Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 4/13/05

Muscle DNA Damage Initiates Physical Aging - Science Daily, 4/12/05 - "Mitochondrial DNA is critical for the production of a form of chemical energy known as ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is needed by all cells for all bodily functions. When ATP is reduced, so is muscle endurance -- and thus begins the slide toward age-related muscle weakness, loss of muscle mass and onset of many diseases of old age"

• Ribose Recovery - Nutrition Science News, 3/01 - "ribose, is the sugar that begins the metabolic process for ATP production. ATP is a nucleotide made of adenosine coupled to three phosphate molecules. Adenosine is made up of adenine and ribose" - See iHerb ribose products (15% discount code "qc")
• Four powerhouse nutrients - Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, 4/05 - "L-carnitine shuttles fuel into cells to be burned as energy; coenzyme Q10 sparks the energy within the cells; ribose is a component of adenosine triphosphate (ATP); and alpha-lipoic acid increases ATP levels"

Cholesterol Drugs Help Stroke Recovery - WebMD, 4/12/05 - "Unless there are medical reasons not to take the drugs, all patients who suffer a stroke should be put on statins ... people started on statin drugs within a week of a stroke were one-and-a-half to more than twice as likely to recover and go home within 45 days as those who were not given the drugs"

Potassium, in Any Form, Lowers Blood Pressure - Reuters, 4/12/05 - "Average blood pressure at the start of the study was 151/93. It fell significantly to 140/88 with potassium chloride and to 138/88 mm Hg with potassium citrate"

Insulin-sensitizing Drug Cut Diabetes Risk - Science Daily, 4/12/05 - "troglitazone lowered diabetes onset by 75 percent"

Exercise Alone No High Blood Pressure Cure - WebMD, 4/12/05 - "A vigorous-intensity exercise program has many benefits for older people. But curing high blood pressure doesn't seem to be one of them"

Silica in Drinking Water May Prevent Alzheimer's - Reuters, 4/11/05 - "The women with Alzheimer's disease were 2.7 times more likely to have daily silica intake considerably lower than those without Alzheimer's disease" - See Jarrow BioSil a iHerb (15% discount code "qc")

Fish, Soy Oil Supplements May Cut Heart Death - WebMD, 4/11/05 - "participants were randomly assigned to take fish oil supplements or soy oil pills (2 grams daily for both groups) for 11 weeks ... Both groups significantly increased their heart rate variability while taking the supplements. Greater heart rate variability reduces the risk of dangerous irregular heart beats or sudden death" - See Mega Twin EPA at iHerb (15% discount code "qc")

Hidden Fat Could Mean Heart Disease Risk - WebMD, 4/11/05 - "Even people of normal weight can have fat folded deep inside their belly, raising their risk of heart disease and diabetes from a condition called metabolic syndrome"

Osteoporosis Drug, Vitamin D Now in 1 Pill - WebMD, 4/11/05 - "The FDA has approved Fosamax Plus D, a once-weekly pill that contains both the osteoporosis drug Fosamax and the bone-building nutrient vitamin D"

Growth Hormone Treatment Improves Symptoms Of Metabolic Disorder In Postmenopausal Women - Science Daily, 4/10/05 - "the GH treatment in postmenopausal women significantly reduced their intra-abdominal fat, increased thigh muscle area, reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol concentration, and improved insulin sensitivity"

Hemodialysis Causes Antioxidant Loss Leading to Long-Term Complications - Doctor's Guide, 4/8/05 - "the hemodialysis process can cause loss of these necessary antioxidants"

Evidence-Based Treatment of Hypertension: What's the Role of Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers? - Medscape, 4/8/05 - "The ARBs are highly effective in lowering blood pressure and reducing cardiovascular mortality. They also appear to provide additional renal protection in patients with diabetes, and this effect is independent of their effect on blood pressure. Combinations of ARBs with drugs from other classes such as ACE inhibitors have been found to be highly effective; they may permit lower doses of ACE inhibitors to be used than in monotherapy, which may lower the incidence of dose-related adverse effects. The ARBs themselves are very well tolerated and are not associated with the side-effects known to cause compliance problems with beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers such as impotence, dry cough and peripheral oedema"

Bone Fracture Rates Significantly Reduced Over Just Two Years in Patients Who Consistently Stayed on Bisphosphonate Therapy for Osteoporosis - Doctor's Guide, 4/7/05 - "We found that women with postmenopausal osteoporosis who faithfully continued to take their prescribed bisphosphonate medication reduced their risk for fractures substantially more - about 25% - than women who did not"

Mediterranean Diet Linked to Longer Life - WebMD, 4/7/05 - "a healthy man of 60 who follows the diet, which is rich in fruits and vegetables and low in meat and dairy, can expect to live a year longer than a man of the same age who doesn't follow the diet ... The Mediterranean diet was nearly vegetarian, with fish and very little meat, and was rich in green vegetables"

