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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 11/27/02:

Last week I had an article regarding low dose doxycycline reducing CRP by 46% in six months.  I was updating one of my cancer pages and ran across an article about doxycycline, Celebrex, tamoxifen curing cancer in a dog so I started a web page for doxycyline news.

Options for Arthritis Pain - Newsweek, 12/2/02 - "In a large trial published in 2001, X-rays indicated that glucosamine may help protect or restore arthritic knees ... A new federally funded review of the scientific evidence concludes that SAMe may be as effective as NSAIDs for reducing osteoarthritis pain"

Three Diet Strategies Help Prevent Coronary Heart Disease - Doctor's Guide, 11/27/02 - "Evidence is now clear that diets including non-hydrogenated unsaturated fats as the predominant form of dietary fat, whole grains as the main form of carbohydrate, an abundance of fruit and vegetables and adequate omega-3 fatty acids can offer significant protection against CHD"

Chronic Stress And Metabolic Syndrome Linked - Doctor's Guide, 11/27/02 - "While the 24-hour cortisol metabolite and normetanephrine (three-methoxynorepinephrine) outputs were higher among cases than controls, HRV and total power were lower among cases" - Makes sense.  Stress increases cortisol, cortisol causes high blood sugar.  Also see my metabolic syndrome and stress pages. - Ben

Evidence conflicts on mercury, heart disease link - Reuters, 11/27/02 - "Will consuming mercury-contaminated fish increase a man's risk for heart disease? ... little is known about the long-term consequences of low levels of exposure ... those with the highest levels of mercury were more than twice as likely to have had a heart attack than the men with the lowest mercury levels ... high DHA levels were "inversely associated" with heart attack risk" - DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid.

The Pill may cut long-term risk of ovarian cancer - Reuters, 11/27/02 - "Compared with women who never used oral contraceptives, those who took them for less than 5 years had a 17% reduced risk of ovarian cancer, while those who took them for 5 or more years had a 58% lower risk, results showed"

Antioxidants missing in mouths with gum disease - Reuters, 11/26/02 - "In the healthy participants, the researchers found high levels of antioxidants. However, those with serious gum disease had substantially lower levels of the antioxidants in both GCF and in their bloodstream when compared to their peers with healthy gums ... Chapple speculated that gum disease patients may eat a less antioxidant-rich diet than others, or produce less antioxidants than healthy people. "It could also be that the oxygen radicals produced during periodontal inflammation 'spill out' into the blood stream and use up peripheral antioxidants from the blood stream,"" - Related article:

• The Little Nutrient That Might - ABC News, 10/20/98 - "That boost of energy may also help in your mouth. Clinical trials with small numbers of patients have shown that Q10 treatments improved the health of gums. The results, which should be seen as preliminary, are nonetheless very consistent and impressive" - You might have to highlight it with the mouse to read it.

FDA approves drug to build bone in osteoporosis patients - USA Today, 11/26/02 - "The new drug, known as teriparatide, works by increasing the action of osteoblasts, the body's bone-building cells. This causes bones to become denser and more resistant to fractures ... the drug, given by injection daily, will carry a special warning because in laboratory tests teriparatide caused cancerous bone tumors in rats ... It is the first approved that stimulates bone formation instead of slowing the breakdown of bone ... patients may use teriparatide with the older approved drugs because the drugs work by different mechanisms in the body"

Peanut Butter, Nuts Lower Diabetes Risk - WebMD, 11/26/02 - "Women who reported eating a tablespoon of peanut butter at least five times a week had a 21% reduced risk of type 2 diabetes compared to those who rarely or never ate it ... A 27% decrease was noted in women who consumed five ounces of nuts each week compared to women who never or almost never consumed nuts ... That handful of nuts also contains about 170 calories ... urge that regular peanut butter and nut consumption be used as its original intention -- as a replacement for meat and other foods, not in addition to them"

Non-Stimulant Approved for ADHD - WebMD, 11/26/02 - "The FDA today approved Strattera, the first non-stimulant drug for treating kids, teens, and adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) ... This is the first nonstimulant medicine approved for use in ADHD ... it affects only one major brain chemical, norepinephrine -- thought to be important in regulating attention, impulsivity, and activity levels"

Argument Strengthens For Folic Acid To Reduce Homocysteine Level - Doctor's Guide, 11/26/02 - "A decrease in serum homocysteine of 3 micromol/l, which can be achieved by a daily intake of about 0.8 mg folic acid, should reduce the risk of ischaemic heart disease by 16 percent, deep vein thrombosis by 25 percent, and stroke by 24 percent" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") or Vitacost folic acid products.

