Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 9/29/04:

Impotence: A Red Flag for Heart Disease - HealthDay, 9/27/04 - "Nitric oxide is very important for normal erectile function ... We do know that statins improve the function of the enzyme, nitric oxide synthase, that produces nitric oxide inside the blood vessels"

Herbal Supplement Might Prevent Prostate Cancer - HealthDay, 9/24/04 - "Zyflamend has shown an ability, in vitro, to reduce prostate cancer cell proliferation by as much as 78 percent and to induce cancer cell death or apoptosis" - See Zyflamend at iHerb.

Testosterone Loss May Raise Alzheimer's Risk - WebMD, 9/24/04 [Science Daily] - "testosterone levels were significantly lower in the men with Alzheimer's disease compared with the men who did not have the disease ... the findings are significant because only testosterone levels appeared related to Alzheimer's risk ... It protects neurons from injury, and it reduces levels of beta-amyloid, the protein widely implicated as a causal factor in the disease"

Statins Expand Their Role in Protecting the Heart - HealthDay, 9/24/04 - "lowering cholesterol levels -- even in those whose cholesterol levels were not high enough to be a medical concern -- can reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes"

Soy Improves Prostate Cancer Outlook - WebMD, 9/24/04 - "adding about 2 ounces of soy each day for one month results in a 13% drop in total PSA and a 27% increase in the free-to-total PSA ratio in men with prostate cancer"

Daily Glass of Red Wine May Cut Risk of Developing Prostate Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 9/23/04 - "men who consumed four or more glasses of red wine per week reduced their risk of prostate cancer by 50 percent ... That compound, Stanford and colleagues believe, may be an antioxidant called resveratrol, which is abundant in the skins of red grapes but much less so in the skins of white grapes"

Vitamin K  - Bone Health E-Newsletter, Sep. Oct. 04 - "When GLA is undercarboxylated (due to low vitamin K supply) calcium is allowed to drift from bone into arteries and other soft tissue. These calcium deposits in the artery increase the risk of heart attack ... studies document that for optimization of the bone protein osteocalcin adults would do well with a daily K1 intake of 1000 mcg. Currently the average K1 intake in this country is only 75 to 125 mcg"

Anger Linked to Heart Disease - WebMD, 9/22/04 - "healthy adults who had mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anger, or hostility had levels of CRP, a marker of inflammation in the blood, that were two to three times higher than those of their calmer counterparts. And the more negative their moods, the higher their CRP levels were"

Mediterranean Diet May Be Effective in Reducing Metabolic Syndrome and Associated Symptoms - Doctor's Guide, 9/22/04 - "after 2 years, patients in the Mediterranean diet intervention group had significant decreases in body weight, blood pressure, levels of glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, and triglycerides and a significant increase in levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ... Serum concentrations of interleukins 6 (IL-6), 7 (IL-7), and 18 (IL-18) and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) were significantly reduced in patients in the intervention group"

Nourishing Your Noggin - WebMD, 9/22/04 - "WebMD tells you the top five vitamins and minerals to boost your brain power ... another form called gamma tocopherol is definitely a protective antioxidant in brain disorders ... each B vitamin plays its own role in preserving brain function and mental acuity ... Magnesium is an important brain nutrient because it protects the brain from neurotoxins ... Vitamin C is an important antioxidant that can intercept free radicals before they affect the brain" - Related gamma tocopherol article:

• Supplementation of Diets with alpha-Tocopherol Reduces Serum Concentrations of gamma- and delta-Tocopherol in Humans - J Nutr. 2003 Oct;133(10):3137-40 - "Compared with placebo, supplementation with alpha-tocopherol reduced serum gamma-tocopherol concentrations by a median change of 58% ... and reduced the number of individuals with detectable delta-tocopherol concentrations ... In view of the potential benefits of gamma- and delta-tocopherol, the efficacy of alpha-tocopherol supplementation may be reduced due to decreases in serum gamma- and delta-tocopherol levels." - See Gamma E Tocopherol / Tocotrienols at iHerb or Vitacost vitamin E products.

Walking May Protect Elderly Men From Dementia, New Study By U. Va. Researcher Shows - Science Daily, 9/22/04 - "Elderly men who are sedentary or walk less than a quarter of a mile per day are nearly twice as likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease compared to men who walk more than two miles per day"

New Study Finds Use of Calcium and Folic Acid Could Save $15 Billion in Health Care Costs - NPI Center, 9/22/04 - "daily use of calcium would prevent 734,000 hip fractures and save $13.9 billion in health care costs over the next five years"

Nutrition Advice You Can Take to Heart - WebMD, 9/22/04 - "we could cut our rate of heart disease by one-half if we took more magnesium ... the way to combat high homocysteine is to take folic acid ... Niacin (also known as vitamin B-3) helps increase HDL ... Potassium helps regulate blood pressure levels ... A lot of people think of calcium as for the bones, but it's also good for the heart"

Physical Activity, Including Walking, Associated With Better Mental Functioning in Older Women - Doctor's Guide, 9/22/04 - "higher levels of physical activity, including walking, are associated with better cognitive function and less cognitive decline"

Researchers Report Potential Healthcare Cost Savings from Using Diachrome® as a Medical Nutrition Therapy for Type 2 Diabetes - NPI Center, 9/22/04 - "Patients with diabetes could save between $405 and $729 annually in treatment costs by using Diachrome"

I3C May Reverse Autoimmunity and Extend Life Span - Life Extension Magazine, 9/04 - "So the question remains: by ameliorating autoimmunity, could I3C increase longevity in humans? Time will tell. Meanwhile, consider that rodents who took their I3C supplements were scurrying around in a laboratory in New York at the equivalent of 120 human years"

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

Effect of a mediterranean-style diet on endothelial dysfunction and markers of vascular inflammation in the metabolic syndrome: a randomized trial - JAMA. 2004 Sep 22;292(12):1440-6 - "A Mediterranean-style diet might be effective in reducing the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome and its associated cardiovascular risk"

Folate treatment and insulin resistance -  European Journal of Endocrinology, 9/04 - "Folate and B12 treatment improved insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction, along with decreasing homocysteine levels, in patients with the metabolic syndrome, suggesting that folic acid had several beneficial effects on cardiovascular disease risk factors"

Management of the metabolic syndrome - Minerva Endocrinol. 2004 Jun;29(2):31-45 - "such a polypill should ideally contain numerous molecules that all have shown a potential interest for the management of MetS such as metformin, acarbose, a thiazolidinedione, a statin, a fibrate, an inhibitor of the renin-angiotensin system, aspirin. The growing prevalence and high-risk nature of MetS highlights the need to identify individuals with this condition and to treat them with an aggressive multitargeted approach"

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