Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 3/24/04:

Vitamin D to protect women - Nutra USA, 3/23/04 - "Now the researchers believe that a contributing factor to high rates of the cancer may be low levels of vitamin D" [HealthDay] - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin D products.  Vitamin D can be toxic in high doses.

Breast Cancer Drug Underused, Study Says - HealthDay, 3/22/04 - "The drug tamoxifen has been shown to cut breast cancer risk by nearly 50 percent"

Folic Acid & Ischemic Stroke Risk - Physician's Weekly, 3/22/04 - "men who consume the recommended dietary allowance for folic acid (folate) have a 30% lower risk of developing an ischemic stroke than those who did not consume the recommended allowance"

Pycnogenol for diabetes control - Nutra USA, 3/22/04 - "the patients were able to significantly lower their glucose levels when they supplemented with 50-200 mg of the supplement ... Studies have found Pycnogenol reduces high blood pressure, platelet aggregation, LDL (bad)-cholesterol and enhances circulation" - See iHerb or Vitacost Pycnogenol products.

CRP: Identifying Colon Cancer Risk - Physician's Weekly, 3/22/04 - "the likelihood of developing colorectal cancers increased progressively with higher concentrations of CRP"

Restricting calories may increase life span - MSNBC, 3/22/04 - "a strict, low-calorie diet increased the life span of aged mice by more than 40 percent ... the new research shows that even 19-month-old mice, about the human equivalent of 60 to 65 years, can have a longer life when eating fewer calories"

Low B-12 Levels Linked to Increased Rate of Bone Loss - Medscape, 3/19/04 - "The results of this study raise the possibility that supplementation with vitamin B-12 or, for some elderly women, dietary assessment and modification may slow rates of bone loss" - See iHerb or Vitacost B12 products.

Low Hormone Levels Cause Female Sexual Dysfunction - HealthDay, 3/19/04 - "premenopausal women with sexual dysfunction have lower serum testosterone and adrenal androgen levels than premenopausal women who are free of sexual dysfunction"

FDA Issues New Tuna Limits for Women - WebMD, 3/19/04 - "To protect developing babies from high levels of potentially brain-damaging mercury, the government issued guidelines today to warn women who are pregnant, nursing, or even considering having children to eat no more than two servings of fish each week"

DHEA Relieves Postmenopausal Symptoms - Healthwell Exchange Daily News, 3/18/04 - "DHEA supplementation can increase hormone levels in postmenopausal women toward premenopausal levels. They further suggest that women’s quality of life may be improved by DHEA supplementation after menopause. The increases in estrogen, testosterone, and DHEA levels observed in this study were 20 to 45% less than those observed in studies using 50 mg of DHEA per day, leading some to suggest that 25 mg per day might be a safer amount to use as a supplement" - See iHerb or Vitacost DHEA products.

Wine, Fat Intake Linked to Breast Cancer - WebMD, 3/17/04 - "women who drank about 1.5 glasses of wine a day were twice as likely to develop breast cancer compared with women who drank less ... drinking women can mitigate this risk by taking a multivitamin Containing folic acid every day ... women who gain 20 to 30 pounds after high school have a 40% increase in breast cancer risk"

What makes people fat, why diets don't work, and what triggers appetite? - Dr. Murray's Natural Facts, 3/17/04 - "PGX™ lowers after meal blood sugar levels by approximately 20 to 40% and also lowers insulin secretion by approximately 40% producing a whole body insulin sensitivity index improvement of nearly 50% - a phenomenal accomplishment that is unequalled by any drug or natural health product.10 PGX™ is particularly well-suited for syndrome X" - See iHerb PGX products.

Statins Effectively Lower Cholesterol, But Experts Debate First Choice - Medscape, 3/15/04 - "HDL cholesterol levels were increased more than 10% with rosuvastatin 40 mg, nearly 5% with atorvastatin 80 mg, 10% with 40 mg simvastatin, and 6.4% with 40 mg pravastatin"

Zinc May Increase Antidepressant Therapy Effectiveness - Healthwell Exchange Daily News, 3/4/04 - "the zinc-supplemented group showed a statistically significant improvement compared with the placebo group at 6 and 12 weeks ... Other natural substances that have been shown to benefit depression sufferers include folic acid, DHEA, eicosapentaenoic acid (a fatty acid found in fish oil), and St. John’s wort" - See iHerb or Vitacost zinc products.

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics:

n-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids and colon cancer prevention - Clin Nutr. 2004 Apr;23(2):139-51 - "it appears that n-3 PUFAs may be of use in colon cancer prevention"

Vitamin D deficiency: new perspectives on an old disease - Endocrinology and Diabetes, 2/04 - "Even though vitamin D deficiency has been thought to be obsolete in developed countries such as the United States, recent data suggest that this diagnosis may exist in epidemic proportions. Chronic vitamin D deficiency may be associated with a susceptibility to hypertension, multiple sclerosis, and various malignancies, problems beyond the more commonly recognized skeletal manifestations" - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin D products.  Vitamin D can be toxic in high doses.

Recommended fish intake is potentially dangerous due to high methylmercury content of certain fish - Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2003;12 Suppl:S67 - "Recommendations to limit fish intake to prevent MeHg toxicity are in conflict with recommendations to prevent CHD. Species and origin of fish needs to be taken into account to prevent MeHg toxicity"

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