Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 7/6/05.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Aspirin May Cut Prostate Cancer Risk - WebMD, 7/5/05 - "Those who had taken aspirin regularly for a long time were 15% less likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Other anti-inflammatory drugs were associated with an 18% lower risk of prostate cancer"

Coffee May Cut Type 2 Diabetes Risk - WebMD, 7/5/05 - "Those who drank four to six cups per day had a 28% lower risk of type 2 diabetes, compared with people who drank the least coffee"

Testosterone Level Doesn't Predict Low Libido - WebMD, 7/5/05 - "assessing male sex hormone, or androgen, levels in the blood is not an effective diagnostic tool for identifying low libido in women"

Fish Help the Heart by Fighting Inflammation - WebMD, 7/5/05 - "compared with those who said they didn't eat fish, those who ate at least 10.5 ounces of fish per week had 33% lower C-reactive protein and 33% lower tumor necrosis factor-alpha (another indicator of inflammation) levels as well as much lower levels of other signs of inflammation"

MRI Scan Reveals How Cholesterol Drugs Work - WebMD, 7/5/05 - "20 milligrams or 80 milligrams of Zocor daily ... After a year and a half of treatment, MRI scans showed that both groups ended up with similar reductions in plaque size, regardless of the strength of their statin dose ... Reduction in the size of blood vessel wall plaque was greater in people whose LDL cholesterol dropped below 100 mg/dl"

Soybean Protein Supplementation May Reduce Systolic, Diastolic BP - Medscape, 7/5/05 - "randomized to receive 40 g of isolated soybean protein supplements daily ... the net blood pressure changes in the soy group after the intervention were -4.31 mm Hg systolic ... and -2.76 mm Hg diastolic"

Aerobic Exercise Helps Find Genetic Regions Linked To Prediabetes - Science Daily, 7/5/05 - "At the end of the exercise program, the insulin sensitivity of the participants had improved overall--they needed to produce less insulin to handle the same amount of glucose intake"

Atacand Therapy Can Reduce Risk of Diabetes in Heart Failure Patients - Doctor's Guide, 7/4/05 - "Six percent of patients in the candesartan group were newly diagnosed with diabetes during the study period (median 3.1 year), compared to 7.4% in the placebo group" - That's at least the third ARB shown to lower the risk of diabetes.  See:

• Metabolic Effect of Telmisartan [Micardis] and Losartan [Cozaar] in Hypertensive Patients with Metabolic Syndrome - Cardiovasc Diabetol. 2005 May 15;4(1):6 - "Telmisartan, but not losartan, significantly (p < 0.05) reduced free plasma glucose, free plasma insulin, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance and HbAic. Following treatment, plasma glucose and insulin were reduced during the oral glucose tolerance test by telmisartan, but not by losartan. Telmisartan also significantly reduced 24-hour mean systolic blood pressure (p < 0.05) and diastolic blood pressure (p < 0.05) compared with losartan"
• Valsartan Reduces Chance of Diabetes in High-Risk Hypertensive Patients - Doctor's Guide, 5/19/05 - "patients taking valsartan had a 23% lower risk of developing diabetes during the four or more years of the study. The two drugs had previously been shown to be roughly equivalent in reducing the risk of heart attack and stroke" - See valsartan at OffshoreRx1.com.

Does Manganese Inhaled From The Shower Represent A Public Health Threat? - Science Daily, 7/4/05 - "The study is the first to show the potential for permanent brain damage from breathing vaporized manganese during a shower"

Male Menopause? - Medscape, 7/1/05 - "In my experience, testosterone replacement in men with a physiologic need has not resulted in any negative effects. In fact, I have always been impressed on follow-up visits when men tell me how much better they feel, that their sex drives have increased, and that they feel "like themselves again.""

Antioxidant-rich Diets Reduce Brain Damage From Stroke In Rats - Science Daily, 7/1/05 - "rats fed diets preventatively enriched with blueberries, spinach or an algae known as spirulina experienced less brain cell loss and improved recovery of movement following a stroke"

Actos (Pioglitazone HCl) Significantly Improved Components of Diabetic Dyslipidemia - Doctor's Guide, 6/29/05 - "triglyceride levels decreased 12.0 percent in the Actos patients, and rose 14.9 percent in the Avandia patients"

High Blood Sugar - Life Extension Magazine, 7/05 - "Long-term consumption of foods with high glycemic loads is associated with an increased risk of type II diabetes and coronary heart disease.34  ... Why trade one insulin-raising nutrient for another? It is far safer, and just as nutritious, to decrease carbohydrates and maintain protein at a reasonable level, while increasing your intake of ‘good’ unsaturated fats.”35 If fewer carbohydrates are available, the body will convert protein to glucose. This is a much slower process, so shifting the balance between carbohydrates and proteins will reduce the risk of hyperglycemia"

Here are two more web sites to send letters to help prevent further restrictions on supplements:

http://www.coalitionforhealthfreedom.org
http://www.healthactioncenter.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=26659

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

Vitamin E in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer: The Women's Health Study: A Randomized Controlled Trial, July 6, 2005, Lee et al. 294 (1): 56 - JAMA, 7/6/05 - "The data from this large trial indicated that 600 IU of natural-source vitamin E taken every other day provided no overall benefit for major cardiovascular events or cancer, did not affect total mortality, and decreased cardiovascular mortality in healthy women" - Natural means used the "d" for not the "dl" synthetic form.  That some progress but we keep going back to the fact that only alpha-tocopherol is measured in IU and therefore that was the form used in this study.  Alpha-tocopherol has been shown to significantly lower gamma-tocopherol.  I don't know why they keep repeating studies using alpha-tocopherol vice gamma-tocopherol or mixed tocopherol's.

• Supplementation of Diets with alpha-Tocopherol Reduces Serum Concentrations of gamma- and delta-Tocopherol in Humans - J Nutr. 2003 Oct;133(10):3137-40 - "Compared with placebo, supplementation with alpha-tocopherol reduced serum gamma-tocopherol concentrations by a median change of 58% ... and reduced the number of individuals with detectable delta-tocopherol concentrations ... In view of the potential benefits of gamma- and delta-tocopherol, the efficacy of alpha-tocopherol supplementation may be reduced due to decreases in serum gamma- and delta-tocopherol levels."

Effects of irbesartan on intracellular antioxidant enzyme expression and activity in adolescents and young adults with early diabetic angiopathy - Diabetes Care. 2005 Jul;28(7):1690-7 - "Adolescents and young adults with early signs of diabetic angiopathy have defective intracellular antioxidant enzyme production and activity. Treatment with irbesartan can substantially improve the activity and production of these enzymes in skin fibroblasts"

Vitamin D and calcium supplementation prevents severe falls in elderly community-dwelling women: a pragmatic population-based 3-year intervention study - Aging Clin Exp Res. 2005 Apr;17(2):125-32 - "female residents who followed the Calcium and Vitamin D Program had a 12% risk reduction in severe falls"

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