Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 8/24/05.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Glucosamine May Help Arthritis Pain, But Do Supplements Contain Enough of It? - ABC News, 8/23/05 - "Even at the highest concentration, the typical supplement would contribute only a small percent of the glucosamine needed to build stronger joints"

Diet Soda Surprise May Not Be So Slimming - CBS 2 Chicago, 8/23/05 - "people who were drinking diet soft drinks two or more per day had a 57 percent chance of becoming overweight by a seven- to eight-year follow-up, which was significantly higher than the people who are drinking regular soft drinks"

Long-Term, Regular Aspirin Use Associated With Significant Reduction in Colorectal Cancer Risk Among Women - Doctor's Guide, 8/23/05 - "Among women who regularly used aspirin (2 or more standard [325-mg] tablets per week), there was a 23% reduced relative risk for colorectal cancer compared with nonregular users. However, significant risk reduction was not observed until more than 10 years of use"

Blood Glucose: A Strong Risk Factor for Mortality - Medscape, 8/19/05 - "BG even in the normal range is a strong independent predictor of mortality in all subjects with CVD" - [Abstract]

Health Benefits for Chocolate? Not Yet - ABC News, 8/18/05 - "Despite the enthusiasm, flavanols are missing from much of the chocolate on store shelves today ... Flavanols are found in other foods, such as red wine, grapes, apples and green tea"

Fruits, vegetables may cut arthritis risk - MSNBC, 8/17/05 - "Average daily intakes of the carotenoids beta-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin were 40 and 20 percent lower, respectively, for arthritis patients compared with healthy subjects. By contrast, consumption of two other well-known carotenoids, lutein and lycopene, did not seem to protect against arthritis" - See Multi-Carotene at iHerb.

Folates More Effective In Limiting Alzheimer's Disease Risk Than Antioxidants, Other Nutrients - Science Daily, 8/17/05 - "folates appear to have more impact on reducing Alzheimer's risk than vitamin E, a noted antioxidant, and other nutrients considered for their effect as a brain-aging deterrent" - See iHerb folic acid products.

Study Reaffirms Importance of C-Reactive Protein Testing in Predicting Heart Attack Risk - Doctor's Guide, 8/17/05 - "women with the highest levels of total cholesterol had twice the risk of future heart disease compared to women with the lowest levels. The research also demonstrated that women with the highest levels of hs-CRP had a three-fold increase in risk ... increased hs-CRP levels are associated with the development of atherosclerosis, independent of cholesterol"

• Low-dose Periostat (Doxycycline) Shows Benefits in Patients with Heart Failure - Doctor's Guide, 11/20/02 - "At six-month follow-up, sub-antimicrobial dose doxycyline significantly reduced CRP levels by 45.8 percent compared to baseline values"

Statins Don't Cut Dementia Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 8/05 - "Initial analyses of the investigators' data suggested that statin use lowered the risk of dementia. But that link disappeared in further analyses that adjusted for covariates, particularly subject age and sex"

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

Homocysteine and folate metabolism in depression - Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2005 Aug 15 - "Numerous studies have confirmed the association between folate deficiency and depression"

The Relation between Dietary Protein, Calcium and Bone Health in Women: Results from the EPIC-Potsdam Cohort - Ann Nutr Metab. 2005 Aug 4;49(5):312-318 - "High consumption of protein from animal origin may be unfavourable, whereas a higher vegetable protein intake may be beneficial for bone health. Our results strengthen the hypothesis that high calcium intake combined with adequate protein intake based on a high ratio of vegetable to animal protein may be protective against osteoporosis"

The effect of the PPARgamma ligand rosiglitazone on energy balance regulation - Diabetes Metab Res Rev. 2005 Aug 19 - "During treatment with rosiglitazone, significantly more fat storage was seen in overweight subjects while this was not the case in the placebo group" - I was taking this for prevention of insulin resistance and hopefully to reduce cortisol but now I'm switching back to metformin.

Low dose creatine supplementation enhances sprint phase of 400 meters swimming performance - J Med Assoc Thai. 2004 Sep;87 Suppl 2:S228-32 - "the creatine supplement in amateur swimmers in the present study enhanced the physical performance up to the maximum capacity" - See Creatine products at iHerb.

Comparison of the effects of valsartan and felodipine on plasma leptin and insulin sensitivity in hypertensive obese patients - Hypertens Res. 2005 Mar;28(3):209-14 - "These results suggest that in hypertensive obese subjects, treatment with valsartan might offer an advantage over treatment with felodipine, since valsartan may help to improve obesity-related disorders in addition to lowering BP"

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