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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 2/12/03:

Which Blood Pressure Drug Is Best? - HealthScoutNews, 2/12/03 - "The differing results could have been due to the difference in the ethnic makeup of the two trials, Reid says. "Thirty percent of the ALLHAT subjects were black Americans, who are known not to respond to ACE inhibitors," ... Almost all the 6,083 people in the Australian trial were white. Blood pressure reduction was the same in those who took a diuretic and those who took an ACE inhibitor. The incidence of stroke was the same in both groups, but the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease was 11 percent lower in the ACE inhibitor group ... There is general agreement that almost all people with high blood pressure need to take to more than one drug" - I'm not a doctor but from what I've read, from a side effect/quality of life point of view, a high dose ARB plus a low dose ACE inhibitor would be a better combination choice. - Ben

Sex Drive Need a Tune-Up? - Dr. Weil, 2/12/03 - "Those [women] who had the most variability in testosterone levels were two to three times more likely to report decreased libido than those who had the most stable testosterone levels ... Apart from the fluctuations in testosterone levels, the only other factors affecting the female sex drive discovered in this study were depression and having children in the house ... Estratest, a prescription drug combining estrogen and testosterone" - See Estratest at Drugstore.com.

Animal Fat Intake Associated With Diabetes Risk - Medscape, 2/12/03 - "Consumption of animal fat but not carbohydrates appears to be linked to the development of diabetes"

Location of Body Fat Key in Elderly's Diabetes Risk - Yahoo, 2/12/03 - "In this study, of nearly 3,000 men and women, those with either type 2 diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance--a prediabetic condition--had greater amounts of fat deep in the abdomen or interspersed throughout the thigh muscles than those with normal glucose tolerance" - Cortisol may be a major reason for deep abdomen fat.  See:

• 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" - Note: The way I read this article, the final culprit is still the cortisol and there are ways to reduce cortisol now.

Blood Pressure Linked To Cognitive Performance In Elderly Men - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/03 - "Diastolic blood pressure at 68 years of age showed an inverse relationship to men's performance on verbal, spatial and speed assessments when tested at 81 years ... systolic blood pressure at 68 years showed an inverse relationship with spatial performance" - Also see my Memory and Hypertension section.

Antioxidants May Protect Against Cancer, Arthritis - Health Supplement Retailer, 2/11/03 - "The Maryland researchers evaluated data from two case-control studies (CLUE I and CLUE II) and learned--surprisingly--that lycopene status did not seem to have a protective effect against prostate cancer, although the gamma-tocopherol isomer of vitamin E did ... In the second study, researchers from Minnesota discovered intake of certain antioxidants--particularly beta-cryptoxanthin and zinc--may protect against rheumatoid arthritis" - See Gamma E and mixed carotenoids at iHerb (5% discount code "qc").

Alzheimer's, Dementia Not Inevitable With Age - WebMD, 2/11/03 - "In their study, fully one-half of the 111 nonagenarians -- people 90-99 years old -- had no signs of clinically measurable memory loss, while another 12% had only mild cognitive impairment. Only about one in three had dementia ... One of the things that struck me is that most of the people we studied who lived into their 90s -- whether or not they had dementia -- had at least one parent who lived into their 80s or 90s ... And while some were obese, the vast majority of the study participants and those who had no signs of memory loss were thin"

Unhealthy Trans Fats Not Labeled on Foods - WebMD, 2/10/03 - "[Trans fats] are there and they are not labeled ... Saturated fats are the only fats given special treatment on a product's label. Yet trans fats are just as bad. They may even be worse ... Trans fat increases 'bad' LDL cholesterol -- in some studies more than saturated fat ... It also has a tendency to reduce 'good' HDL cholesterol, which saturated fat doesn't do ... Trans fat also increases blood levels of two other bad actors. One is the kind of fat called triglycerides. The other is a particle called lipoprotein(a), which promotes clogged arteries ... Any amount of trans fat is bad"

Cholesterol-Lowering Drug Eases Arthritis in Mice - Yahoo, 2/10/03 - "They [statins] seem to influence a range of molecular pathways regulating the inflammatory response ... simvastatin [Zocor] helped prevent or delay the onset of symptoms of arthritis in mice that received the drug ... the ability of statins to ease inflammation may help explain why the drugs also benefit patients with heart disease, since heart attacks can stem from inflammation in blood vessels as well as the amount of fat and cholesterol present in people's bodies" - Note:  Red yeast rice is a non-prescription statin and is available at VitaminShoppe.

