Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 7/26/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Low glycemic index diet best at reducing weight - Reuters, 7/25/06 - "the diets resulted in similar reductions in weight (4.2 percent to 6.2 percent of body weight), fat mass and waist circumference ... However, in the high-carbohydrate diets, lowering the glycemic load doubled the fat loss" - {Medscape]

Amino acid supplement has benefits in heart failure - Reuters, 7/25/06 - "Patients who took L-arginine experienced a significant decrease in their average heart rate throughout exercise and the recovery period"

Light To Moderate Drinking Reduces Risk Of Cardiac Events, Death - Science Daily, 7/25/06 - "Older adults who consume one to seven alcoholic beverages a week may live longer ... Compared with never or occasional drinkers, those who drank lightly to moderately had a 26 percent lower risk of death overall and an almost 30 percent lower risk of cardiac events, even after controlling for inflammatory markers. In contrast, heavy drinkers were more likely to die or experience a cardiac event than never or occasional drinkers"

Exercise in Itself Improves Blood Glucose Control in Type 2 Diabetes - Doctor's Guide, 7/24/06 - "exercise helps regulate blood glucose (sugar) levels, increases the body's sensitivity to insulin, and decreases blood lipids (fats) while also helping to burn body fat ... Participants who exercised had an overall decrease of 0.6% of A1c levels. While that may not sound like much, it represents a 30% improvement towards the goal of attaining an A1c of 7%, and a 20% improvement towards a normal A1c of 6%"

Menopause Treatment a Cancer Risk? - WebMD, 7/24/06 - "women who had gone through menopause naturally and took estrogen plus testosterone had 2.5 times the risk of breast cancer than those who had never used hormone therapy. Estrogen-only therapy showed a 23% increased risk and estrogen-plus-progesterone therapy was linked to a 66% increased risk in those women with natural menopause"

High Estrogen Levels Associated With Dementia In Older Men; No Association Observed With Testosterone - Science Daily, 7/24/06 - "Levels of bioavailable testosterone were not associated with risk of cognitive decline and incident dementia," they report. "In contrast, higher levels of bioavailable estradiol were associated with an increased risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease." For each standard deviation increase in estradiol level, the risk for the disease went up by 25 percent" - I take a quarter tablet of Femara (OffshoreRX) to keep estrogen low. - Ben

Beyond Lipids: Understanding The Mechanics Of Atherosclerosis - Science Daily, 7/24/06 - "Atherosclerosis, the collection of deposits such as cholesterol along artery walls, accounts for nearly 75 percent of deaths from cardiovascular disease"

Borderline Diabetes Linked to Development of Alzheimer's Disease - Doctor's Guide, 7/21/-6 - "Patients who have borderline diabetes have a 77% increased risk of later developing Alzheimer's disease ... People who have severe high blood pressure in addition to borderline diabetes have a 6.27-fold risk of developing Alzheimer's disease ... Borderline diabetes was defined as a random plasma glucose level between 7.8 and 11.0 mmol/L"

Study Supports Findings That Periodontal Bacteria May Be Linked to Heart Disease - Doctor's Guide, 7/21/06 - "acute coronary syndrome (ACS) ... Seventy-seven percent of the participants in the ACS group and 42 percent in the control group demonstrated evidence of periodontitis"

Extra Calcium May Prevent Hypertension Problems in Pregnant Women - Doctor's Guide, 7/21/06 - "Expectant mothers may be able to prevent potentially serious medical problems in themselves and their babies simply by boosting their daily calcium intake"

Antioxidants May Slow Vision Loss - Science Daily, 7/20/06 - "Scientists at Johns Hopkins have successfully blocked the advance of retinal degeneration in mice with a form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP) by treating them with vitamin E, alpha-lipoic acid and other antioxidant chemicals"

Testosterone Replacement Therapy and Prostate Cancer - Medscape, 7/19/06 - "there is currently no evidence that testosterone administration can initiate or promote a de novo or pre-existing prostatic malignancy in hypogonadal men.[40] In fact, there are strong indications that normal testosterone levels play a protective role in the natural history of prostate cancer"

Erectile Function in Subjects With the Metabolic Syndrome - Medscape, 7/19/06 - "consumption of a Mediterranean-style diet in men with the metabolic syndrome and ED at baseline produced significant improvement of erectile and endothelial functions, together with a significant reduction of systemic vascular inflammation, as indicated by the reduced levels of CRP"

