Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 10/19/05.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

More doubt on blood pressure drug - BBC News, 10/17/05 - "the risk of stroke was 16% higher with beta blockers than with other drugs ... When the team looked at atenolol separately, the risk of stroke was 26% higher than for other drugs" [WebMD]  - Another reason for staying away from beta blockers:

• Strategies to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes - Medscape, 8/8/05 - "Valsartan reduced the incidence of new-onset diabetes by 23% ... Traditional beta-blockers worsen insulin sensitivity and increase the risk of developing new diabetes ... Some of the most widely used anti-hypertensives, particularly the traditional beta blockers such as propranolol, timolol, metoprolol and atenolol, and diuretics such as hydrochlorothiazide and chlorthalidone (in high doses), worsen insulin resistance and increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes"

How Scared Should We Be? - Time Magazine, 10/17/05 - "The World Health Organization (WHO) declared in September, once again, that as far as an influenza pandemic is concerned, the question is not if but when, not whether millions would die but how many millions ... Should a pandemic take hold, demand would soar for surgical masks, hospital beds, mechanical ventilators--which help people breathe when their lungs are fighting an overwhelming infection--and other items ... Caregivers would need to use masks, if there were enough of them, and other barriers to prevent infection" - See Tamiflu at International Anti-aging Systems and surgical masks at drugstore.com.

Early Study Shows Spice Stunts Deadly Spread To Lungs - Science Daily, 10/16/05 - "Curcumin ... inhibits metastasis to the lungs of mice with breast cancer ... Treatment using Taxol alone only "modestly reduced" the incidence of metastases, while the group using curcumin alone and curcumin plus Taxol "significantly reduced" both the incidence and numbers of visible lung metastases" - See iHerb curcumin/turmeric products.

More vitamin D may mean healthier gums - MSNBC, 10/14/05 - "When the researchers broke participants into five groups based on their blood levels of vitamin D, they found that as vitamin levels rose, the risk of gingivitis inched downward. The group with the highest vitamin D levels was 20 percent less likely to have signs of gingivitis than the group with the lowest levels"

Your Pillows Are Full of Fungus - WebMD, 10/14/05 - "It is thought that human skin scales in bedding are used as a food source for fungi, and the fungi are eaten by mites. And the fungi might sit on the mite feces as well" [Science Daily] - See my page on dust mites.  New pillows at Lands' End (their Primaloft line is washable) or Amazon.com?

• Dust Mites: Where Are They Lurking? - ExtraTV.com, 8/23/00 - "The average pillow will get up to 1/10 of its weight from dust mites and dust mites waste material and its making people sick."
• Dust Mites and Asthma - Stephen A. Brunton and Richard L Saphir, Stamford Hospital, Stamford, Conn., and Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, N.Y. - "approximately 10% of the weight of a two-year-old pillow may be due to the presence of dead mites and their droppings."

New Statement Reaffirms Insulin Resistance Syndrome Definition - Doctor's Guide, 10/14/05 - "People with resistance to the actions of insulin have an increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as polycystic ovary syndrome, fatty liver, and certain cancers"

Melatonin May Reduce the Pain of Irritable Bowel Syndrome - Medscape, 10/14/05 - "Use of 3 mg of melatonin once daily for two weeks in IBS patients is associated with improvement in bowel pain and rectal distension thresholds for urgency and pain but not with a change in stool frequency, type, or quality of life"

Why Alcohol May Help Hearts - WebMD, 10/13/05 - "Alcohol may lower the risk of heart disease by acting as a blood thinner"

How Cutting Calories May Increase Longevity - WebMD, 10/13/05 - "mice that were fed 30% to 40% fewer calories produced more nitric oxide than those who followed an unrestricted diet" - I still think that calorie restriction works by cutting insulin requirements.  See:

• Insulin plays central role in aging, explains benefits of calorie reduction - Nutra USA, 6/3/05 - "if insulin levels remain low, cells are stronger and can ward off infection and age-related diseases such as cancer, dementia and stroke"
• Blocking Insulin Extends Lifespan - Betterhumans.com, 6/3/04 - "We now know that insulin is a direct player in the aging process"

CNBC had a segment on this and I did a Google search for an article.  Basically, tadalafil (Cialis) my cure BPH and ED at the same time:

Lilly ICOS Announces Positive Results from Phase 2 Study of Tadalafil in Treating Symptoms of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia - genengnews.com, 10/12/05 - "After stepping up to 20 mg tadalafil and continuing therapy once-a-day for another six weeks, patients experienced a mean 3.8 point improvement from baseline in the IPSS, compared to a mean 1.7 point improvement for patients on placebo ... More than half of men over age 50 have symptoms caused by BPH. More than 50 percent of men with BPH also suffer from ED" - See tadalafil at OffshoreRx1.com or SuperSaverMeds.com.

