Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 12/20/06.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Correction from last week:  Chlorthalidone is a thiazide-like diuretic not a beta-blocker.

Vitamin D May Protect Against MS - WebMD, 12/19/06 - "Compared with whites with the lowest levels, those with the highest were found to have a 62% lower risk for developing the disease ... Most multivitamins contain 400 IU of vitamin D, which has been thought to be a sufficient daily dosage. But Finn argues that most people need between 800 and 1,000 IU a day, especially in the winter"

Testosterone May Slow Alzheimer's - WebMD, 12/19/06 - "The mice that couldn't make testosterone developed more brain plaque, a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. Those mice also had more trouble in a maze test"

Statins vs. Advanced Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 12/19/06 - "Overall, statin use didn't appear to sway the men's chances of being diagnosed with prostate cancer ... Men taking statin drugs were about half as likely to have advanced prostate cancer as those not taking statins"

Higher Occurrence Of Parkinson's Linked To Low LDL Cholesterol - Science Daily, 12/19/06 - "People with low levels of LDL cholesterol are more likely to have Parkinson's disease than people with high LDL levels"

Olive oil may hinder cancer process - Reuters, 12/19/06 - "People who use plenty of olive oil in their diets may be helping to prevent damage to body cells that can eventually lead to cancer"

Alcohol 'may prevent arthritis' - BBC News, 12/19/06 - "mice whose water contained 10% alcohol had a lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis ... alcohol can increase testosterone and increased testosterone may protect against development of rheumatoid arthritis"

Rosiglitazone, Not Ramipril, Prevents Progression to Diabetes in Patients - Medscape, 12/14/06 - "After a median 3 years of follow-up, the primary outcome of diabetes or death occurred significantly less often in patients who received rosiglitazone than in those who received placebo (12% vs. 26%); the difference was due entirely to a reduction in incident diabetes ... Ramipril recipients were significantly more likely than placebo recipients to regress to normoglycemia (42% vs. 38%), but a trend toward a lower rate of incident diabetes in patients who received ramipril did not reach statistical significance" - Contradicts the following study but at least is shows that ramipril doesn't increase the chance of diabetes as might lisinopril (another ACE inhibitor):

• Blood Pressure Drugs May Help People Avoid 'Type 2' Disease, but Healthy Habits Still Best - WebMD, 10/16/01 - "people at high risk for developing diabetes who take the drug Altace [ramipril] were 34% less likely to develop diabetes than those who did not get the drug"
• Fasting Glucose Increases in Older Adults With Hypertension Regardless of Treatment Type - Medscape, 11/16/06 - "randomized to receive treatment with chlorthalidone, amlodipine, or lisinopril to reduce blood pressure to less than 140/90 mm Hg ... During the first 2 years, the mean increase is serum glucose levels was 8.5, 5.5, and 3.5 mg/dL among the chlorthalidone, amlodipine, and lisinopril groups, respectively"

Breast Cancer Rates Fall Sharply - WebMD, 12/14/06 - "7% Decline Attributed to Drop in Hormone Replacement Therapy"

Preventing Progression From Impaired Glucose Tolerance to Diabetes - Medscape, 12/14/06 - "Every kilogram of weight lost resulted in a relative risk reduction of 16%, after adjusting for exercise and diet composition. A 5-kg weight loss resulted in a relative risk reduction of 58% ... These findings do not negate the role of exercise in weight loss; rather, they suggest that weight loss itself is the key factor, however one achieves it"

Study: Most Wrinkle Creams Don't Work - WebMD, 12/14/06 - "In their first-ever investigation to compare wrinkle creams, Consumer Reports investigators tested nine products, ranging in price from $38 to $335 ... The investigation found only slight improvements overall in wrinkles for any of the tested products"

Weight Loss From Calorie Restriction Decreases BMD in Older Adults - Medscape, 12/13/06 - "weight loss from calorie restriction produced significant decreases in bone-mineral density (BMD) in older adults"

The following article was one of the top stories in http://www.newsgator.com (RSS feed service).  I don't know how much research he put into it.  He doesn't have any references.  It's something I always worried about soy but haven't been able to find any solid research on it::

Soy is making kids 'gay' - WorldNetDaily, 12/12/06 - "Unfortunately, when you eat or drink a lot of soy stuff, you're also getting substantial quantities of estrogens ... Soy is feminizing ..."

Simvastatin May Cut Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Risk - Clinical Psychiatry News, 12/06 - "Simvastatin use for at least 7 months reduced the incidence of Alzheimer's disease by 30% and Parkinson's disease by 24% in older people ... Neither lovastatin nor atorvastatin provided similar benefits"

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

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Levels and Risk of Multiple Sclerosis - JAMA. 2006 Dec 20;296(23):2832-8 - "high circulating levels of vitamin D are associated with a lower risk of multiple sclerosis"

The importance of dual 5alpha-reductase inhibition in the treatment of male pattern hair loss: results of a randomized placebo-controlled study of dutasteride versus finasteride - J Am Acad Dermatol. 2006 Dec;55(6):1014-23 - "Dutasteride increased target area hair count versus placebo in a dose-dependent fashion and dutasteride 2.5 mg was superior to finasteride at 12 and 24 weeks" - Note:  Dutasteride is Avodart®.  See dutasteride at OffshoreRx1.com.

Effect of chronic coffee consumption on aortic stiffness and wave reflections in hypertensive patients - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2006 Dec 13 - "Coffee consumption is associated with increased wave reflections, but not aortic stiffness in never-treated hypertensive patients"

Policosanol is ineffective in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia: a randomized controlled trial - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Dec;84(6):1543-8 - "Policosanol does not alter the serum lipid profile over an 8-wk period in adults with mild hypercholesterolemia"

A 4-wk high-fructose diet alters lipid metabolism without affecting insulin sensitivity or ectopic lipids in healthy humans - Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Dec;84(6):1374-9 - "Moderate fructose supplementation over 4 wk increases plasma triacylglycerol and glucose concentrations without causing ectopic lipid deposition or insulin resistance in healthy humans"

Dietary Fatty acids correlate with prostate cancer biopsy grade and volume in jamaican men - J Urol. 2007 Jan;177(1):97-101 - "Omega6 polyunsaturated fatty acids stimulate and Omega3 polyunsaturated fatty acids inhibit prostate cancer growth"

Metabolic syndrome and erectile dysfunction : Epidemiologic associations and pathogenetic links - Urologe A. 2006 Dec 12 - "There is abundant evidence for the association between erectile dysfunction (ED) and the traditional atherosclerotic risk factors, such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, glucose intolerance, and obesity, that make up the metabolic syndrome. Recent findings have demonstrated a linear relationship between the number of these risk factors and the prevalence of ED"

Two randomized vitamin D trials in ambulatory patients on anticonvulsants: Impact on bone - Neurology. 2006 Dec 12;67(11):2005-14 - "In ambulatory adults on antiepileptic drugs, high-dose vitamin D therapy substantially increased bone mineral density at several skeletal sites"

Does coffee consumption reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in individuals with impaired glucose? - Diabetes Care. 2006 Nov;29(11):2385-90 - "Past and current coffee drinkers had a reduced risk of incident diabetes (odds ratio 0.38 [95% CI 0.17-0.87] and 0.36 ... This study confirms a striking protective effect of caffeinated coffee against incident diabetes"

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