Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 11/1/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life - New York Times, 10/31/06 - "One leading candidate, a newly synthesized form of resveratrol — an antioxidant present in large amounts in red wine — is already being tested in patients. It may eventually be the first of a new class of anti-aging drugs. Extrapolating from recent animal findings, Dr. Richard A. Miller, a pathologist at the University of Michigan, estimated that a pill mimicking the effects of calorie restriction might increase human life span to about 112 healthy years ... Some researchers have even described Type 2 diabetes, which is marked by insensitivity to the hormone insulin, as simply an accelerated form of aging" - See iHerb or Vitacost resveratrol products.

Omega fatty acids to stop mental decline, says study - Nutra USA, 10/31/06 - "ARA plus DHA supplementation produced significant improvements in the immediate memory and attention RBANS scores (eight and five points, respectively)"

Milk Thistle May Help Treat Diabetes - WebMD, 10/31/06 - "At the study's start, the patients had similar blood sugar levels and blood sugar control ... But after taking the tablets for four months, the milk thistle group showed better blood sugar control and cholesterol and triglyceride levels" - See iHerb or Vitacost silymarin products.

Sugar intake may hurt liver - Reuters, 10/31/06 - "fatty liver disease was more common in the group given sugar water, especially when exposed to a type of sugar called fructose ... These data support the hypothesis that high fructose consumption may not only (damage) the liver through over-feeding, but may be directly" toxic"

The Evolving Role Of Testosterone In The Treatment Of Erectile Dysfunction - Medscape, 10/30/06 - "testosterone replacement therapy has evolved from a monotherapy for ED in cases of low testosterone, to a combination therapy with PDE5 inhibitors. There is increasing evidence that combination therapy is effective in treating the symptoms of ED in patients for whom treatment failed with testosterone or PDE5 inhibitors alone. Screening for hypogonadism and combination therapy of ED may be particularly useful in men with type 2 diabetes or the metabolic syndrome"

Rosiglitazone Reduces Incident Type 2 Diabetes and Increases Regression to Normoglycemia in Patients With Prediabetes - Medscape, 10/30/06 - "treatment with rosiglitazone reduced the incidence of diabetes by 62% ... Rosiglitazone treatment improved glycemic abnormalities in participants with isolated IFG by 70% ... and in those with both IFG and IGT by 64%"

Curry spice extract may have anti-arthritis potential - Nutra USA, 10/30/06 - "Cartilage destruction in the tibia of the rats was reduced by 66 per cent, and thigh bone mineral density (BMD) destruction was also reduced by 57 per cent, compared to the control solution"

Spicy Spin on Easing Arthritis - WebMD, 10/30/06 - "Over the next 28 days, the mice in the turmeric group showed less joint inflammation and less joint damage than those in the comparison group ... The turmeric extract apparently curbed certain genes involved in joint inflammation ... The mice in the turmeric group also showed better bone mineral density than those in the comparison group" - See iHerb or Vitacost curcumin products.

Study Says Depression May Weaken Bones - WebMD, 10/30/06 - "After four weeks, the depressed mice had lost bone density, the study shows. The problem: They had a drop in bone-building cells called osteoblasts ... When the depressed mice drank water laced with imipramine, their depression eased and their bone loss stopped"

Milk thistle extract could help diabetes control - Nutra USA, 10/30/06 - "fasting glucose levels of the supplementation group decreased from 156 milligrams per decilitre (mg/dL) of blood to 133 mg/dL, while the placebo group's fasting glucose levels increased from 167 to 188 mg/dL" - See iHerb or Vitacost silymarin products.

Grape Seed Extract Halts Cell Cycle, Checking Growth Of Colorectal Tumors In Mice - Science Daily, 10/29/06 - "documented a 44 percent reduction of advanced colorectal tumors in the animals, and also revealed, for the first time, the molecular mechanism by which grape seed extract works to inhibit cancer growth" - See iHerb or Vitacost grape seed extracts.

Low glycemic diet may help stay slim - MSNBC, 10/27/06 - "normal-weight women who ate a diet with a relatively high glycemic index gained more weight, more fat, and more padding around the middle over a six-year period than women who ate a low glycemic index diet"

Grape seed extracts could improve skin from within - Nutra USA, 10/27/06 - "looked at the effect of a OPC dietary supplement on skin reddening (erythema) induced by exposure to UV radiation ... the subjects receiving the dietary supplement of OPCs had 13 per cent less erythema than those receiving no supplement ... Levels of skin hydration were also said to be higher in the group taking the dietary supplement"

Curry may keep elderly minds sharp - Reuters, 10/26/06 - "people who consumed curry "occasionally" and "often or very often" had significantly better MMSE scores than did those who "never or rarely" - See iHerb or Vitacost curcumin products.

