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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 11/6/02:

I think ABC News has a new person doing their health site because they seem to have stopped reporting on supplements.  For that reason, I've gone directly to Reuters but the Reuters links go dead in about a week.

Study Links Hormones [estrogen], Lower Alzheimer's - Intelihealth, 11/6/02 - "Compared with women who had never used hormones, those who had used them were, on average, 40% less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease in the three-year period between their initial interview and the follow-up. The longer they were on hormone therapy, the lower their risk ... they found a lower risk of Alzheimer's only among former users and among current users who had been on hormones for more than a decade. Current users who had been on therapy for fewer than 10 years saw little, if any, benefit"

Supplement [SAM-e] Found Effective As Antidepressant - Intelihealth, 11/6/02 - "The dietary supplement SAMe is about as effective as older, conventional antidepressants in treating depression, a preliminary, government-funded study says. It also finds SAMe to be comparable to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications in treating the pain of osteoarthritis. Such drugs include aspirin, ibuprofen and naproxen" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") or  Vitacost SAM-e products.

High Cholesterol? More Exercise Better - WebMD, 11/6/02 - "the amount of time spent exercising is more important than the intensity of exercise"

'Good' Cholesterol Helps Very Old Keep Their Smarts - Reuters, 11/6/02 - "Among the many effects of plasma HDL, it recently became apparent that it protects from decreased cognitive function associated with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia ... people living well into their 90s and beyond age 100 tend to have higher levels of HDL. Children of centenarians also have relatively high HDL levels ... Good cholesterol may help keep the blood vessels functioning properly, reduce inflammation and help support brain cell function in other ways" - See my HDL page for ways to raise it.

Hold The Mercury - CBS News, 11/5/02 - "89 percent of patients with a fish-heavy diet had blood-mercury levels exceeding that deemed safe by the government" - See the fish oil table on my essential fatty acids page for omega-3 capsules that are molecularly distilled (no detectable mercury).  They're the ones with the asterisk (*).

Red Wine Component to Be Studied Against Cancer - Reuters, 11/5/02 - "Consumption of resveratrol has been proposed as one possible explanation for the low incidence of cardiovascular disease in Southern European countries with high red wine consumption, and resveratrol has been shown to possess anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activity in experimental models" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") resveratrol products.

Study Gauges Risks To Heart - Intelihealth, 11/5/02 - "Untreated high blood pressure doubles a person's risk [of congestive heart failure] ... High blood pressure results when the arteries stiffen or narrow, forcing the heart to overwork and enlarge ... A 40-year-old man whose blood pressure is less than 140 when his heart contracts, the top number, has a 15% lifetime risk of developing heart failure, compared with a 28% risk for a 40-year-old man whose pressure tops 160" - See my hypertension page for alternative and conventional treatments.

Garlic, Chives Reduce Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 11/5/02 - "filling your diet with garlic and scallions can help reduce the chance of this potentially deadly cancer ... Garlic and scallions, along with onions, leeks, chives, and shallots, are rich in flavonols, substances in plants that have been shown to have antitumor effects. All of these vegetables have previously been linked to lower risks of cancers of the stomach, colon, esophagus, and perhaps breast ... although fruits and vegetables slightly reduced prostate cancer, the lower risk associated with allium vegetables was much more pronounced"

Aspirin Has Favorable Risk/Benefit Profile in Secondary Prevention of MI and Stroke - Medscape, 11/4/02 - "the use of aspirin reduced overall mortality by 18% and the number of strokes by 20%. They also found that myocardial infarctions and other vascular events were reduced by 30% ... patients receiving aspirin had a 2.5 times increased risk of gastrointestinal tract bleeding compared with patients receiving placebo" - I've got that via drugstore.com.  See $3.99 for 120 of the 81 mg aspirin.

Iron Deficiency May Contribute to Alzheimer Damage - Reuters, 11/4/02 - "In experiments with human and animal brain cells, reducing the production of the most common form of iron in cells, known as heme, led to degeneration similar to that caused by aging and Alzheimer's disease ... Ames told Reuters Health in an interview that a multivitamin that contains iron is "an insurance pill" in case the link between low heme and brain degeneration is confirmed, since iron and vitamin B6 are needed for heme production" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") and Vitacost iron products.

Testosterone in Blood Linked to Better Memory - Reuters, 11/5/02 - "Older men with relatively high levels of testosterone in their blood tend to outperform others in tests of memory and other aspects of mental functioning ... she is not sure whether testosterone itself helps men retain some of their mental abilities into old age, or if the hormone becomes converted into estrogen in the brain, and it is the female hormone that boosts the organ's function"

Folic Acid May Help Prevent Pregnancy Complication - Reuters, 11/5/02 - "Women who take supplemental folic acid appear to be almost half as likely as others to develop high blood pressure during each month of pregnancy ... High blood pressure during pregnancy can be a symptom of preeclampsia" - I pop an extra 0.8 mg (800 mcg) of folic acid per day because I feel it increases mood and lowers homocysteine.  See:

