Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 7/5/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Seizure Drug Cools Hot Flashes As Well As Estrogen - Science Daily, 7/3/06 - "the seizure drug gabapentin is as effective as estrogen"

A Safer Alternative to NSAIDs? - Physician's Weekly, 7/3/06 - "omega-3 essential fatty acid (EFA) may be as effective as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in relieving neck and lower back pain without the risk of harmful complications"

Important Drugs Underutilized in Older Diabetics - Physician's Weekly, 7/3/06 - "The authors recommended ACE/ARB therapy for all older patients with diabetes to improve quality of national diabetes care"

Testosterone Gel Safe and Effective in Treating Hypogonadal Males With Erectile Dysfunction - Doctor's Guide, 7/3/06 - "Cavernous vasodilation, erectile capacity, sexual desire and body composition were also significantly improved with the Testogel combination"

Pomegranate Juice Helps Keep PSA Levels Stable In Men With Prostate Cancer - Science Daily, 7/2/06 - "Drinking an eight ounce glass of pomegranate juice daily increased by nearly four times the period during which PSA levels in men treated for prostate cancer remained stable"

Juice 'can slow prostate cancer' - BBC News, 7/1/06 - "measured how long it took for PSA levels to double in individual patients ... The average doubling time is about 15 months, but in patients who drank pomegranate juice this increased to an average of 54 months"

Vitamin D Key to Colon Cancer - WebMD, 6/30/06 - "Vitamin D is part of a system that clears a cancer-causing toxin from the colon"

Diet May Reduce Colon Cancer Risk - WebMD, 6/30/06 - "women who ate a diet rich in folic acid (a nutrient found naturally as folate) had no significant increase in colon cancer risk -- regardless of their family history of the disease. But women who ate a diet low in folic acid were 2.5 times more likely to develop colon cancer than those without a family history who ate a similar diet"

Tylenol Fights Colon Cancer - WebMD, 6/30/06 - "changes indicative of colon cancer were either eliminated or reduced by half in animals pretreated with acetaminophen"

Calcium May Curb Middle-Aged Spread - WebMD, 6/30/06 - "of 5,341 women aged 53 to 57, those taking at least 500 milligrams of calcium each day gained about 11 pounds after age 45, compared to 15 pounds for those who didn't take the supplements"

Diabetes Confers Earlier Heart Risk - WebMD, 6/29/06 - "in general, people with diabetes have a risk for heart disease (such as heart attack), stroke, and death from any cause similar to someone more than a decade older but without the disease"

Obesity pill now available in UK - BBC News, 6/29/06 - "Rimonabant is the first drug to target factors governing the body's appetite, metabolism and energy use. Trials showed it can reduce weight by a tenth" - I see that it's available on the Internet already.  See rimonabant at International Antiaging Systems.

Metformin Induces Long-Term Weight Loss in Teens - Doctor's Guide, 6/28/06 - "Metformin can induce long-term weight loss in obese, non-diabetic adolescents, and could possibly be useful in a regimen to help achieve weight loss in adolescents, who may have developed type 2 diabetes type due to overweight"

New advice on blood-pressure drug - BBC, 6/27/06 - "A class of drugs called beta-blockers should no longer be given to patients with high blood pressure ... using beta-blockers can also increase the risk of diabetes"

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

Vitamin and carotenoid status in older women: associations with the frailty syndrome - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2006 Jun;61(6):600-7 - "Frail women are more likely to have relatively low serum carotenoid and micronutrient concentrations and are more likely to have multiple micronutrient deficiencies"

Vitamin K and the Prevention of Fractures: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials - Arch Intern Med. 2006 Jun 26;166(12):1256-61 - "This systematic review suggests that supplementation with phytonadione and menaquinone-4 reduces bone loss. In the case of the latter, there is a strong effect on incident fractures among Japanese patients"

Angiotensin Receptor Blocker Added to Previous Antihypertensive Agents on Arteries of Diabetic Hypertensive Patients - Hypertension. 2006 Jun 19 - "After 1 year of treatment, resistance artery media:lumen ratio decreased in the valsartan group (7.9+/-0.5% after versus 9.8+/-0.6% before; P<0.05) but not in the atenolol-treated group"

Thiazide Diuretics, Potassium, and the Development of Diabetes. A Quantitative Review - Hypertension. 2006 Jun 26 - "thiazide-induced hypokalemia is associated with increased blood glucose"

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