Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 1/19/05

Nine Servings of Fruit and Vegetables? - NY Times, 1/18/05 - "The new dietary guidelines ... They raise the daily goal for fruit and vegetable consumption to nine servings from five, for instance, and challenge Americans who want to control their weight to get as much as 60 to 90 minutes of exercise on most days"

Grapefruit Juice and Medication Can Be a Deadly Mix - Doctor's Guide, 1/18/05 - "reported on a man from a northern climate who moved to Florida for the winter ... and began drinking two to three glasses of grapefruit juice each day. Two months later the man died, the victim of a deadly interaction between grapefruit juice and his cholesterol-lowering medication"

Raising HDL May Limit Heart Disease Progression - Reuters, 1/18/05 - "when patients' HDL was increased in a study, "we had direct evidence that not only did coronary plaques stop progressing but they actually regressed." ... In addition, "the risk of heart events went down by 52 percent"

• Natural products to lower cholesterol levels - Don't forget niacin - Dr. Murray's Newsletter , 4/23/03 - "The percentage increase in HDL cholesterol, a more significant indicator for coronary heart disease, was dramatically in favor of niacin (33 vs. 7%). Equally as impressive was the percentage decrease in Lp(a) for niacin. While niacin produced a 35% reduction in Lp(a) lipoprotein levels, lovastatin did not produce any effect. Other studies have shown that niacin can lower Lp(a) levels by an average of 38% ... Another approach to reduce flushing is to use inositol hexaniacinate. This form of niacin has long been used in Europe to lower cholesterol levels and also to improve blood flow in intermittent claudication - a peripheral vascular disease that is quite common in diabetes. It yields slightly better clinical results than standard niacin, but is much better tolerated, in terms of both flushing and, more importantly, long-term side-effects"

Folic acid may prevent high blood pressure - MSNBC, 1/18/05 - [Abstract] - "those who consumed at least 1,000 micrograms a day of total folate -- in foods and supplements -- had a 46 percent decreased risk of hypertension compared with those who consumed less than 200 micrograms a day" - See iHerb folic acid products.

• 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"

Antioxidants teach old dogs new tricks - Nutra USA, 1/18/05 - "old dogs that were on diet fortified with antioxidants such as vitamin E, vitamin C, and beta-carotene performed better on a variety of cognitive tests than dogs that were not on the diet"

Most Childhood Cancers Linked to Prenatal Exposure to Pollutants - Doctor's Guide, 1/18/05 - "Most childhood cancers are "probably" down to prenatal exposure to industrial and environmental pollutants, most likely to have been inhaled by the mother during pregnancy"

The Thyroid, Cholesterol Connection - HealthDay, 1/16/05 - "a malfunctioning thyroid gland can cause high and potentially deadly levels of cholesterol in the blood"

Vitamin D may slow prostate tumour growth - CTV.ca, 1/16/05 - "the vitamin D seemed to cut the rise in PSA rates by more than half. Without vitamin D, PSA rates rose by about five per cent. With vitamin D, PSA rates only rose by two per cent"

Arthritis Patients Can Seek Natural Pain Relief - CBS Chicago, 1/15/05 - "They placed 120 patients on fish oil supplements. About 59 percent of reported decreased joint pain, and 68 percent were able to discontinue prescription drugs entirely" - See Mega Twin EPA at Vitacost or iHerb.

Blood chemical is a stroke risk - BBC News, 1/14/05 - "looked at people genetically prone to high homocysteine levels and found they had a higher stroke risk than other individuals ... the risk can be reversed by taking folic acid ... Too much folic acid is also known to impact on a person's levels of vitamin B12 ... If this falls too low could, at worst, result in irreversible nerve damage"

Iron Deficiency Sends Cells Into Tailspin - HealthDay, 1/13/05 - "Some of the genes affected by iron deficiency are known to play important roles in generating energy, aging, protecting the cell from free radicals and copying the cell's genetic code. But the function of many of the affected genes is unknown, meaning that some side effects caused by iron deficiency may go unrecognized"

Do Carbs, Calories Affect Alzheimer's Risk? - WebMD, 1/13/05 - "mice eating fewer calories and carbohydrates than those allowed to eat all they wanted showed no signs of Alzheimer's-like disease, even though they had been bred to have the condition"

Gold Cognis Innovation Award for Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) Products for a Balanced Nutrition - NPI Center, 1/12/05 - "In 2002 an agreement with Natural ASA (Norway) was signed, which grants Cognis an exclusive license for intellectual property and the trademark Tonalin®. If CLA products are to succeed, a high level of isomeric purity is essential, and thanks to an ongoing research program ... A recent study found that CLA helps to reduce body fat mass in overweight but otherwise healthy adults by as much as nine percent, and helps to maintain lean muscle, resulting in an improved muscle-to-fat ratio"

Discovery Shows New Vitamin C Health Benefits - Science Daily, 1/12/05 - "the new discovery indicates it has a complex protective role against toxic compounds formed from oxidized lipids, preventing the genetic damage or inflammation they can cause"

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

Ingestion of a tea rich in catechins leads to a reduction in body fat and malondialdehyde-modified LDL in men - Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Jan;81(1):122-9 - "Body weight, BMI, waist circumference, body fat mass, and subcutaneous fat area were significantly lower in the green tea extract group than in the control group" - See iHerb or Vitacost green tea products.

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