Current Recommended Vitamin D Intake May Not Be Optimal - Medscape, 7/19/06 - "An intake for all adults of >/=1000 IU (40 µg) vitamin D (cholecalciferol)/day is needed to bring vitamin D concentrations in no less than 50% of the population up to 75 nmol/L"

Metabolic Syndrome, The Twenty-First Century Epidemic - Life Extension Magazine, 7/06 - "little attention has been paid to the critical role of insulin resistance in the development of cardiovascular disease. Insulin resistance is the root cause of metabolic syndrome ... Nutritional supplements can help improve blood sugar control and metabolic health naturally, without danger or stress to your body. Particularly compelling are polyphenol-rich, water-soluble extracts of cinnamon and coffee, along with green tea extract, chromium, and banaba leaf-derived corosolic acid"

Remarkable Research Uncovers Lifesaving Benefits Beyond Cardiovascular Protection - Life Extension Magazine, 7/06 - "Exciting new research findings support a disease-preventive benefit for aspirin in other potentially lethal conditions such as skin cancer, colon cancer, and Alzheimer's"

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

Fiber Intakes and Anthropometric Measures are Predictors of Circulating Hormone, Triglyceride, and Cholesterol Concentrations in the Women's Health Trial - J Nutr. 2006 Aug;136(8):2249-54 - "weight loss, especially around the waist, and increased fiber intakes are likely to be beneficial for lipid, cholesterol, and hormone profiles of U.S. women"

Combined Estrogen and Testosterone Use and Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women - Arch Intern Med, 7/24/06 - "Among women with a natural menopause, the risk of breast cancer was nearly 2.5-fold greater among current users of estrogen plus testosterone therapies ... Women receiving PMHs with testosterone had a 17.2% (95% confidence interval, 6.7%-28.7%) increased risk of breast cancer per year of use"

n-3 fatty acids and cardiovascular disease - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jun;83(6 Suppl):1477S-1482S - "At doses >3 g/d, EPA plus DHA can improve cardiovascular disease risk factors, including decreasing plasma triacylglycerols, blood pressure, platelet aggregation, and inflammation, while improving vascular reactivity. Mainly on the basis of the results of RCTs, the American Heart Association recommends that everyone eat oily fish twice per week and that those with coronary heart disease eat 1 g/d of EPA plus DHA from oily fish or supplements"

Potential role of dietary n-3 fatty acids in the prevention of dementia and macular degeneration - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jun;83(6 Suppl):1494S-1498S - "n-3 Fatty acids, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are highly concentrated in brain and retinal tissue and may prevent or delay the progression of dementia and AMD. Low dietary intakes and plasma concentrations have been reported to be associated with dementia, cognitive decline, and AMD risk ... Our own unpublished observations from the Framingham Heart Study suggest that > or =180 mg/d of dietary DHA (approximately 2.7 fish servings/wk) is associated with an approximately 50% reduction in dementia risk"

n-3 fatty acids and the metabolic syndrome - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jun;83(6 Suppl):1499S-1504S - "Increased intakes or supplements of n-3 marine fatty acids may improve defects in insulin signaling and prevent alterations in glucose homeostasis and the further development of type 2 diabetes"

n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, inflammation, and inflammatory diseases - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jun;83(6 Suppl):1505S-1519S - "n-3 PUFAs are potentially potent antiinflammatory agents. As such, they may be of therapeutic use in a variety of acute and chronic inflammatory settings. Evidence of their clinical efficacy is reasonably strong in some settings (e.g., in rheumatoid arthritis) but is weak in others (e.g., in inflammatory bowel diseases and asthma)"

n-3 fatty acid dietary recommendations and food sources to achieve essentiality and cardiovascular benefits - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Jun;83(6 Suppl):1526S-1535S - "The evidence base supports a dietary recommendation of approximately 500 mg/d of EPA and DHA for cardiovascular disease risk reduction. For treatment of existing cardiovascular disease, 1 g/d is recommended ... A dietary strategy for achieving the 500-mg/d recommendation is to consume 2 fish meals per week (preferably fatty fish). Foods enriched with EPA and DHA or fish oil supplements are a suitable alternate to achieve recommended intakes and may be necessary to achieve intakes of 1 g/d"

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