Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 3/9/05

St. John's Wort and Plavix May Be Risky Combo - WebMD, 3/8/05 - "St. John's wort, used by many for depression, increases the effect - and the bleeding risk - of Plavix, a widely used blood thinner"

Study: Cholesterol drugs fight heart disease - MSNBC, 3/8/05 - "Taking very high doses of a drug to push cholesterol to very low levels can help people with heart disease avoid strokes and heart attacks, but also can cause liver problems that limit the ability to tolerate such intensive treatment"

Even Mild Depression Ups Heart Failure Death Risk - HealthDay, 3/7/05 - "A state of depression so mild that most doctors might not notice it significantly increases the long-term risk of death for people with heart failure"

• St. John's Wort Useful for Severe Depression - WebMD, 2/10/05 - "At the end of six weeks, 71% of the patients taking St. John's Wort and 60% of those taking Paxil had responded to treatment. Half of the St. John's Wort-treated patients and 35% of the Paxil-treated patients were free of depression symptoms"

Coenzyme Q10 Lessens Muscle-Related Side Effects in Patients on Statins - Doctor's Guide, 3/7/05 - "Patients with significant myopathy who are taking statin therapy have a significant decrease in myopathic pain after 30 days of supplementation with coenzyme Q10" - See iHerb (15% discount code "qc") coenzyme Q10 products.

Study: Dairy Not Best Source of Calcium - WebMD, 3/7/05 - "Of 37 studies reviewed, 27 were found to show no relationship between dairy or dietary calcium and bone health in children and young adults. The remaining studies found only a small association"

How whole grains can fight disease - MSNBC, 3/4/05 - "A greater whole-grain consumption than Americans currently have is linked in several studies with lower death rates from both heart disease and cancer ... whole grain consumption can result in 17 to 35 percent fewer deaths from these two diseases"

High-Fiber Diet May Fight High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/4/05 - "the average reduction in blood pressure was 3.12 mmHg systolic and 2.57 mmHg diastolic"

Exercise a Must for Losing Deep Belly Fat - WebMD, 3/4/05 - "Even if she diets perfectly, eating all the right foods in ideal amounts, her waistline may not budge unless she works out. Exercise is required to lose excess fat deep in the abdomen, says a new study"

An Apple a Day May Cut Breast Cancer Risk - WebMD, 3/2/05 - "For humans, the doses equaled eating one, three, or six apples per day ... After 24 weeks, breast tumor rates were 17% lower in the rats receiving the low dose of the apple extract, 39% lower with the medium dose, and 44% lower with the high dose"

Focus on Magnesium - Dr. Murray's Natural Facts, 3/3/05 - "Double-blind studies in people with CFS have shown magnesium supplementation significantly improved energy levels, better emotional state, and less pain"

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

Effect of L-carnitine on plasma glycemic and lipidemic profile in patients with type II diabetes mellitus - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2005 Mar 02 - "fasting plasma glucose (FPG) ... FPG in the L-carnitine group decreased significantly from 143+/-35 to 130+/-33 mg/dl (P=0.03) ... after 12 weeks of treatment" - see iHerb (15% discount code "qc") l-carnitine products.

Dietary intake of vitamin C and vitamin E and the development of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy - Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2005 Mar 1;119(1):67-71 - "Low vitamin E intake was associated with a significant increase in the risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy"

Effect of dehydroepiandrosterone replacement on insulin sensitivity and lipids in hypoadrenal women - Diabetes. 2005 Mar;54(3):765-9 - "replacement therapy with 50 mg of DHEA for 12 weeks significantly increased insulin sensitivity in hypoadrenal women, thereby suggesting that DHEA replacement could have a potential impact in preventing type 2 diabetes"

The effects of iodine on intelligence in children: a meta-analysis of studies conducted in China - Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2005;14(1):32-42 - "The intelligence damage of children exposed to severe ID was profound, demonstrated by 12.45 IQ points loss"

Dietary Intake of Lycopene Is Associated with Reduced Pancreatic Cancer Risk - J Nutr. 2005 Mar;135(3):592-597 - "After adjustment for age, province, BMI, smoking, educational attainment, dietary folate, and total energy intake, lycopene, provided mainly by tomatoes, was associated with a 31% reduction in pancreatic cancer risk among men"

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