Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 5/19/04:

Cholesterol Drug Safety Questioned - WebMD, 5/18/04 - "a citizen group has renewed its call for the FDA to ban the cholesterol-lowering drug Crestor ... there have been 11 new cases of the muscle-destroying condition -- rhabdomyolysis -- and three additional cases of kidney damage in people taking Crestor"

Food Can Have Powerful Effect on Health - WebMD, 5/17/04 - "people who drank more than two cups of coffee a day were about half as likely to have elevated liver enzyme blood tests compared with those who consumed less than a cup a day. And when divided into five groups according to the total amount of caffeine consumed, people in the highest group had about one-third the risk of liver damage than those in the lowest group"

Low-Carb, Low-Fat Diets Get Similar Results - WebMD, 5/17/04 - "six months into a low-carb program, the dramatic weight loss ends abruptly"

Research In Monkeys Suggests Estrogen Therapy May Lower Androgens In Postmenopausal Women - Science Daily, 5/17/04 - "Our findings suggest that it might be important for women taking estrogen after menopause to also take androgen supplements – which can include testosterone"

Beer May be a Boon to the Heart - HealthDay, 5/14/04 - "moderate alcohol consumption increased the plasma DHEAS levels in individuals of both genders, decreased plasma testosterone in the men, and had no effect on plasma estradiol levels at all ... DHEAS is believed to play a protective role against atherosclerosis for men and women"

Vitamins May Lower Osteoporosis Fractures - Intelihealth, 5/13/04 - "B vitamins are known to reduce levels of homocysteine ... high levels of homocysteine at least double the risk of osteoporosis-related fractures"

Orange, Tangerine Peels Could Be Better Than Drugs For Lowering Cholesterol - Science Daily, 5/12/04 - "A compound found in the peels of citrus fruit has the potential to lower cholesterol more effectively than some prescription drugs, and without side effects ... Marketed as a cholesterol-lowering agent under the trade name SytrinolTM, the supplement recently became available in the U.S" - See Sytrinol at iHerb.

Postmenopausal Women Show Significantly Reduced Incident Fracture Risk While on Hormone Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 5/12/04 - "We found a significantly reduced risk of fracture a year or so after women had started using hormone therapy, with the risk decreasing further with increasing duration of use"

Calcium Supplements Are Worth Considering for PMS - Clinical Psychiatry News, 5/04 - "Calcium supplementation is the most promising and best-supported alternative therapy to date for premenstrual syndrome"

Solutions to Fatigue - Clinical Psychiatry News, 5/04 - "“A lot of clinical experience suggests that modafinil is helpful for some individuals, but in a randomized controlled trial, while it had an early effect in improving alertness and fatigue, at the end of 6 weeks there wasn't much difference from placebo,” he said"

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

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