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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 10/23/02:

The Great Salmon Debate - Newsweek, 10/28/02 - "Surprisingly, it is canned salmon, the raw ingredient of school-lunch salmon croquettes, that is always wild; the filet you buy at the fish market or the restaurant is usually farmed. “Alaska” salmon is wild; in the United States, fresh “Atlantic” salmon—the name refers to the species, not the fish’s origin—is generally farm raised ... Even people who don’t like salmon know by now that it contains omega-3 fatty acids ... It was Perricone, though, who elevated another boring piece of nutrition news into a full-blown craze by asserting that omega-3’s can get rid of wrinkles ... farmed salmon would be the color of halibut without the addition of a synthetic dye to their feed, which farmers calibrate from a chart to achieve the desired degree of pinkness"

Sex and the Serious Cyclist - Time Magazine, 10/28/02 - "Goldstein has been warning cyclists that hours of sitting on a bike saddle can create enough pressure on the perineum, the area between the anus and the pubic bone, to permanently damage the artery that supplies blood to the penis"

Rising breast cancer rate fuels environmental concerns - MSNBC, 10/23/02 - "Breast cancer jumped by 72 percent among Marin [County, Calif.] women ages 46 to 64 during the 1990s ... Common pollutants, such as benzene, a compound found in car exhaust, are linked to breast tumors, and people who move to industrialized counties suddenly face a higher breast cancer risk within one generation ... In the case of breast cancer, new diagnoses have, in fact, been growing at a rate of .6 percent per year nationwide"

Pantoprazole Found Longer Lasting than Omeprazole - Doctor's Guide, 10/23/02 - "pantoprazole (Protonix, by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals) inhibited gastric acid output throughout the 24-hour study, compared to 15 hours for omeprazole (Prilosec, by AstraZeneca)"

Dose-Response Relationship Between Exercise, Heart Disease In Men - Doctor's Guide, 10/23/02 - "There is a significant inverse, dose-response relationship between total physical activity and risk of myocardial infarction (MI), and coronary heart disease (CHD) in men"

Breast Cancer Answers: Strategies Show Promise In Mice - Intelihealth, 10/23/02 - "Another study found that young female mice who ate lots of fish oil had lower breast cancer rates"

Anti-inflammatory Drugs May Require Two Years' Treatment to Prevent Colorectal Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 10/22/02 - "Taking aspirin or an NSAID for at least two years reduced the risk of colorectal cancer by 32 percent"

Experts ping-pong on protein advice - MSNBC, 10/22/02 - "Now protein can range from 10 percent to 35 percent of daily intake. At the annual meeting of the American Dietetic Association this week, nutritionists basically admitted that they really don’t know how much protein Americans need ... Studies have shown that you need to get at least 76 grams of protein, so that means you have to go to the upper ranges of the protein recommendations for a 1,200 calorie diet"

Waist Circumference Within Body Mass Index Categories Identifies Health Risks - Doctor's Guide, 10/22/02 - "subjects with high WC [waist circumference] values were increasingly likely have the four conditions [hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and the metabolic syndrome] than those with normal WC values" - Possible connection to cortisol?:

• Single enzyme to blame for potbellies: study - MSNBC, 12/6/01 - "What they found was that a single enzyme in fat cells that raises levels of cortisol — the “fight or flight” stress hormone — triggers fat accumulation around the belly and its associated ill effects ... The researchers were drawn to the role of cortisol because patients with a rare illness known as Cushing syndrome — who have too much of the steroid hormone in their blood — develop severe obesity concentrated around their middles and become diabetic ... Since overweight people without Cushing syndrome typically don’t have too much cortisol in their bloodstreams, Flier hypothesized that they may be producing high cortisol levels solely in their fat cells — possibly because the enzyme HSD-1, which makes cortisol from an inactive molecule, is overactive ... The level of cortisol in their stomach fat tissue was 15 percent to 30 percent higher than in their non-engineered counterparts"

Short Term Mifepristone Effective For Psychotic Major Depression - Doctor's Guide, 10/22/02 (mifepristone (RU-486) lowers cortisol.  See RU-486 could aid variety of ills - MSNBC, 11/2/00)

Elevated Homocysteine May Be Linked to Glaucoma - Doctor's Guide, 10/22/02 - "Hyperhomocysteinemia could be a significant risk factor for a particular type of glaucoma"

Genes Determine Effect of Diet, Good Cholesterol - WebMD, 10/21/02 - "To increase HDLs, you shouldn't consume more saturated fats. Instead, you should have more monounsaturated fats, which are abundant in many vegetables, oils, and walnuts."

