Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 4/19/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Mediterranean Diet May Cut Alzheimer's - WebMD, 4/18/06 - "Scores ranged from 0-9, with higher scores showing greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet ... those with middle scores were 15% less likely to have been found to have developed Alzheimer's disease, and those with the highest scores were 40% less likely to have been found to have Alzheimer's disease"

Metformin and Lifestyle Intervention May Help Prevent Metabolic Syndrome - Medscape, 4/18/06 - "Participants were randomly assigned to standard treatment with placebo pill; metformin, 850 mg, twice daily; or intensive lifestyle management with placebo pill and followed up for a mean of 3.2 years ... Intensive lifestyle consisted of reduction of at least 7% of body weight, low-calorie and low-fat diet, and moderate physical activity at least 150 minutes weekly ... In those with prevalent MS at baseline ... At 3 years 18% of the placebo, 23% of the metformin, and 38% of the lifestyle intervention group no longer had the MS, with lifestyle intervention only showing a significant effect vs placebo"

3 Herbal Medicines May Ease Back Pain - WebMD, 4/18/06 - "A 60-milligram daily dose of devil's claw also appeared to cut back pain as much as a 12.5-milligram daily dose of Vioxx, a painkiller no longer on the market due to a rise in the risk of cardiovascular events -- such as heart attack and stroke -- in some patients"

High Glycemic Index Diet May Increase Risk of Developing AMD - Medscape, 4/18/06 - "The age-adjusted model showed more than a 2-fold increase in risk for ARM for the third tertile of dietary GI"

Probiotic Yogurt May Help Eradicate H. pylori Infection - Medscape, 4/17/06 - "Four weeks of pretreatment with AB-yogurt before quadruple therapy improves eradication rate of residual H. pylori after failed triple therapy"

Chronic Exposure To Stress Hormone Causes Anxious Behavior In Mice - Science Daily, 4/17/06 - "Scientists already knew that many people with depression have high levels of cortisol, a human stress hormone, but it wasn't clear whether that was a cause or effect. Now it appears likely that long-term exposure to cortisol actually contributes to the symptoms of depression" - See my cortisol page for ways to reduce it.

Can Exercise Protect Against Alzheimer’s? - Physician's Weekly, 4/17/06 - "the rate of dementia development was significantly lower for those who exercised at least three days a week"

Does Eating Salmon Lower the Murder Rate? - New York Times, 4/16/06 - "enrolled 231 volunteers at a British prison in his study; one-half received a placebo, while the other half received fatty acids and other supplements. Over time, the antisocial behavior (as measured by assaults and other violations) of the inmates who had been given the supplements dropped by more than a third relative to their previous records"

Veggies may keep breast cancer from returning - MSNBC, 4/14/06 - "After about seven years, women who began with the highest levels of carotenoids in their blood showed 43 percent less risk of developing breast cancer again when compared to women with the lowest carotenoid levels"

Prostate tumours shrunk by lycopene, vitamin E combo - Nutra USA, 4/14/06 - "Compared with the control, the combined mixture of lycopene and vitamin E, at five mg/kg BW each, suppressed the growth of the prostate xenograft by 73 per cent at day 42 ... the mice receiving the combined supplement also lived 40 per cent longer" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.

Low vitamin D tied to cancer risk in men - Reuters, 4/13/06 - "In men, low levels of vitamin D appear to be associated with increased cancer incidence and mortality -- particularly cancers of the digestive system"

Fiber Good, and Not Just for Your Gut - WebMD, 4/13/06 - "Compared with those who ate the least fiber, those who ate the most were 63% less likely to have high levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) ... the women who ate the oat fiber over the short three-day time period became significantly more sensitive to insulin"

New Research Finds Direct Link Between High Cholesterol And Prostate Cancer - Science Daily, 4/12/06 - "men with prostate cancer were around 50% more likely to have had high cholesterol levels[2] than our non-prostate cancer controls. The association was somewhat stronger for men whose high cholesterol levels had been diagnosed before they were 50 and for men over 65, where there was an 80% greater likelihood of high cholesterol levels"

Insoluble fibre could protect against diabetes, more evidence - Nutra USA, 4/12/06 - "eating a fibre-enriched bread for only three days improved insulin sensitivity in overweight and obese women by eight per cent"

Periodontal Therapy May Help Diabetic Patients Improve Sugar Control - Doctor's Guide, 4/12/06 - "periodontal therapy may reduce a diabetic patient's HbA1c count by as much as 20% at three and six months following treatment"

Benefits of statins may lessen with age - MSNBC, 4/12/06 - "statin therapy was associated with a significant 16 percent reduction in all-cause mortality in patients younger than 80 years"

Estrogen, progestin questioned - USA Today, 4/12/06 - "women's risk of breast cancer began rising between three and four years after going on estrogen plus progestin ... Women who take 0.625 milligrams of estrogen, the dose tested in the Women's Health Initiative, "have a real risk of endometrial cancer" if they don't also take progestin"

Vitamin K's Delicate Balancing Act - Life Extension Magazine, 4/06 - "Scientists have discovered that vitamin K regulates several biochemical processes that require exquisite balance to function normally, including blood coagulation, bone mineralization, and vascular health" - See Vitacost or iHerb vitamin K products.

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

Regression of Skeletal Manifestations of Hyperparathyroidism with Oral Vitamin D - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Apr 11 - "we showed regression of severe skeletal abnormalities of hyperparathyroidism documented by serial CT images in response to oral vitamin D therapy"

Do thiazolidinediones cause heart failure? A critical review - Cleve Clin J Med. 2006 Apr;73(4):390-7 - "TZDs, ie, rosiglitazone and pioglitazone ... Although fluid retention is a worrisome side effect of TZDs, current evidence does not link fluid retention caused by TZDs with worsening heart function"

Prolonged n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation ameliorates hepatic steatosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a pilot study - Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2006 Apr 15;23(8):1143-51 - "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) ... Supplementation with n-3 PUFA improves biochemical, ultrasonographic and haemodynamic features of liver steatosis. Our study supports the efficacy of n-3 PUFA as a new therapeutic approach in the treatment of NAFLD"

Testosterone and erectile function in hypogonadal men unresponsive to tadalafil: results from an open-label uncontrolled study - Andrologia. 2006 Apr;38(2):61-8 - "These data suggest that combination therapy with testosterone and tadalafil is an effective means in a subset of hypogonadal patients who did not respond to tadalafil alone"

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