Less Cognitive Impairment Seen in Women Taking Drug for Osteoporosis - Doctor's Guide, 4/7/05 - "The drug, raloxifene, modulates the activity of the hormone estrogen ... the 120 mg dose conferred a 33% lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment when compared with the 60 mg dose and with placebo. The 60 mg dose offered no apparent prevention of cognitive impairment. While researchers also observed a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, that reduction was of borderline statistical significance"

Undiagnosed Anemia Common With Chronic Illness - Science Daily, 4/6/05 - "anemia, a reduction in the number of red blood cells, occurs surprisingly more often than medical professionals and patients recognize ... Anemia is also caused by a dietary deficiency of iron, folate or vitamin B12, all of which are needed to produce healthy red blood cells"

CODEX ALIMENTARUS is coming - Health Freedom USA - "CODEX ALIMENTARIUS regulations have been approved in the EU, Canada and Australia. The United States is next unless we act decisively. These regulations are passed quietly and without effective public notice but have grave and devastating impact on health freedom. Here in the United States, the “harmonization” laws which will enact CODEX ALIMENTARIUS have been defeated by Congress several times, each time by a smaller margin. Given the composition of the current Congress, it is virtually certain that it will be passed unless we make sure that does not happen"

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

Vitamins E and C are safe across a broad range of intakes - Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Apr;81(4):736-45 - "vitamin E supplements appear safe for most adults in amounts </=1600 IU (1073 mg RRR-alpha-tocopherol or the molar equivalent of its esters) and that vitamin C supplements of </=2000 mg/d are safe for most adults"

Effectiveness of selenium supplements in a low-selenium area of China - Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Apr;81(4):829-34 - "Selenium as selenomethionine had nearly twice the bioavailability of selenium as selenite"

Low-fat, high-carbohydrate (low-glycaemic index) diet induces weight loss and preserves lean body mass in obese healthy subjects: results of a 24-week study - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 May;7(3):290-3 - "after 24 weeks the average weight loss was 8.9 kg (98.6 vs. 89.7 kg; p </= 0.0001). There was a significant 15% decrease in fat mass (42.5 vs. 36.4 kg; p </= 0.0001) and a decrease in lean body mass of 5%"

Essential fatty acids, DHA and human brain - Indian J Pediatr. 2005 Mar;72(3):239-42 - "It is recommended that the pregnant and nursing woman should take at least 2.6g of omega-3 fatty acids and 100-300 mg of DHA daily to look after the needs of her fetus and suckling infant. The follow-up studies have shown that infants of mothers supplemented with EFAs and DHA had higher mental processing scores, psychomotor development, eye-hand coordination and stereo acuity at 4 years of age. Intake of EFAs and DHA during preschool years may also have a beneficial role in the prevention of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and enhancing learning capability and academic performance" - See iHerb docosahexaenoic products (15% discount code "qc")

Letrozole normalizes serum testosterone in severely obese men with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 May;7(3):211-5 - "Six weeks of treatment decreased serum estradiol from 120 +/- 20 to 70 +/- 9 pmol/l (p = 0.006). None of the subjects developed an estradiol level of less than 40 pmol/l. LH increased from 4.5 +/- 0.8 to 14.8 +/- 2.3 U/l (p < 0.001). Total testosterone rose from 7.5 +/- 1.0 to 23.8 +/- 3.0 nmol/l (p < 0.001) without a concomitant change in sex hormone-binding globulin level. Those treated with Letrozole 17.5 mg per week had an excessive LH response" - The way I read that, testosterone tripled.  I take a quarter tablet a day of Femara (letrozole).  See Femara at International Anti-aging Systems.

Growth and development of preterm infants fed infant formulas containing docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid - J Pediatr. 2005 Apr;146(4):461-8 - "Feeding formulas with DHA and ARA from algal and fungal oils resulted in enhanced growth. Both supplemented formulas provided better developmental outcomes than unsupplemented formulas"

A randomized trial of antioxidant vitamins to prevent second primary cancers in head and neck cancer patients - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2005 Apr 6;97(7):481-8 - "alpha-Tocopherol supplementation produced unexpected adverse effects on the occurrence of second primary cancers and on cancer-free survival" - Finally a study the specified the form of Vitamin E.

Effect of an enriched drink on cognitive function in frail elderly persons - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2005 Feb;60(2):265-70 - "participants' cognitive function was assessed (word learning test [WLT], WLT delayed, category fluency [CF] ... After 6 months, significant differences were noted in changes of the WLT (0.9 +/- 0.3 vs -0.1 +/- 0.3; p =.014) and CF professions ... This study contributes to the evidence that nutritional supplementation may improve neuropsychological performance in frail elderly persons"

Efficacy of Cranberry Juice on Helicobacter pylori Infection: a Double-Blind, Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial - Helicobacter. 2005 Apr;10(2):139-45 - "These results are significant ... Regular consumption of cranberry juice can suppress H. pylori infection in endemically afflicted populations"

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