Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 11/9/05.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Adequate Vitamin D Status Appears More Important than High Calcium Intake for Maintaining Calcium Metabolism - Doctor's Guide, 11/8/05 - "vitamin D sufficiency may be more important than high calcium intake in maintaining desired values of serum PTH ... Vitamin D supplements are necessary to ensure adequate vitamin D status for most of the year in northern climates" - See iHerb vitamin D products.

No Link Found Between Caffeine Intake and Development of Hypertension in Women - Doctor's Guide, 11/8/05 - "When studying individual classes of caffeinated beverages, habitual coffee consumption was not associated with increased risk of hypertension. By contrast, consumption of cola beverages was associated with an increased risk of hypertension, independent of whether it was sugared or diet cola"

Magnesium Intake and Bone Mineral Density - Megnesium, 11/8/05 - "The mean intakes of Mg by race-sex subgroup are listed in Table 2 . Less than 26% of the cohort met the RDA for Mg ... twenty-five percent of the cohort took a Mg-containing supplement; the mean dose was 83 mg" - See iHerb magnesium products.

For Thyroid Hormones, How Low Is Too Low? - New York Times, 11/8/05 - "My good friend Marty Surks is not impressed and doesn't think you should treat patients with a T.S.H. between 5 and 10, but there's mounting evidence that over 2.5 is abnormal"

Workers On Daily Probiotics Less Likely To Take Time Off Sick - Science Daily, 11/7/05 - "workers who took a daily dose of the probiotic bacteria Lactobacillus reuteri were 2.5 times less likely to take sick leave than workers who took a placebo"

Estrogen And Exercise Promote Leanness In Similar Ways - Science Daily, 11/5/05 - "Scientists long have known that fading estrogen levels lead postmenopausal women to accumulate more fat and sometimes develop insulin resistance or diabetes. The study demonstrates that estrogen may reduce body fat in animals and may explain some of the reasons behind the association of menopause with increased risk of insulin resistance and diabetes" - Related article:

• Oral Estradiol Therapy May Worsen Insulin Resistance in Obese Menopausal Women with Metabolic Syndrome - Doctor's Guide, 10/21/05 - "After 12 weeks, there was significant worsening of insulin resistance in women taking oral estradiol ... The researchers observed no significant changes in markers of insulin resistance in women receiving transdermal estradiol, except for a decrease in glucose to insulin ratio from 7.13 to 5.77"

Primrose Oil Component Cuts Levels Of Cancer-causing Gene Her-2/neu - Science Daily, 11/4/05 - "Gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), a substance in evening primrose oil and several other plant oils used in herbal medicine, inhibits action of Her-2/neu, a cancer gene that is responsible for almost 30 percent of all breast cancers" - See iHerb GLA products.

Compound In Wine Reduces Levels Of Alzheimer's Disease-causing Peptides - Science Daily, 11/4/05 - "resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers the levels of the amyloid-beta peptides which cause the telltale senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease ... Resveratrol in grapes may never reach the concentrations required to obtain the effect observed in our studies"

Lifestyle Changes Reverse Type 2 Diabetes in Study Participants - Doctor's Guide, 11/3/05 - "Those who have or are at-risk of developing type 2 diabetes may be able to reverse the illness by improving their diet and engaging in regular exercise"

Diabetics Face Increased Risk of Colorectal Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 11/2/05 - "hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia promote the growth of colorectal cancer"

Stopping Jet Lag Before It Starts - WebMD, 11/2/05 - "The body clocks of those who took melatonin adapted better to the new schedule. The higher dose of melatonin fared best in that regard, but not by much. Plus, people who took the higher dose were sleepier in the evenings after taking the pill"

Gingko biloba may reduce ovarian cancer risk - Nutra USA, 11/2/05 - "Women who took gingko supplements for six months or longer were shown to have a 60 per cent lower risk for ovarian cancer" - See iHerb ginkgo products.

The Perricone Weight Loss Program - Life Extension Magazine, 11/05 - "The reason that traditional low-calorie diets fail is that they lack omega-3s, which are essential for healthy metabolism. If you follow the anti-inflammatory diet and ensure the intake of plenty of omega-3 fatty acids, you will successfully lose weight"

The Heart-Healthy Benifits of Omega-3 Fatty Acids - John Hopkins University School of Medicine, 6/05 - "Fish-oil supplements appear to have much lower levels of toxins than fish. In a study of 5 over the-counter fish-oil preparations, levels of PCBs and organochlorines were below the detectable limit in all of the supplements ... Because consumption of this amount of fish in secondary prevention is difficult for most individuals, dietary supplementation is generally needed and should be recommended. The dose in secondary prevention should be at least 875 mg of EPA + DHA per day. This dose can generally be obtained by taking 2 capsules of concentrated fish oils (at least 50% EPA + DHA) per day. For example, such a preparation would contain 500 mg of EPA + DHA per each 1000-mg fish-oil capsule" - See Mega Twin EPA at iHerb.

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

Cognitive and physiological effects of Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in healthy subjects - Eur J Clin Invest. 2005 Nov;35(11):691-9 - "The mood profile was improved after Omega-3 with increased vigour and reduced anger, anxiety and depression states ... Omega-3 supplementation is associated with an improvement of attentional and physiological functions, particularly those involving complex cortical processing" - See Mega Twin EPA at iHerb.

Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Crossover Study in Men with Prostate Cancer and Rising PSA: Effectiveness of a Dietary Supplement - Eur Urol. 2005 Oct 17 - "The supplement consisted of soy, isoflavones, lycopene, silymarin and antioxidants as main ingredients ... The soy-based dietary supplement utilised in this study was shown to delay PSA progression after potentially curative treatment in a significant fashion"

Effect of Very High-fat Diets on Body Weight, Lipoproteins, and Glycemic Status in the Obese - Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2005 Nov;7(6):412-20 - "In contrast, unsaturated fats, and particularly omega-3 fatty acids, have the combined benefits of lowering serum cholesterol and raising high-density lipoprotein, as well as favorable effects on insulin resistance and inflammation; they also lower cardiovascular events in high-risk patients"

Diabetes mellitus and serum carotenoids: findings of a population-based study in Queensland, Australia - Am J Clin Nutr. 2005 Sep;82(3):685-93 - "Serum carotenoids are inversely associated with type 2 diabetes and impaired glucose metabolism. Randomized trials of diets high in carotenoid-rich vegetables and fruit are needed to confirm these results and those from other observational studies. Such evidence would have very important implications for the prevention of diabetes"

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