Eating Fish Associated with Slower Cognitive Decline - Doctor's Guide, 10/12/05 - "Consuming fish at least once a week was associated with a 10% per year slower rate of cognitive decline in elderly people ... consumption of one omega-3 fatty acid in particular, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is important for memory performance in aged animals" - See iHerb docosahexaenoic products.

Chromium supplements may aid some with depression - Reuters, 10/12/05 - "those who said they had "irrepressible cravings" for sweets and starches -- did show a general improvement in depression symptoms after taking the supplement ... the study authors speculate the improvements in the body's use of insulin, the key hormonal regulator of blood sugar, may be the reason" - See iHerb chromium products.

Are Fish Oil Supplements Safer Than Eating Fish? - Life Extension Magazine, 10/05 - "analyzing five brands of fish oil supplements, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston found that levels of PCBs and organochlorine pesticides were below the detectable limit in all five brands tested" - See Mega Twin EPA at iHerb.

Low Vitamin E Serum Levels Correlate With Dementia Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/05 - "those individuals in the bottom tertile of vitamin E plasma levels were at significantly higher risk not only of being demented (OR 2.6, 95% CI) but also of having impaired cognitive function (OR 2.2, 95% CI), compared with the highest vitamin E tertile"

Hypertension Control May Lower Risk of Dementia - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/13/05 - "effective antihypertensive therapy may reduce cognitive decline in these patients"

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

High-fat dairy food and conjugated linoleic acid intakes in relation to colorectal cancer incidence in the Swedish Mammography Cohort - Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Oct;82(4):894-900 - "For CLA, the multivariate rate ratio of colorectal cancer in a comparison of the 2 extreme quartiles of intake was 0.71 ... These prospective data suggest that high intakes of high-fat dairy foods and CLA may reduce the risk of colorectal cancer" - [Food Navigator]

Metformin revisited: re-evaluation of its properties and role in the pharmacopoeia of modern antidiabetic agents - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 Nov;7(6):654-65 - "Metformin acts by increasing tissue sensitivity to insulin, principally in the liver. Beneficial properties of metformin include weight reduction, favourable effects on the lipid profile and the fibrinolytic pathway, and improvement of ovarian function in some insulin-resistant women. It does not cause hyperinsulinaemia or hypoglycaemia" - See Glucophage at SuperSaverMeds.com or OffshoreRx1.com.

Insulin resistance, diabetes and cardiovascular risk: approaches to treatment - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 Nov;7(6):642-53 - "Treatment of this syndrome must be aimed at lifestyle modification, glycaemic control and management of concomitant risk factors. Diet and exercise play a vital role in the treatment of diabetes and the metabolic syndrome. Weight reduction and increased physical activity will improve insulin resistance, hyperglycaemia, hypertension and dyslipidaemia. Hypertension management has been shown to be especially important in diabetics to prevent cardiovascular events. Likewise, multiple clinical trials show that reduction of cholesterol is even more vital in diabetics than the general population for risk reduction of coronary disease. There is a great deal of evidence that tight control of glycaemia is essential to treatment of this condition"

Combination therapy using metformin or thiazolidinediones and insulin in the treatment of diabetes mellitus - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 Nov;7(6):633-41 - "The biguanide, metformin, sensitizes the liver to the effect of insulin, suppressing hepatic glucose output. Thiazolidinediones such as rosiglitazone and pioglitazone enhance insulin-mediated glucose disposal, leading to reduced plasma insulin concentrations. These classes of drugs may also have varying beneficial effects on features of insulin resistance such as lipid levels, blood pressure and body weight. Metformin in combination with insulin has been shown to significantly improve blood glucose levels while lowering total daily insulin dose and body weight"

Coffee--poison or medicine? - Ther Umsch. 2005 Sep;62(9):629-33 - "Recent publications suggest that moderate coffee intake does not represent a health hazard, but may even be associated with beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system and diabetes"

Selenium supplementation and colorectal adenomas: An analysis of the nutritional prevention of cancer trial - Int J Cancer. 2005 Oct 10 - "In addition to being associated with a reduced risk of incident CRC [colorectal cancers], selenium supplementation was associated with a significantly reduced risk of prevalent adenomas, but only among subjects with either a low baseline selenium level or among current smokers" - See iHerb selenium products.

• Selenomethionine has superior bioavailability, suggests study - Nutra USA, 4/19/05 - "selenomethionine is twice as bioavailabile as selenium in the form of selenite"

Vitamin B(12) and folate serum levels in newly admitted psychiatric patients - Clin Nutr. 2005 Oct 7 - "About 30% of patients had low folate values compared to 2.5% in the control group" - See iHerb folic acid products.

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