Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 10/18/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

New oral diabetes drug gets FDA approval - MSNBC, 10/17/06 - "The Food and Drug Administration said it approved Januvia, which enhances the body’s own ability to lower blood sugar levels, after clinical trials showing the new pill works just as well as older diabetes drugs, but with fewer side effects like weight gain" - [WebMD]

Seafood benefits outweigh risks - MSNBC, 10/17/06 - "Eating seafood twice a week is good for your heart and generally outweighs the risk of exposure to mercury and other dangerous contaminants"

New Study Gives Further Hope That Vitamin D Can Fight Breast Cancer - Science Daily, 10/17/06 - "women with early stage disease had significantly higher levels of vitamin D (15 to 184 mmol/litre) than the women in the advanced stages of the disease (16 to 146 mmol/litre)"

Doctors set to use new diabetes drugs: survey - Reuters, 10/16/06 - "Merck & Co.'s Januvia is expected to win clearance any day, while Novartis AG's Galvus may be approved next month ... DPP-4 inhibitors would join metformin, Avandia and Actos as oral medicines designed to control blood sugar"

Put 'ICE' on Your Cell Phone - WebMD, 10/16/06 - "That's what "ICE" stands for -- "in case of emergency ... The point is to let rescue workers, police, or doctors check your cell phone and reach the people you would want contacted if you're in an accident or other emergency"

A New Way to Prevent BPH? - Physician's Weekly, 10/16/06 - "NSAID use was inversely associated with the onset of moderate-to-severe urinary symptoms, low maximum flow rate, and elevated prostate-specific antigen levels"

Potassium citrate supplements linked to thicker bones - Nutra USA, 10/12/06 - "Taking potassium citrate supplements could boost bone mineral density by similar amounts as observed with pharmaceuticals ... At the end of the study, women taking the potassium citrate supplement are reported to have a significant, one per cent increase in BMD in the vertebrae of the lower back (lumbar spine), compared to baseline ... However, the bone mineral density of the lumbar spine of women taking the potassium chloride supplement (none alkaline) was found to have significantly decreased after one year of supplementation, by about one per cent" - See iHerb or Vitacost potassium citrate products.

Regular Exercise, Keeping Weight In Check Reduces Breast-cancer Risk In Postmenopausal Women - Science Daily, 10/12/06 - "women with high BMI and low physical-activity had mean estrogen concentrations that were 50 percent to 100 percent higher than that of women with low BMI and high activity levels"

Longer-lived Rodents Have Lower Levels Of Thyroid Hormone - Science Daily, 10/12/06 - "T4 levels varied significantly between all of the groups, with the shorter-lived groups having higher levels of T4 than longer-lived groups ... However, because T3, levels did not differ significantly among all the groups, further research in this area using larger sample sizes (numbers of rodents in each group) is needed"

Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Slow Cognitive Decline In Some Patients With Very Mild Alzheimer's Disease - Science Daily, 10/11/06 - "For six months, 89 patients (51 women and 38 men) took 1.7 grams of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and .6 grams of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), while 85 patients (39 women and 46 men) took placebo ... among a subgroup of 32 patients with very mild cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study, those who took the fatty acids experienced less decline in six months compared with those who took placebo" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com or Vitacost.

Cytokines Play Role in Sleep Disorders, Obesity - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/06 - "Interventions to reduce or neutralize proinflammatory cytokines may be novel treatments in patients with sleep disorders and obesity ... Three inflammation-associated cytokines—tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α, interleukin-1 (IL-1), and IL-6—are elevated in obese and sleep-deprived patients, and may mediate excessive daytime sleepiness and fatigue"

• Clinical Update on Benefits of DHEA - A4M, 4/6/04 - "Recently, researchers discovered important anti-inflammatory properties of DHEA. It was known that DHEA can lower the levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha)" - See iHerb or Vitacost DHEA products.
• Omega-3 Fatty Acid Reduces Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines In Heart Transplant Patients - Doctor's Guide, 4/11/02 - "gave 25 stable heart transplant patients two capsules of omega-3 fatty acid daily - each capsule contained 500 mg of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) ... The results suggest that omega-3 fatty acid supplementation increased concentrations of the anti-inflammatory interleukin (IL)-10, from 119 to 268 pg/mL (p=0.00008). There were reductions in systemic levels of pro-inflammatory IL-12, from 473 to 376 pg/mL (p=0.001), and IL-6, from 695 to 569 pg/mL (p<0.0001)"

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

Vitamin d status in a rural postmenopausal female population - J Am Coll Nutr. 2006 Oct;25(5):395-402 - "Approximately two-thirds of this rural population fell below 80 nmol/L, a value considered to be the lower end of the optimal range. Based on the slope of 25(OH)D on supplement dose observed in these women, it would require an additional vitamin D input of nearly 2000 IU/d to reach the goal of an RDA for vitamin D, i.e., to bring 97.5% of the cohort to levels of 80 nmol/L or higher" - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin D products.

Evaluating efficacy of a chitosan product using a double-blinded, placebo-controlled protocol - J Am Coll Nutr. 2006 Oct;25(5):389-94 - "Compared to CTL, the TRT group lost more weight (-2.8 lbs vs. +0.8 lbs, p < 0.001) and fat mass (-2.6 lbs vs. +0.1 lbs, p = 0.006). Compared to PLA, the TRT group lost more weight (-2.8 lbs. vs. -0.6 lbs, p = 0.03), % fat (-0.8% vs. +0.4%, p = 0.003), fat mass (-2.6 lbs vs. +0.6 lbs, p = 0.001) and had a greater body composition improvement index (BCI) (+2.4 lbs vs. -1.9 lbs, p = 0.002)" - See iHerb chitosan products

Risk factors of vitamin B12 deficiency in patients receiving metformin - Arch Intern Med. 2006 Oct 9;166(18):1975-9 - "Each 1-g/d metformin dose increment conferred an odds ratio of 2.88 (95% confidence interval, 2.15-3.87) for developing vitamin B(12) deficiency" - See iHerb or Vitacost Vitamin B12 products.

{omega}-3 Fatty Acid Treatment in 174 Patients With Mild to Moderate Alzheimer Disease: OmegAD Study: A Randomized Double-blind Trial - Arch Neurol. 2006 Oct;63(10):1402-8 - "Administration of omega-3 fatty acid in patients with mild to moderate AD did not delay the rate of cognitive decline according to the MMSE or the cognitive portion of the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale. However, positive effects were observed in a small group of patients with very mild AD (MMSE >27 points)"

Improvement in glycaemic control with rosiglitazone/metformin fixed-dose combination therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes with very poor glycaemic control - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2006 Nov;8(6):643-649 - "Unless tolerability issues arose, eligible patients initiated RSG/MET 4 mg/1000 mg fixed-dose combination therapy and were up-titrated in increments of 2 mg/500 mg at 4-week intervals to a daily dose of 8 mg/2000 mg or the maximum tolerated dose ... At week 24, clinically significant mean reduction in A1c from 11.8 to 7.8% (mean reduction, 4.0 +/- 2.2%; p < 0.0001) and mean FPG reduction from 16.9 to 9.2 mmol/l (mean reduction, 7.7 +/- 4.4 mmol/l; p < 0.0001) were observed" - See metformin and/or rosiglitazone at OffshoreRx1.comor SuperSaverMeds.com.  Note:  The reason I include information on thiazolidinediones and metformin is because some feel that high insulin is a major cause of aging.  See item 1 on my home page.  I take both rosiglitazone and metformin but check with a doctor before doing that as it may cause hypoglycemia.  I check my glucose with a diabetes monitor.

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