Acomplia May Be Effective for Diabetes - WebMD, 10/26/06 - "improvements in cholesterol and blood sugar were twice what would have been expected from weight loss alone, indicating that the weight loss drug has an independent effect on these diabetes risk factors" - See Acomplia at International Antiaging Systems.

• Acomplia Shows 'Modest' Weight Loss - WebMD, 10/17/06 - "In a year's time, they lost about 11 more pounds, on average, than those taking the placebo"

Study: Men's Testosterone Levels Down - WebMD, 10/26/06 - "A new study shows a drop in average blood levels of testosterone in middle-aged Boston men over the last 20 years ... The reasons for that decline aren't clear"

Coffee May Protect Against Diabetes - WebMD, 10/25/06 - "After adjusting for other known diabetes risk factors, the researchers concluded that both past and current drinkers of caffeinated coffee had about a 60% reduction in diabetes risk, compared with study participants who never drank coffee ... A similar reduction in risk was seen among the roughly one-third of study participants with impaired glucose tolerance"

Omega 3 Fatty Acid Prescribing Behaviors - Medscape, 10/25/06 - "Fish oil intake, through diet or supplementation, is recommended by the AHA and can potentially reduce mortality in patients with CVD. Despite this, family physicians do not often advise increasing dietary fish intake to their patients with CVD. Improving physician awareness of fish oil's benefits on sudden death and simplifying the message should be explored further as potential strategies to increase physician recommendation of this important advice"

Elderly Men With Low Testosterone Levels More Likely To Fall - Science Daily, 10/25/06 - "among the one-fourth of participants with the lowest testosterone levels, the risk for falling was 40 percent higher than among the one-fourth with the highest testosterone levels. The association was stronger in younger men (ages 65 to 69) and not apparent in men older than 80"

Hostility and stress predict insulin resistance - Reuters, 10/24/06 - "Individuals with high stress and high hostility levels have an increased risk of developing insulin resistance, which occurs when the body's response to insulin begins to slow down and blood sugar levels begin to rise. People with insulin resistance have a high risk of developing diabetes"

I noticed that  Vitacost just emailed a promotional code (WE21A9) for a 5% discount which expires 11/30/06.  If you access Vitacost through my web site you can still used the 5% code and I still get credit for the sale.

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

Severe vitamin D deficiency in chronic renal failure patients on peritoneal dialysis - Clin Nephrol. 2006 Oct;66(4):247-55 - "Vitamin D deficiency is more common in DM-CRF patients than in non-DM-CRF patients. Our findings suggest that these patients should be considered for vitamin D supplementation"

Oral Treatment With {alpha}-Lipoic Acid Improves Symptomatic Diabetic Polyneuropathy: The SYDNEY 2 trial - Diabetes Care. 2006 Nov;29(11):2365-2370 - "Oral treatment with ALA for 5 weeks improved neuropathic symptoms and deficits in patients with DSP. An oral dose of 600 mg once daily appears to provide the optimum risk-to-benefit ratio" - See iHerb or Vitacost alpha lipoic acid products.

Diuretics: A modern day treatment option? (Review Article) - Nephrology (Carlton). 2006 Oct;11(5):419-27 - "The main area of doubt lies in relation to the risk of renal outcomes and of metabolic outcomes, such as new onset diabetes - where the evidence suggests that drugs that inhibit the renin-angiotensin system may be more protective than all other drug classes"

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 concentrations and carotid artery intima-media thickness among type 2 diabetic patients - Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2006 Nov;65(5):593-597 - "The prevalence of hypovitaminosis D (i.e. 25(OH)D </= 37.5 nmol/l) was higher in diabetic patients (34.0 vs 16.4%, P < 0.001) than in controls. Among diabetic patients, those with hypovitaminosis D (n = 130) had a marked increase in common carotid IMT (1.10 +/- 0.15 vs 0.87 +/- 0.14 mm, P < 0.001) when compared with their vitamin d-sufficient counterparts (n = 260). These patients also had significantly higher haemoglobin A1c, fibrinogen and C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) concentrations. In multivariate regression analysis, low 25(OH)D concentrations independently predicted carotid IMT (P < 0.001) in people with type 2 diabetes after adjustment for classical risk factors, diabetes duration, HbA1c, calcium, renal function tests, inflammatory markers, use of medications, and presence of the metabolic syndrome" - See iHerb or Vitacost vitamin D products.

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