Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 11/30/05.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Long-Term NSAIDs May Not Be Useful for Osteoarthritis - Medscape, 11/329/05 - "Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) offer only a small, short-term benefit that may not be clinically significant for people with knee osteoarthritis"

Increasing Role of Acetaminophen in Acute Liver Failure in United States - Doctor's Guide, 11/29/05 - "Acetaminophen poisoning has become the most common cause of acute liver failure in the United States"

Sugar-cane extract may favorably alter lipid level - Reuters, 11/28/05 - "Compared with placebo, policosanol for 8 weeks significantly lowered plasma total cholesterol from 7.37 to 6.99 mmol/L and increased Apo A1 from 1.49 to 1.58 mmol/L" - See iHerb policosanol products.

Hopkins Study May Change Rules For Treating Heart Failure; Discovery Suggests That Some Patients On Beta Blockers Should Not Be - Science Daily, 11/28/05 - "During exercise, the heartbeat does not increase as expected, which limits the capability of these patients to pump blood to the body"

Herbal extract may treat prostate cancer - MSNBC, 11/27/05 - "Zyflamend has the ability, in culture at least, to reduce prostate cancer cell growth by as much as 78 percent and induce cancer cell death or “apoptosis,”" - See Zyflamend at iHerb.

Silicon may boost calcium/vitamin D bone benefits - Nutra USA, 11/23/05 - "Jarrow Formulas ... The effect was particularly pronounced in the PINP, the most sensitive bone formation marker. In the groups receiving six and 12mg of silicon, the improvements were “significant”" - See Jarrow BioSil a iHerb.

Drug Compound Restores Youth To Aging Arterial Cells In Elderly Hypertensives, Hopkins Study Shows - Science Daily, 11/23/05 - "alagebrium, formally known as ALT-711 or 4,5-dimethyl-3-(2-oxo-2-phenylethyl)-thiazolium chloride, reduced stiffening in the vessel wall in the main artery of the neck (carotid artery) by as much as 37 percent. The drug also improved endothelial function, the ability of the vessels' inner lining to relax and dilate in response to increased stress from blood flow, by 102 percent"

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

Low Levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetes - Horm Metab Res. 2005 Nov;37(11):680-683 - "Mean levels of both 25OHD (3) and 1,25-(OH) (2)D (3) were significantly lower in patients compared to controls ... These findings suggest that vitamin D (3) may be an important pathogenic factor in type 1 diabetes"

Rosiglitazone Improves Exercise Capacity in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes - Diabetes Care. 2005 Dec;28(12):2877-2883 - "This is the first known report showing that a TZD improved exercise function in type 2 diabetes" - I've been taking Avandia (rosiglitazone) for anti-aging and have noticed that effect. - Ben

A prospective study of plasma lipid levels and hypertension in women - Arch Intern Med. 2005 Nov 14;165(20):2420-7 - "In multivariate-adjusted models, the relative risks of development of hypertension from the lowest (referent) to the highest quintile of baseline total cholesterol level were 1.00, 0.96, 1.02, 1.09, and 1.12 (P = .002 for trend); for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, 1.00, 0.97, 1.00, 1.02, and 1.11 (P = .053 for trend); for high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, 1.00, 0.93, 0.87, 0.87, and 0.81 (P<.001 for trend); for non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol level, 1.00, 1.06, 1.11, 1.12, and 1.25 (P<.001 for trend); and for the ratio of total to high-density cholesterol, 1.00, 1.10, 1.14, 1.20, and 1.34" - The way I read that is that high total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol raised the risk of hypertension and high HDL cholesterol lowered the risk of hypertension, which makes sense. - Ben

Vitamin D: important for prevention of osteoporosis, cardiovascular heart disease, type 1 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and some cancers - South Med J. 2005 Oct;98(10):1024-7 - "Vitamin D deficiency increases the risk of many common cancers, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension, cardiovascular heart disease, and type I diabetes"

Treatment with supplementary arginine, vitamin C and zinc in patients with pressure ulcers: A randomised controlled trial - Clin Nutr. 2005 Nov 14;24(6):979-987 - "In this small set of patients, supplementary arginine, vitamin C and zinc significantly improved the rate of pressure ulcer healing"

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