Red Meat + Fats + Pasta = Colon Cancer - WebMD, 2/10/03 - "Women who ate the most Western foods had 50% more colon cancers than the women who ate the least Western foods"

Exercise Cuts Breast Cancer Risk - WebMD, 2/10/03 - "women who reported high levels of physical activity from as young as age 16 in some cases cut their risk of developing breast cancer after menopause in half, compared to women who reported no strenuous activity ... The study has a drawback, though, that all such studies face, which is what's called a "healthy patient bias." In this case, women who exercise often might be more apt to take care of themselves in other ways, so that a decrease in breast cancer later in life may not be due to the exercise itself, but rather some other associated factor. The researchers accounted for this by factoring in subjects such as smoking history and weight. "After adjusting for all these factors we're pretty confident that what we see is the effect of exercise,""

Dehydroepiandrosterone Augmentation in the Management of Negative, Depressive, and Anxiety Symptoms in Schizophrenia - Archives of General Psychiatry, 2/03 - "Results indicated significant improvement in negative symptoms (P<.001), as well as in depressive (P<.05) and anxiety (P<.001) symptoms in individuals receiving DHEA. This effect was especially noted in women" - Speaking of DHEA:

• Report: Anti-Aging Supplements May Soon Be Illegal - Life Extension Magazine, 3/03 - "H.R. 207- introduced last October in the House by U.S. Representatives Sweeney and Osborne ... It would actually permit the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to schedule a wide variety of currently over-the-counter nutritional supplements as controlled substances. In effect, this bill would authorize the arrest and criminal prosecution of millions of Americans as drug offenders-just for possessing supplements like DHEA, 7- keto DHEA and pregnenolone ... You can visit online right now at www.USFA.biz, where you can click on the Anti-Aging section and follow instructions on how to petition your congressional representatives to demand that they fight this bill" - You can find the contact address for Representatives at http://www.house.gov/writerep/.  You can use the LEF or USFA form letter or write your own.  Click here for what I wrote.

Regular Alcohol Consumption Could Lower Cardiovascular Morbidity In Hypertensives - Doctor's Guide, 2/10/03 - "Regular consumption reduces concentrations of serum lipoprotein(a), a powerful predictor of organ damage ... Compared with teetotallers and occasional drinkers, however, median lipoprotein(a) concentrations were 21% lower in light drinkers (those consuming up to 20 grams of ethanol daily), 26% lower in moderate drinkers (21-50 grams daily) and 57% lower in heavy drinkers (over 50 grams daily)"

Greater Reduction Of Cardiac Events With Intense Cholesterol-Lowering Treatment - Doctor's Guide, 2/10/03 - "The "poor" treatment group included patients who were neither dieting nor taking lipid-lowering drugs and patients who were smoking. "Moderate" treatment consisted of the American Heart Association diet with lipid lowering drugs or a strict diet with less than 10% of calories from fat. "Maximal" treating consisted of the strict low-fat diet, regular exercise and lipid active drugs ... During the five-year follow-up period, cardiac events occurred in 20.3% of the patients in the moderate treatment group and 30.6% of patients in the poor treatment group. In contrast, cardiac events occurred in only 6.6% of the patients in the maximal treatment group"

Protein Diet May Prompt Weight Loss - WebMD, 2/7/03 - "The study was funded by beef producers and Kraft Foods, which makes dairy products, as well as the USDA and Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research ... "However, what concerns me is that in this study, they provided all the food for four weeks so they could make sure the participants that were getting more protein got very lean meat. They also received intensive counseling for the next six weeks ... and they still didn't have as good cholesterol reductions as those eating what is a typical diet," she tells WebMD. "If you tell someone to eat seven servings of beef a week, I doubt they will be as careful in choosing the leanest cuts of beef, and as a result, they may consume even more saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. What's more, if I was counseling someone to eat more protein to get leucine, I would stress baked or broiled fish, nonfat dairy products, and legumes.""

Yo-Yo Dieting Tugs on Your Heart's Strings - HealthScoutNews, 2/6/03 - "women who fall prey to the gain-loss-gain syndrome, particularly if it occurs five or more times during their life, face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease beginning shortly after menopause"

Soy-Tea Combo May Thwart Prostate Cancer - HealthScoutNews, 2/5/03 - ""I think the most important finding is that consumption of both soy and tea has a synergistic effect," says study author Jin-Rong Zhou, adding that each appears to reinforce the power of the other to fight cancer ... The amount of soy consumed by the mice would be equivalent to about 250 milligrams per day for a human, while the tea dose was equivalent to about 6 to 8 cups a day" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") or Vitacost tea extracts.

Is Type 1 Diabetes an Environmental Disease? - Dr. Murray's Newsletter, 2/5/03 - "children who regularly took vitamin D had an 80% reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes while those that had vitamin deficiency actually had a 300% increased risk of developing the disease"

'Good' Fatty Acid [CLA] for Diabetics - TheSanDiegoChannel.com, 2/3/03 - "diabetics who supplemented their diets with CLA had lower body mass and lower blood sugar levels by the end of the eight-week study ... The study also found that higher CLA levels in the bloodstream meant lower levels of leptin, a hormone believed to regulate fat levels. High leptin levels may play a role in obesity, which is a major risk factor for adult-onset diabetes" - See iHerb (5% discount code "qc") or Vitacost CLA products.

Stress, Cortisol and Health - Supplement Watch Newsletter, 10/02 - "several lines of evidence have converged to solidify the concept that stress makes us fat (because of cortisol), thins our bones (because of cortisol), shrinks our brains (because of cortisol), suppresses our immune system (because of cortisol), saps our energy levels (because of cortisol), and kills our sex drive (because of cortisol) ... Take a daily multivitamin/multi-mineral supplement - because calcium, magnesium, vitamin C and B-complex vitamins are needed for a proper stress response ... Chief among the supplements with documented cortisol-controlling effects are Phosphatidylserine, Beta-sitosterol, Magnolia bark, Theanine, Epimedium, Ashwagandha and Passionflower"

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