Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 4/14/04:

Simvastatin and Niacin Well Tolerated in Patients With or Without Diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 4/13/04 - "Side effect frequencies were not significantly different between the patients who received simvastatin plus niacin (30%) and those on placebo (23%)"

Statins and Aspirin May Protect Against Severe Vision Loss in Elderly - Doctor's Guide, 4/13/04 - "those patients already taking statins were half as likely as those without statins to develop the more severe wet AMD, caused by the growth of new blood vessels underneath the retina. Those already on aspirin were about 40 percent less likely to develop this new blood vessel growth, technically called choroidal neovascularization"

Folate takes on depression - Nutra USA, 4/13/04 - "low folate levels are known to be common in psychiatric patients and may hamper the effectiveness of antidepressant therapy" - See iHerb or Vitacost folic acid products.

Vitamin C Reduces Key Disease Protein - Medline Plus, 4/12/04 - "The researchers, at the University of California, Berkeley, studied participants who took about 500 milligrams of vitamin C supplements per day for two months. During that time, they saw a 24-percent drop in C-reactive protein levels" [Nutra USA] - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin C products.

Telmisarton Lowers Early Morning Blood Pressure in Patients With Hypertension More Effectively Than Does Valsartan - Doctor's Guide, 4/12/04 - "The angiotensin II receptor antagonist telmisartan lowered the early morning systolic and diastolic BP to a greater extent than once daily dosing of the angiotensin receptor blocker valsartan"

Repeated Treatment Of Gum Disease Reduces Levels Of Inflammatory Factors Known To Increase Heart Disease Risk - Science Daily, 4/8/04 - "in people who had elevated levels of CRP at baseline, removal of dental plaque bacteria by scaling or scaling combined with topical antibiotics produced a statistically significant reduction, bringing CRP levels close to the low-risk level. Both treatments also significantly reduced levels of fibrinogen in patients with elevated fibrinogen levels"

Lutein Improves Visual Function in Age-Related Macular Degeneration - Medscape, 4/8/04 - "Snellen equivalent visual acuity improved 5.4 letters in the lutein-only group and 3.5 letters in the lutein/antioxidant group. The lutein-only group also had a net subjective improvement in Amsler grid, and the lutein/antioxidant group had a nearly significant improvement in subjective glare recovery" - See iHerb or Vitacost lutein products.

Zinc May Boost Effectiveness of Ritalin - WebMD, 4/8/04 - "children who took 55 mg of zinc daily along with their Ritalin had better symptom control than children given Ritalin and a dummy pill" - See iHerb or Vitacost zinc products.

Weight Watchers Tend To Keep Pounds Off - WebMD, 4/8/04 - "That's not the story with Weight Watchers weight losers. The study shows that after two years, three-fourths of their lost weight stays lost. After five years, half the lost weight was still gone ... people who lose weight and keep it off -- whether they are on Weight Watchers or not -- have several things in common: ... They take in 1,400 calories a day: 56% from carbs, 24% from fat, and 20% from protein"

Cholesterol Drugs Tied to Birth Defects - HealthDay, 4/7/04 - "statin use during the first trimester of pregnancy is associated with severe central nervous system defects and limb deformities"

Drug Raises 'Good' HDL Cholesterol Levels - WebMD, 4/7/04 - "researchers examined the effects of a CETP inhibitor (torcetrapib) in 19 people with low HDL levels (below 40 mg per deciliter). Nine of the participants were also treated with a statin ... After four weeks of treatment with the drug, researchers found HDL cholesterol levels increased by 61% among those treated with the CETP inhibitor and statin and by 46% among those treated with the CETP inhibitor alone" - Yeah, but if they only tested it on 19 people it will still be years if it ever becomes available at all.

Clinical Update on Benefits of DHEA - A4M, 4/6/04 - "Recently, researchers discovered important anti-inflammatory properties of DHEA. It was known that DHEA can lower the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha)" - See iHerb or Vitacost DHEA products.

Why Aging Women Need Testosterone - Life Extension Magazine, 4/04 - "Controlled studies show that slightly increasing testosterone levels in aging women restores sexual drive, arousal, and frequency of sexual fantasies. In fact, low testosterone levels in women of all ages seem to suppress libido and cause sexual dysfunction. Restoring youthful testosterone in women has been shown to improve mood and well being, and to provide many other health-enhancing benefits"

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