What you should know about omega-3 fatty acids (page 10) - National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Spring 2002 Newsletter - "essential fatty acids cannot be manufactured by the body but must be consumed in the food we eat or in supplements ... most of us eat insufficient quantities of fish, and most of the fish we do eat is farmed, so the fish are not out in the wild eating all those chloroplasts but instead fed commercial fish foods.  Only non-farmed fish have an abundance of the very important long-chained EPA and DHA (eicosapentanoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid) molecules ... omega-3 fatty acids are needed in the brain to an extraordinary degree.  In fact, the brain needs more omega-3s than any other organ in the body -- the major structure components of the brain cells are fat and water, and the dry weight of an adult brain is 60 percent fat."

Study Records Elevated Mercury - Intelihealth, 10/19/02 - "A study of Californians who loaded their lunch and dinner menus with fish shows 89 percent wound up with elevated mercury levels in their bodies ... Of that group, 63 people had blood mercury levels more than twice the recommended level and 19 showed blood mercury levels four times the level considered safe. Four people had mercury levels 10 times as high as the government recommends" - See write-up on my Essential Fatty Acids page, which addresses mercury concerns with fish oil supplements.

Work Stress Doubles Risk of Heart Disease Death - ABC News, 10/18/02 - "Even after controlling for the effects of conventional cardiovascular risk factors, high work stress was associated with a doubling of risk of cardiovascular death" - Note:  Stress increases cortisol.

Fish Oil May Help Relieve Stubborn Depression - Reuters, 10/17/02 - "Daily supplements of an omega-3 fatty acid--found in fish and fish oil--may help alleviate the symptoms of depression in patients who do not respond to standard antidepressant medications, new research findings suggest ... Previous researchers have suggested that the balance of omega-3 fatty acids in the brain may become skewed in people with depression, and earlier studies have shown that fish oil supplements can help alleviate the symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, or manic depression" - See my essential fatty acids page, my omega-3 page or Mega Twin EPA at iHerb (5% discount code "qc") or Vitacost.

Iron May Play Role In Endometriosis - Doctor's Guide, 10/17/02 - "Iron overload has been observed in the cellular and peritoneal fluid compartments of the peritoneal cavity of women with endometriosis"

“Friendly Bacteria” Help Eradicate the Peptic-Ulcer Organism - New Hope Natural Media, 10/17/02 - "Taking a supplement of “friendly bacteria” (probiotics) increases the effectiveness of conventional antibiotic therapy in eradicating Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), the organism that causes peptic ulcers"

L-Arginine Minimises Stroke Damage in Mitochondrial Encephalomyopathy with Lactic Acidosis and Stroke-like Episodes - Doctor's Guide, 10/16/02 - "L-arginine therapy minimises tissue injury from ischaemia in the acute phase of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy with lactic acidosis and stroke-like episodes"

Use Of Vitamin A Cream May Prevent Skin Cancer - Intelihealth, 10/16/02 - "Use of topical tazarotene, a vitamin A derivative, has significant potential for the prevention of basal cell carcinoma in people predisposed to the disease" - See tazarotene at drugstore.com.

NIH Releases Annual Bibliography Of Significant Advances In Dietary Supplement Research - Intelihealth, 10/17/02 - "This bibliography provides an excellent opportunity to give well-deserved recognition to those scientists conducting dietary supplement research" - Click here to go to the download page.  From that publication:

• Annual Bibliography of Significant Advances in Dietary Supplement Research (Third Issue released 10/02) - "Analyses of the data showed an increased risk of breast cancer with decreasing levels of lutein, β-cryptoxanthin, α-carotene, and β-carotene. The risk of breast cancer for women with blood levels of β-carotene in the lowest quartile was double that of those in the highest quartile. The risk of breast cancer associated with the other carotenoids was similar. The results of this observational study indicate that low intakes of carotenoids, from either foods or supplements, are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and may have public health relevance for women." - See Nature's Way Protectamins Multi-Carotene Antioxidant Complex.

Antioxidants May Reduce Alzheimer's Disease Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/02 - "Use of vitamins E and C together—which is what most subjects did—was associated with an eightfold reduction in prevalence and a fivefold lower incidence of Alzheimer's disease"

More Antioxidants, Less Fat May Reduce Alzheimer's Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/02 - "Data are now strong enough to recommend a dietary strategy for reducing Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk that includes low fat intake and high consumption of fish and antioxidants, along with vitamin E, folic acid, and vitamins B6 and B12 supplements"

Cholesterol, Blood Pressure Problems Outweigh Genetics for Alzheimer's Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/02 - "having a cholesterol level of 250 mg/dL or greater increased the risk for Alzheimer's disease by threefold, compared with cholesterol levels below that ... Systolic blood pressure (SBP) greater than 160 mm Hg increased the risk by 2.4, compared with SBP less than 140 mm Hg"

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