Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 12/15/04:

The New Science of Sleep - Time Magazine Cover Story (paid prescription), 12/20/04

Do Some Blood Pressure Drugs Up Heart Risk? - WebMD, 12/14/04 - "We found that [high-blood-pressure] therapy combinations that contain the calcium channel blockers were associated with a higher risk of death from heart disease than were other combinations ... those who took calcium channel blockers alone had a 55% higher risk of dying from heart disease"

Blood Pressure Combo Could Be Dangerous - ABC News, 12/14/04 - "women who combined diuretics with calcium channel blockers among the most frequently prescribed drugs for high blood pressure had nearly twice as many fatal heart attacks and other cardiovascular deaths as women on diuretics plus beta blockers or ACE inhibitors"

Some Herbal Remedies Could Be Dangerous - ABC News, 12/14/04 - "Dangerous levels of lead, mercury and arsenic have been found in some herbal remedies from India that are sold in the United States ... Levels high enough to cause poisoning were detected in 14 of 70 ayurvedic medicine products made in south Asia and bought in Boston-area stores"

Red Wine Lovers, Take Heart: More Evidence Points To The Drink's Cardiac Health Benefits - Science Daily, 12/10/04 - "a well-known antioxidant found in red wine, called resveratrol, may benefit heart tissue by limiting the effects of a condition called cardiac fibrosis"

Not Too Much, But Not Too Little Cholesterol? - Health and Age, 12/10/04 - "In the men, low serum total cholesterol and low LDL cholesterol levels were associated with slow visuomotor speed"

Capsules better delivery form for tea benefits than beverage - Nutra Europe, 12/10/04 - "Our observations suggest that green tea extract supplements retain the beneficial effects of green and black tea and may be used in future chemoprevention studies to provide a large dose of tea polyphenols without the side effects of caffeine associated with green and black tea beverages" - See abstract below.

Exercising More Cuts Need for Doctor Visits - WebMD, 12/9/04 - "Fit men, as well as those who become fit, may reduce health care costs by more than 50%"

Mediterranean Diet Helps Lower Death Rates - WebMD, 12/9/04 - "those seniors adhering to the Mediterranean diet had a 23% lower risk of death from all causes ... seniors who exercised at least 30 minutes every day lowered their risk of death by 37%. Nonsmoking seniors reduced their risk by 35%. Seniors who drank alcohol moderately reduced their risk by 22% ... a senior who adhered to all of these lifestyle changes reduced his risk of death by 65%"

Low-Fat Diet May Protect Against Alzheimer's - WebMD, 12/7/04 - "mice fed a low-fat diet rich in the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and soy, produced more of a protein that helps eliminate the amyloid peptides that cause plaque in the brain"

CV Risk Factors May Be Bad for Brain, as Well as Heart - Clinical Psychiatry News, 12/04 - "Dyslipidemia, obesity, and hypertension aren't just bad for the heart. They're bad for the brain, too ... women in the highest versus the lowest quintiles for HDL were 2 years younger. … Simple lifestyle changes that increase HDL cholesterol may have a substantial health impact"

Patients who follow standard preventive health advice may protect themselves against dementia - Clinical Psychiatry News, 12/04 - "Eat more veggies ... Eat less saturated fat ... Turn off the TV ... Keep your brain, body, and social life active"

Hormone Raised Patients' Exercise Capacity by 7% - Clinical Psychiatry News, 12/04 - "Physiologic doses of growth hormone can increase exercise capacity in adults with growth hormone deficiency, as well as improve their body composition and lipid levels ... Subjects in the study group lost an average of 1.9 kg of fat, and gained 1.8 kg of lean body mass. Their total and LDL cholesterol levels both dropped an average of 0.5 mmol/L. Treatment increased the subjects' maximal oxygen uptake by 6%, compared with placebo"

The high five for hypertension - Functional Foods & Nutraceuticals, 12/04 - "Co-enzyme Q10 ... Omega-3 fatty acids ... Garlic ... L-arginine ... Calcium"

What to take to keep diabetes at bay - Delicious Living, 12/04 - "Recent research suggests that magnesium keeps blood sugars from rising too high, thus staving off diabetes"

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

Cardiovascular effects of oral Supplementation of vitamin C, E and folic acid in young healthy males - Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2004 Jul;74(4):285-93 - "The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of a daily dosage of 1000 mg vitamin C, 800 mg vitamin E, and 10 mg folate on markers of vascular function in 31 young healthy male adults ... Our main finding was a significant decrease (p = 0.03) in systolic blood pressure in the experimental group"

Plasma-kinetic characteristics of purified and isolated green tea catechin epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) after 10 days repeated dosing in healthy volunteers - Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2004 Jul;74(4):269-78 - "Ten days' repeated administration of oral doses of EGCG of up to 800 mg per day were found to be safe and very well tolerated"

The effects of postmenopausal Vitamin D treatment on vaginal atrophy - Maturitas. 2004 Dec 10;49(4):334-7 - "The mean physical findings score in Vitamin D treatment (VDT) group was significantly lower than the mean physical findings score in the group without treatment ... As maturation indices: in VDT group, superficial cells proportion was significantly higher and basal, parabasal cells proportion was lower than in the group without treatment"

Effect of fiber bread on the management of diabetes mellitus - J Coll Physicians Surg Pak. 2004 Nov;14(11):673-6 - "Glycemic control, both fasting and postprandial, improved significantly during intervention. Satisfactory reduction of blood pressure as well as serum cholesterol and triglyceride level was also observed in these cases. The medicines reduced significantly and quality of life improved in all subjects"

The impact of dietary protein on calcium absorption and kinetic measures of bone turnover in women - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2004 Nov 16 - "The high protein diet caused a significant reduction in the fraction of urinary calcium of bone origin and a nonsignificant trend toward a reduction in the rate of bone resorption. There were no protein induced effects on net bone balance. These data directly demonstrate that, at least in the short-term, high protein diets are not detrimental to bone"

Bioavailability and antioxidant activity of tea flavanols after consumption of green tea, black tea, or a green tea extract supplement - Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6):1558-64 - "Flavanol absorption was enhanced when tea polyphenols were administered as a green tea supplement in capsule form and led to a small but significant increase in plasma antioxidant activity compared with when tea polyphenols were consumed as black tea or green tea. All 3 interventions provided similar amounts of (-)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate"

Sunlight and vitamin D for bone health and prevention of autoimmune diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular disease - Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6):1678S-88S - "Vitamin D deficiency is an unrecognized epidemic among both children and adults in the United States. Vitamin D deficiency not only causes rickets among children but also precipitates and exacerbates osteoporosis among adults and causes the painful bone disease osteomalacia. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with increased risks of deadly cancers, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes mellitus"

Functional indices of vitamin D status and ramifications of vitamin D deficiency - Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6):1706S-9S - "For typical older individuals, supplemental oral intakes of approximately 1300 IU/d are required to reach the lower end of the optimal range" - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin D products.

Vitamin D requirements: current and future - Am J Clin Nutr. 2004 Dec;80(6):1735S-9S - "Upper levels of vitamin D intake were set at 50 mug/d (2000 IU/d) for all ages. Some individuals would require higher levels than these to achieve serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations for optimal calcium absorption. So much new information on vitamin D and health has been collected since the requirements were set in 1997 that this nutrient is likely the most in need of revised requirements"

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