... Briggs noted that a chemical called resveratrol, which is "a phytoestrogen produced by grapes, and a natural ingredient in wine, has been shown to inhibit the initiation, as well as promotion and progression of cancer"

Alcohol Can Help Women's Hearts Too - WebMD, 9/16/02 - "10 men aged 45-64 and nine women aged 49-62 drank either regular beer or non-alcoholic beer for three weeks ... After 10 days of drinking alcohol, HDL cholesterol levels rose by an average of nearly 7% for both men and women ... Previous research suggests that a 1% increase in HDL cholesterol is linked to a 2% reduction in the risk of heart disease" - See my HDL page for other ways to raise it.  Also see inositol hexanicotinate.

Can I Stop My Hair from Thinning? - Dr. Weil, 9/13/02 - "Make sure you’re getting enough omega-3 fatty acids ... supplement your diet with GLA (gamma-linolenic acid) in the form of black currant oil or evening primrose oil"

Aspirin May Negate the Benefits of ACE Inhibitors - Doctor's Guide, 9/13/02 - "Although aspirin (ASA) and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors have been shown to reduce ischemic events after myocardial infarction (MI), ASA may attenuate the beneficial effects of ACE inhibitors among patients with CAD or left-ventricular dysfunction ... patients receiving an ACE inhibitor with ASA had a higher rate of death or recurrent MI compared to those receiving ASA alone ... Interestingly, the higher rate of adverse outcomes with this combination was present even in those receiving the 80 mg dose of ASA ... No mechanism for this adverse effect was suggested"

Folic Acid May Have Benefits for Smokers - Doctor's Guide, 9/13/02 - "randomised to four weeks of folic acid 5 mg/day or placebo ... Results showed that folic acid reduced homocysteine concentrations (10.8+/-0.6 versus 7.9+/-0.5 µmol/L, p<0.001) and there was a significant reduction in blood pressure (mean BP 88+/-2 versus 83+/-1 mmHg, p<0.01) ... Benefits also seem to be largely independent of the lowering of homocysteine concentrations"

Herbal Extract [butterbur] Compares Favorably with Common Hay Fever Medication - New Hope Natural Media, 9/12/02 - "An extract of the herb butterbur (Petasites hybridus) is as effective as the prescription medication cetirizine (Zyrtec®) for the treatment of hay fever and causes fewer side effects" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") butterbur products.

Report outlines diet-cancer link - MSNBC, 9/12/02 - "Poor diet is thought to account for about 30 percent of cancer in the developed world"

Study adds kink to HRT-cancer link - MSNBC, 9/12/02 - "while long-term hormone therapy may raise the risk of breast cancer, users who develop the disease may survive longer than those who never took supplements ... the reason may be that hormone users’ tumors are less aggressive"

Vitamins C And E Support Breathing Following An Operation - Intelihealth, 9/12/02 - "Patients who have recently undergone an operation experience less breathing problems after being given a cocktail of vitamins C and E"

Ginkgo Supplements Useful for SSRI-Related Sexual Dysfunction - Clinical Psychiatry News, 9/02 - "Ginkgo has multiple systemic effects. It acts as a free-radical scavenger, inhibits platelet aggregation, causes vasodilation, and allows more efficient cellular uptake of oxygen and glucose. The effects of ginkgo on sexual arousal are thought to result from increased blood circulation to the genital area ... The proprietary multi-ingredient ginkgo preparation ArginMax (Daily Wellness Co.) is “one of the best things I've ever seen for SSRI sexual dysfunction,”" - See ArginMax at drugstore.com

Is there anything that I can do to aid recovery and reduce soreness [from exercise]? - Dr. Murray - "Take 3,000-8,000 mg of vitamin C and 400-800 IU of vitamin E in divided doses daily" - See Body Wise Beta-C.

What is the best form of vitamin E? - Dr. Murray - "in a study of men with coronary artery disease, it was d-gamma-tocopherol that was low, not d-alpha-tocopherol suggesting that d-gamma- may be more important than d-alpha-tocopherol in preventing heart disease" - If that is true and they are using the d-alpha in heart studies (and I think they are) and the d-alpha lowers the gamma, then the vitamin E studies using d-alpha that show no advantage in heart disease should not be a surprise. - Ben

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