• Folic Acid Aids Prozac - Delicious! Online, 4/02 - "Only 6.1 percent of the women in the folic acid group failed to respond (a greater than 50 percent symptom improvement), whereas 38.9 percent failed to respond when given fluoxetine alone ... The authors suggest that men were not given enough folic acid, supported by the fact that the marker for folic acid sufficiency—serum homocysteine—did not go down in men (indicating improvement in folic acid status), whereas in women it did"
• Protein May Increase Risk of Stroke, Alzheimer's - ABC News, 10/3/02 - "Moderately high levels of the amino acid homocysteine may substantially increase the risk of stroke and Alzheimer's disease as well as a non-Alzheimer's form of dementia ... Folic acid and other B vitamins may lower homocysteine by breaking down the amino acid ... Because dietary habits are so different among people, it may be appropriate to recommend a higher dose, such as 2 to 5 milligrams folic acid and a similar dose of vitamin B12 daily"

Speaking of mood, most of the research on omega-3 that I've read supports a high EPA/DHA ratio.  I read http://www.nami.org/youth/BKGUSpring2002.pdf (page 11) saying that "mania is more likely with a DHA-enriched product".  I could use a little mania so I gave DHA a try.  It does give me a buzz and it's fairly immediate.  I started popping 500 mg of the Jarrow brand about every hour throughout the day and take a total of 8 to 10 per day.  If you decide to try it, check with your doctor first as fish oil can reduce clotting.

Second Facelift as Safe as First - WebMD, 11/4/02 - "A repeat facelift isn't likely to be any riskier than the original"

Three Of 12 Patients Taking Pyridorin (Pyridoxamine Dihydrochloride) Convert From Macro- To Microalbuminuria - Doctor's Guide, 11/3/02 - "all dose levels of Pyridorin were well tolerated, with no serious adverse events reported and no discontinuations due to an adverse event ... Patients taking Pyridorin experienced an average decrease from baseline 24-hour urinary albumin excretion of 32 percent at day 45" - Note: Advanced Glycation End Product (AGE) inhibitors are an important area of anti-aging medicine.  Sounds Pyridorin by BioStratum is a competitor to pimagedine by Alteon.  Pyridorin and pimagedine are advanced glycation end product (AGE) inhibitors.  Alteon is also working on ALT-711, which is an advanced glycation end product (AGE) reverser and may be an option in the future to hardening of the arteries.  Carnosine and acetyl-l-carnitine are supplements believed to be advanced glycation end product (AGE) inhibitors. - Ben

Antidepressants Increase Cholesterol Levels in Patients with Bipolar Disorder - Doctor's Guide, 11/3/02 - "At the end of the study period, total cholesterol levels were significantly higher than at admission, from 4.9 at treatment onset to 5.2 after treatment" - see antidepressants.

Light Exercise Won't Make Bones Strong - WebMD, 11/1/02 - "The fittest people were at just the same risk for brittle bones as those who gasped for breath after a short time on the treadmill"

Total Dietary Antioxidant Potential Associated With Reduced Risk of Gastric Cancer - Medscape, 11/1/02 - "The total dietary intake of antioxidants is inversely associated with the risk for developing cardia and distal gastric cancer ... In people exposed to abnormal bio-radical loads, such as smokers and Helicobacter pylori-infected individuals, the increased need for antioxidant equivalents seems even more important"

Auxilium Receives U.S. FDA Approval to Market Testim™ Testosterone Replacement Gel - Doctor's Guide, 11/1/02 - "Testim is approved for use in treating men with low testosterone levels ... Abnormally low levels of testosterone are linked to a decline in energy, decreased muscle mass, reduced bone density, decreased libido and sexual function, fatigue and depression"

Inflammation May Increase Stroke Risk In Men With Hypertension - Doctor's Guide, 11/1/02 - "The study found that men with systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) at or above 140 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and elevated levels of inflammation-sensitive plasma proteins (ISP) were four times as likely to have a stroke as were men who had normal blood pressure and normal ISP levels. Moreover, the inflammatory proteins predicted stroke risk for 10 or more years." - See my inflammation page for ways to reduce it.

Comparison of Hormone Replacement Therapies Finds Progesterone Causes Less Bleeding Than The Most Commonly Used Treatment May Also Be Less Likely to Cause Health Risks Identified in Recent Women's Health Initiative Study - Doctor's Guide, 11/1/02 - "a combination of estrogen and micronized progesterone (MP) causes fewer days and less intense bleeding than the most commonly used combination"

US Teen Dies After Following High-Protein Diet - ABC News, 10/31/02 - "Missouri doctors describe the case of an apparently healthy 16-year-old girl who collapsed suddenly and died after spending one to two weeks on a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet ... Electrolyte imbalances due to the diet, and the resulting damage to her heart function, were likely responsible ... Wahida Karmally, a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, told Reuters Health that these diets can cause muscle breakdown, weakness, nausea and dehydration. They limit the intake of entire categories of food that provide certain nutrients, such as potassium"

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