Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 7/12/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Dairy Foods May Help Prevent Diabetes - WebMD, 7/11/06 - "each additional daily dairy serving was associated with a 4% drop in diabetes risk ... Women with the highest dietary calcium intake were about 20% less likely to be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes than the ones who consumed the least amount of calcium ... the findings were stronger for low-fat dairy products than for high-fat dairy items"

Fish Oil May Help Save Your Eyes - WebMD, 7/10/06 - "men with the highest fish consumption (at least two weekly servings) were 45% less likely to have AMD than those with the lowest fish consumption (less than one weekly serving)"

Drinking tea may stave off bile stones and cancer - Reuters, 7/7/06 - "In women, drinking at least one cup of tea per day for at least 6 months seemed to cut the risks of bile stones by 27 percent, gallbladder cancer by 44 percent, and bile duct cancer by 35 percent. In men, tea drinking had a similar effect, but not of the magnitude seen in women"

Regular Paracetamol Use Could Reduce Ovarian Cancer Risk By Almost A Third - Science Daily, 7/6/06 - "the risk fell by up to 30 per cent when they analysed the results of major studies carried out on more than 746,000 women over a six-year period" - I believe paracetamol is acetaminophen. [WebMD]

Low Testosterone Tied to Poor Health - WebMD, 6/5/06 - "odds of having low testosterone were ... 2.4 times higher for obese men ... 2.1 times higher for men with diabetes ... 1.8 times higher for men with high blood pressure ... Men with high cholesterol, prostate disease, and asthma were also more likely to have low testosterone than healthy men"

Mediterranean Beats Low-Fat Diet - WebMD, 6/5/06 - "Compared with the low-fat group, the two Mediterranean diet groups had bigger improvements in blood pressure, insulin resistance (a problem which accompanies or precedes type 2 diabetes), markers of inflammation, and levels of cholesterol and other lipids (blood fats)"

Doxycycline May Slow Progression of Knee Osteoarthritis - Medscape, 7/1/06 - "Rate of loss of joint space was 40% less in the doxycycline group vs placebo at 16 months"

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

Potassium magnesium supplementation for four weeks improves small distal artery compliance and reduces blood pressure in patients with essential hypertension - Clin Exp Hypertens. 2006 Jul;28(5):489-97 - "magnesium, 70.8 mg/d; potassium, 217.2 mg/d ... On K+ and Mg2+ supplementation, systolic and diastolic BP decreased 7.83 +/- 1.87 mm Hg and 3.67 +/- 1.03 mm Hg"

Phase II Study of Pomegranate Juice for Men with Rising Prostate-Specific Antigen following Surgery or Radiation for Prostate Cancer - Clin Cancer Res. 2006 Jul 1;12(13):4018-4026 - "Mean PSA doubling time significantly increased with treatment from a mean of 15 months at baseline to 54 months posttreatment ... In vitro assays comparing pretreatment and posttreatment patient serum on the growth of LNCaP showed a 12% decrease in cell proliferation and a 17% increase in apoptosis (P = 0.0048 and 0.0004, respectively), a 23% increase in serum nitric oxide (P = 0.0085), and significant (P < 0.02) reductions in oxidative state and sensitivity to oxidation of serum lipids after versus before pomegranate juice consumption"

Folate and vitamin b6 rapidly normalize endothelial dysfunction in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus - Pediatrics. 2006 Jul;118(1):242-53 - "High-dose folate and vitamin B(6) normalized endothelial dysfunction in children with type 1 diabetes. This effect was maintained over 8 weeks, with no additional benefit from combination treatment"

Effects of a New Hormone Therapy, Drospirenone and 17-{beta}-Estradiol, in Postmenopausal Women With Hypertension - Hypertension. 2006 Jun 26 - "these data show that DRSP combined with E2 significantly reduces BP in postmenopausal women with hypertension and did not induce significant increases in serum potassium"

Fish Oils Produce Anti-inflammatory Effects and Improve Body Weight in Severe Heart Failure - J Heart Lung Transplant. 2006 Jul;25(7):834-8. Epub 2006 May 24 - "Fish oils decrease TNF-alpha production in heart failure and improve body weight. Fish oil therapy may represent a novel therapeutic approach in late-stage heart failure characterized by cardiac cachexia"

Omega-3 fatty acids: their beneficial role in cardiovascular health - Can Fam Physician. 2006 Jun;52:734-40 - "There is good evidence in the literature that increasing intake of omega-3 fatty acids improves cardiac outcomes. Physicians need to integrate dietary recommendations for consumption of omega-3 fatty acids into their usual cardiovascular care"

Effects of valsartan compared to amlodipine on preventing type 2 diabetes in high-risk hypertensive patients: the VALUE trial - J Hypertens. 2006 Jul;24(7):1405-1412 - "Compared with amlodipine, valsartan reduces the risk of developing diabetes mellitus in high-risk hypertensive patients" - Note:  Valsartan is an ARB, amlodipine is a calcium channel blocker.

Comparison of phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors - Int J Clin Pract. 2006 Jun 16 - "With regard to the onset of action, achievement of an erection that leads to successful intercourse has been reported for 35% of patients treated with sildenafil within 14 min, 21% of patients treated with vardenafil within 10 min and 16% of patients treated with tadalafil within 16 min. Sildenafil and vardenafil both have half-lives of approximately 4 h but the half-life of tadalafil is 17.5 h. Another difference between the PDE5 inhibitors is that food, especially fatty food, affects the pharmacokinetic profiles of sildenafil and vardenafil, but not that of tadalafil"

Does testosterone have a role in erectile function? - Am J Med. 2006 May;119(5):373-82 - "in most men circulating levels of testosterone, well below the normal range, are essential for normal erection and that higher levels of serum testosterone may not have major impact on erectile function"

Testosterone levels in men with erectile dysfunction - BJU Int. 2006 Jun;97(6):1278-83 - "The frequency of hypogonadism is higher when free testosterone levels are used for diagnosis. The total and free testosterone levels were not related to the level of sexual desire in men with ED. The free testosterone levels could be related to the quality and frequency of nocturnal erections, and when ED is more severe, it is more probable that free testosterone levels are below the 'normal' limit"

Low Dose Rosiglitazone Exerts an Anti-inflammatory Effect with an Increase in Adiponectin Independently of Free Fatty Acid (FFA) Fall and Insulin Sensitization in Obese Type 2 Diabetics - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2006 Jun 27 - "A low dose of rosiglitazone exerts an early and potent anti-inflammatory effect"

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