Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 10/13/04:

Vitamin D Found To Reduce Age-Related Falls - Science Daily, 10/12/04 - "Elderly people who get supplemental vitamin D in their diets have stronger muscles than those who don't ... elderly people fell down 22 percent less often if they took vitamin D supplements" - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin D products.

Celecoxib (Bextra) May Foil Recurrent Prostate Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 10/12/04 - "the rate of increase of prostate specific antigen (PSA), stabilized, slowed, or declined in 92% of 24 men who took celecoxib twice a day for a year"

Folate Lowers Risk of High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 10/11/04 - "Young women with very low dietary folate who got their folate from vitamin supplements had a 39% lower risk of high blood pressure compared with young women who did not take folate supplements" - See iHerb or Vitacost folic acid products.

Ultra-Low Dose Estradiol Good for Bone Health, and Appears to Have No Impact on Endometrium - Doctor's Guide, 10/11/04 - "14 mcg of estradiol patch ... By the end of 2 years, there was a 2.6% increase in bone mineral density of the lumbar spine over baseline, and a 0.4% increase in BMD at the hip. By comparison in the placebo group, the increase in BMD of the spine was 0.6% and there was a loss in BMD at the hip of 0.8% ... These ultra-low doses of estradiol should be sufficient to preserve bone health in women over the age of 60 years"

Insulin Resistance in Teens Raises High Blood Pressure Risk as Adults - Doctor's Guide, 11/11/04 - "If insulin resistance in childhood is related to risk factors in adulthood, we ought to be thinking about this problem at an early age. By the time people are in their 20s and 30s, a lot of the risk is already set, and we are treating the disease instead of preventing it ... What we're showing is that insulin resistance has an effect on systolic blood pressure that is independent of fatness and obesity"

Testosterone Patch Can Improve Sexual Function in Women - Medscape, 10/11/04 - "Results at 24 weeks showed that TTP therapy significantly increased the frequency of "totally satisfying" sexual episodes compared with placebo (high SHBG level group: 2.1 vs 0.5 episodes/month, P < .0001; ITT group: 1.9 vs 0.5 episodes/month, P < .0001) and compared with baseline"

Unhappy Marriage Reflects Spouse's Depression - WebMD, 10/11/04 - "each spouse's level of anxiety and depression predicted an unhappy marriage for the depressed spouse and the other spouse as well"

Finnish Study Shows Very Low Incidence of Cardio- and Cerebrovascular Events From Long-Term Hormone Replacement Therapy Use - Doctor's Guide, 10/8/04 - "As to why the results of this study may be different from what was seen in the Women's health Initiative, the only significant difference in baseline data was that women in this study were somewhat younger (mean age 56 years) than those in the WHI"

Some Anti-Psychotic Medications May Trigger Diabetes - Science Daily, 10/8/04 - "The rate is five to 10 times higher than the estimated rate of 6.3 cases per 1,000 in the general U.S. population"

Declining Estradiol Levels More Predictive of Fracture Risk Than Low Testosterone in Aging Men - Doctor's Guide, 10/8/04 - "While low levels of free testosterone are a predictor of hip-bone loss, declines in estradiol levels play a stronger role than testosterone"

Soy May Help Women Before Menopause - WebMD, 10/8/04 - "Soy seems to provide potent protection in monkeys, in terms of cholesterol levels. We presume the benefit would apply to premenopausal women as well"

High Blood Pressure Hurts Sex Life - HealthDay, 10/8/04 - "High blood pressure itself can cause sex problems because it can alter circulatory patterns in the body and damage the inner lining of arteries. Both these factors may decrease blood flow to the penis and vagina"

Study Says What's Good for the Heart May Be Good for the Bones - Doctor's Guide, 10/7/04 - "The study demonstrated a gain of up to 5% in bone mineral density (BMD) at the hip in postmenopausal women who drank 2 or fewer glasses of wine daily, and up to 7% in men who drank 1 or 2 beers daily"

Exercise Increases Bone Mass: Start Early For Long-Lasting Effects - Science Daily, 10/7/04 - "Mechanical loading through exercise builds bone strength and this effect is most pronounced during skeletal growth and developmentMechanical loading through exercise builds bone strength and this effect is most pronounced during skeletal growth and development"

Report: Vioxx linked to thousands of deaths - MSNBC, 10/7/04 - "Merck & Co.’s arthritis drug Vioxx may have led to more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths before it was pulled from the market last week"

ConsumerLab.com - Omega-3 Fatty Acids (EPA and DHA) from Fish/Marine Oils review - ConsumerLab.com, 10/6/04 - "None of the products were found to contain detectable levels of mercury ... none of the products contained unsafe levels of PCBs ... none of these supplements contained unsafe levels of dioxins"

Can You Be Fat on the Inside? - WebMD, 10/6/04 - "normal-weight women may be headed for obesity-related health problems thanks to an unhealthy lifestyle -- an increasingly common problem known as metabolic syndrome"

Vitamin D Often Overlooked When Treating Osteoporosis - Medscape, 10/5/04 - "patients with lower levels of vitamin D did worse in the domains of social activities and mobility on the standard Qualeffo-41 questionnaire ... people who are deficient in vitamin D have aches and pains that impact on their activities of daily living, and that impact is independent of their osteoporosis level ... vitamin D deficiency is associated with diabetes; multiple sclerosis; rheumatoid arthritis; colon, prostate, and breast cancer; and high blood pressure ... I would recommend that both children and adults get about 1,000 IU a day" - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin D products.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid Often Has Mixed Effects in Type 2 Diabetes - Medscape, 10/1/04 - "received CLA (3.0 g/day; 50:50 blend of cis-9,trans-11 CLA and trans-10,cis-12 CLA) or placebo for eight weeks ... Fasting glucose and measures of insulin sensitivity, such as the homeostasis model assessment and insulin sensitivity index, were worsened with CLA supplementation compared with placebo. However, hemoglobin A1C levels were unchanged by CLA supplementation ... CLA supplementation increased HDL cholesterol by 7.9% from baseline"

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

High-protein, low-fat diets are effective for weight loss and favorably alter biomarkers in healthy adults - J Nutr. 2004 Mar;134(3):586-91 - "low-fat, energy-restricted diets of varying protein content (15 or 30% energy) promoted healthful weight loss, but diet satisfaction was greater in those consuming the high-protein diet"

Preliminary observations on the use of propionyl-L-carnitine in combination with sildenafil in patients with erectile dysfunction and diabetes - Curr Med Res Opin. 2004 Sep;20(9):1377-84 - "Salvage therapy with PLC plus sildenafil was more effective than sildenafil in the treatment of ED in patients with diabetes refractory to sildenafil monotherapy" - The way I understand it, propionyl-L-carnitine is the l-carnitine available over-the-counter.  See HealthTouch and "alternative names" at HealthGate.  See iHerb or Vitacost l-carnitine products.  Related Article:

• Carnitine Improves Symptoms of Male Aging - Medscape, 4/14/04 - "Carnitine is more active than testosterone for improving symptoms of male aging such as sexual dysfunction, depressed mood, and fatigue ... In this trial, 120 patients were randomized to receive testosterone undecanoate 160 mg/day, propionyl-L-carnitine 2 g/day plus acetyl-L-carnitine 2 g/day, or placebo for six months

Effects of green tea intake on the development of coronary artery disease - Circ J. 2004 Jul;68(7):665-70 - "the more green tea patients consume, the less likely they are to have CAD"

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