Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 5/10/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Male Hypogonadism: Etiology, Pathophysiology, and Diagnosis - Medscape, 5/9/06 - "Hypogonadism is characterized by low serum testosterone (T) levels (<300 ng/dl) together with ≥1 clinical symptom or sign. Symptoms of postpubertal hypogonadism include[1-3] (1) sexual dysfunction, such as reduced libido, erectile dysfunction (ED), diminished penile sensation, difficulty attaining orgasm, as well as reduced ejaculate with orgasm; (2) reduced energy, vitality, or stamina; (3) depressed mood or diminished sense of well-being; (4) increased irritability; (5) difficulty concentrating and other cognitive problems; and/or (6) hot flushes in some cases of acute onset"

Do Testosterone Patches Help Women with Under-active Pituitary Glands? - Doctor's Guide, 5/9/06 - "Loss of ovarian and/or adrenal function can cause many women to experience hypopituitarism or under-active pituitary glands, and therefore low levels of testosterone, which is responsible for producing estrogen. This lack of testosterone can be blamed for loss of sex drive, loss of muscle tone and decrease of cognitive sharpness"

Antihypertensive Agents May Be Linked to Decreased Risk for Alzheimer Disease - Medscape, 5/9/06 - "The use of any antihypertensive medications significantly reduced the risk of developing AD (adjusted HR, 0.64). This result did not vary by sex, APOE status, subjects' blood pressure values, or the duration of antihypertensive use ... potassium-sparing diuretics had the most significant affect on the risk of AD ... this effect was almost entirely due to the effects of potassium-sparing agents"

Low Vitamin D Common in Elderly and Associated with Physical Function Loss - Doctor's Guide, 5/8/06 - "Vitamin D insufficiency is universally common in older adults and associated with more physical function loss over time"

Estrogen-Only HRT Safe for 15 Years - WebMD, 5/8/05 - "The finding applies just to estrogen-only HRT prescribed for women who have had a hysterectomy (removal of the uterus). For women with a uterus, estrogen alone greatly increases the risk of uterine cancer. To avoid this risk, HRT for women with a uterus balances estrogen with progesterone. But adding progesterone to estrogen increases the risk of breast cancer"

Growth hormone, insulin may be key to longevity - Reuters, 5/8/06 - "Although it would be irresponsible to recommend that healthy people start using anti-diabetic drugs ... it is reasonable to suggest that treatment(s) causing an improvement in insulin sensitivity combined with modest reduction in insulin release would reduce risk of age-related disease and likely also delay aging"

Cutting Calories Slightly Can Reduce Aging Damage - Science Daily, 5/8/06 - "feeding rats just 8 percent fewer calories a day and moderately increasing the animals' activity extended their average lifespan and significantly overturned the negative effects of cellular aging on liver function and overall health ... the study results support the theory that cell death and aging-related organ damage are caused by unstable molecules known as free radicals and by cellular oxidation and inflammation"

Thiazide and Beta-Blocker Use Linked With Increased Risk for Incident Diabetes - Medscape, 5/8/06 - "The multivariate risk ratios of developing diabetes associated with taking thiazide diuretics were 1.20, 1.51, and 1.31 in the NHS I, NHS II, and HPFS, respectively ... The multivariate risk ratios of developing diabetes associated with taking beta-blocker medications were 1.25 and 1.21 in the NHS I and HPFS, respectively"

Elderly Men Who Fall Should Be Screened for Osteoporosis - Doctor's Guide, 5/5/06 - "Elderly men who have fallen at least once are more likely to have osteoporosis than men the same age who have not fallen and should be screened for low bone mineral density"

Low Bone Density May Predict Cognitive Impairment - Doctor's Guide, 5/5/06 - "Low bone mineral density (BMD) in postmenopausal women may be associated with cognitive impairment, and estrogen metabolism may be the cause"

Should Older Men Be Screened For Prostate Cancer? - Science Daily, 5/4/06 - "While this form of cancer can be fatal, it often progresses so slowly that men are more likely to die from some other disease"

Garlic compounds may stop liver cancer growth - Nutra USA, 5/4/06 - "A one per cent solution of each garlic extracts appeared to inhibit the growth of the tumour completely"

More support for lycopene protection against prostate cancer - Nutra USA, 5/3/06 - "half of these men to receive a daily supplement of eight milligrams of lycopene (LycoRed's Lyc-O-Mato) for one year and followed for a futher year ... blood levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein that is used as a marker for the disease, decreased by 42 per cent after supplementation" - See Jarrow Lyco-Sorb (contains Lyco-O-Mato) at Amazon.com.

Higher Risk Patients Benefit More After Conversion from Pioglitazone to Rosiglitazone - Doctor's Guide, 5/3/06 - "conversion from rosiglitazone to pioglitazone while maintaining statin therapy, improves the lipid profiles in patients with type 2 diabetes"

Women Gain More Weight Than Men When Taking Thiazolidinedione - Doctor's Guide, 5/3/06 - "Among the 100 consecutive patients treated with thiazolidinediones, 52 gained significant weight. There were more women in the group of weight-gainers compared to the group of non-weight-gainers (63.5% vs. 37.5%, P <.05)"

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

Combined Lycopene and Vitamin E Treatment Suppresses the Growth of PC-346C Human Prostate Cancer Cells in Nude Mice - J Nutr. 2006 May;136(5):1287-93 - "lycopene combined with vitamin E may inhibit the growth of prostate cancer"

Affiliates (I could sure use some sales.  In Windows, you can drag the links onto your desktop and use them so that I get credit for the sale.  Click here for more stores):