Losing Out on Omega-3s? - Dr. Weil, 11/26/02 - "Omega-3s can be destroyed by air, light and heat, which is why the less exposure and processing that fish undergo between being caught and ending up on your plate, the better"

A new and easy way to predict your risk of heart attack and stroke - US News & World Report, 11/25/02 - "CRP may be more than just a marker for heart risk. It may be a causative agent. Studies suggest that it is produced not only in the liver but also inside artery walls where cellular troops are gathering to initiate an inflammatory response. CRP may promote the formation of "adhesion molecules" that, sirenlike, lure white blood cells out of the bloodstream to stick to artery walls. From there, they squirm inside the wall, where they contribute to a growing pocket of inflammation. CRP also may lower the level of nitrous oxide–"a major player in keeping blood vessels healthy," says Ridker ... most of the measures that seem to whittle CRP are the same ones already known to benefit the heart. Statins, for example, cut LDLs and boost HDL–and have been shown to reduce CRP levels by a healthy amount. And aspirin, firmly established as a cheap and effective way to cut the risk of heart attack and stroke, may lower CRP as well" - Also check out their graphic.  Related article from last week:

• Low-dose Periostat (Doxycycline) Shows Benefits in Patients with Heart Failure - Doctor's Guide, 11/20/02 - "At six-month follow-up, sub-antimicrobial dose doxycyline significantly reduced CRP levels by 45.8 percent compared to baseline values (p<0.05). The drug was also associated with a 33.5 percent reduction in interleukin-6 and a 50 percent reduction in metalloproteinase ... The findings are exciting, since research is now showing that CRP is both a key marker of inflammation leading to future acute coronary events, but also that CRP itself may contribute to the initiation and progression of atherosclerosis"
• Erectile Dysfunction - Healthwell.com - "Dilation of blood vessels necessary for a normal erection depends on a substance called nitric oxide" - I believe the above US News article meant nitric oxide, not nitrous oxide (laughing gas).  See:
• What is the difference between nitric oxide and nitrous oxide? - Medinox.com - "Nitrous oxide is not a free radical nor is it produced in the body"

Exercise cuts inflammation-related protein in blood - Reuters, 11/27/02 - "People with high levels of this protein, known as C-reactive protein (CRP), appear to have a higher than average risk of cardiovascular disease ... The investigators found that men who were the fittest also tended to have the lowest levels of CRP in their bodies, while those deemed the least fit were more likely to show the highest levels of CRP"

Bernadine Healy, M.D.: Molecule of the moment - US News & World Report, 11/25/02 - "Arteries don't just wear out like old tires. Atherosclerosis is a sneaky, chronic, inflammatory process that slowly ravages arteries. Early on, the artery damage is pretty benign: a yellow streak on a clean white landscape of cells lining an artery. As the disease advances, we see an ugly, ulcerating killer beast, loaded with cholesterol crystals, liquid fat, dead tissue, calcium, nasty-looking white blood cells, scars, and the beginnings of blood clots that in a flash can choke off an artery and strangle blood flow"

Longevity Runs In Families: Study Looks At Genetics, Environment - Intelihealth, 11/25/02 - "Female children of the centenarians weighed, on average, 146 pounds, while the female children of the control group weighed 158, on average. The male children of the centenarians weighed 184, on average, while the male children in the control group had an average weight of 202" - Related article but the link went dead:

• Researchers Analyze Centenarians - ABC News, 6/10/02 - "Some studies already have shown the children of centenarians tend, in their 60s and 70s, to have high levels of "good" cholesterol and low levels of "bad" cholesterol"

New Skin Cream [Avage] Reverses Sun Damage - WebMD, 11/22/02 - "At the 24-week point, researchers found significantly more patients who used the tazarotene cream experienced a more than 50% overall improvement in skin appearance compared to those who received the placebo. The Avage users also reported less wrinkling, mottled pigmentation, and skin roughness" - See See Tazorac at Drugstore.com, prescription required.

Rethinking the Food Guide Pyramid - ABC News, 11/21/02 - "those who ate alternative diets to the well known pyramid with a distinction between good and bad fats and carbohydrates, lowered their risk of chronic disease by almost 40 percent in men and 30 percent in women ... Harvard researchers propose a new order. Fats, at least the good ones like olive oil, should be in the favored base position and breads and refined starches relegated to a tiny corner at the top ... All proteins wouldn't be treated equally as they are now. Nuts and beans are better than fish and eggs, they say. And as for red meat, consumption should be minimal and squeezed next to starches at the top"

GLA: The Right Remedy for Eczema? - Dr. Weil, 11/21/02 - "It has specific nourishing effects on skin, hair, and nails that are not duplicated by omega–3 fatty acids ... It is true that a high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the diet promotes inflammation by favoring synthesis of pro-inflammatory hormones (prostaglandins). But the amount of GLA needed to treat eczema and other skin conditions (500 milligrams twice a day) is too small to affect that ratio significantly" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") and Vitacost GLA products.

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