Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 2/21/07.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Waist Size Can Increase Endometrial Cancer Risk - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/07 - "Women with a waist measurement of more than 34 inches have nearly double the risk of endometrial cancer than women whose waist is 31 inches or less"

Low testosterone in men may be diabetes risk factor - Reuters, 2/20/07 - "men with the lowest levels of testosterone were four times more likely to have diabetes than men with the highest levels"

Multiple Low-Energy Plasma Skin Treatments May Help Diminish Facial Wrinkles - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/07 - "Three months after treatment, the participants had 37% fewer wrinkles as judged by the researchers, and the patients reported a 68% improvement in overall facial appearance. Tissue had re-grown over the treated area after four days, while patient-reported redness lasted six days. No scarring or loss of pigment occurred. When examining the biopsied skin tissue under a microscope, the researchers found that a new band of collagen, the primary protein in skin, had formed in the inner layers of the skin"

Prehypertension Is "On the Map" of Cardiovascular Risk Factors - Doctor's Guide, 2/20/07 - "prehypertension is systolic pressure of 120-139 ... The increased cardiovascular risk with prehypertension is certainly smaller than the risk associated with having diabetes (158% higher risk), but is greater than that associated with smoking (34% higher). Since smoking is pretty much unchallenged as a cardiovascular risk factor, perhaps prehypertension should be afforded the same acceptance"

High doses of zinc linked to urinary complications - Reuters, 2/19/07 - "As treatment for their eye condition, the subjects were assigned to various treatments: daily antioxidant therapy with vitamin C, vitamin E and beta-carotene; zinc, 80 milligrams daily ... there was a "significant increase in hospital admissions due to genitourinary causes in patients on zinc vs. non-zinc formulations (11.1 percent vs. 7.6 percent)" during the 6 years of the study"

Is Coffee Good for You? - Dr. Weil, 2/19/07 - "Those who drank coffee had lower rates of age-related cognitive decline than those who didn't, with maximum protection seen in men who drank three cups of coffee a day ... both coffee and decaf can raise your blood pressure temporarily, but we still don't know whether this can lead to hypertension ... Coffee may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes ... coffee may protect against Parkinson's disease"

Cooking Garlic? Crush It First - WebMD, 2/16/07 - "most garlic studies have tested raw garlic, and cooking can damage those anticlotting compounds ... Crushing garlic may help prevent that damage"

How Low Should We Go on LDL? - Medscape, 2/16/07 - "We are currently conducting the IMPROVE IT trial, which will compare 2 of the optimal current regimens, simvastatin vs Vytorin (simvastatin plus ezetimibe). The target will be to reach median achieved LDL levels of approximately 65 mg/dL vs 50 mg/dL, respectively. When we see the results of IMPROVE IT, we should see whether we need to set our LDL cholesterol targets even lower. For the moment, however, I try to get all of my patients with CAD (and/or peripheral arterial disease or prior stroke) to < 70 mg/dL. This seems to be the best evidence-based medicine at the moment"

Exercise Helps Prevent Breast Cancer - WebMD, 2/16/07 - "women who get more than six hours of strenuous exercise a week, and have no family history of breast cancer, may be 23% less likely to develop the disease than women who don't exercise at all"

Get the diet scoop: 6 promising supplements, 6 to avoid - CNN, 2/16/07 - "promising ... Caffeine ... EGCG ... Chromium ... Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) ... 5-HTP ... L-dopa or L-tyrosine"

Device combs hair into your comb-over - MSNBC, 2/15/07 - "The device — sold online — is the only drug-free product meant for home use in combating hair loss that’s won the endorsement of the FDA" - See HairMax at Amazon.com.

St. John's Wort review - ConsumerLab.com, 2/15/07 - "most of the herbal supplements that we purchased failed to meet quality standards. Two contained less St. John's wort compounds than claimed. Two others were contaminated with cadmium and/or lead. And two more lacked proper label information" - See Kira® (LI 160 extract) St. John's wort at iHerb (my favorite and one of the products that ConsumerLab.com approved).

Veggies for Enlarged Prostate Risk - WebMD, 2/14/07 - "Data came from more than 32,000 male health care workers enrolled in a long-term health study that began in 1986 ... The men who consumed the most vegetables were 11% less likely to have BPH surgery or moderate to high BPH symptoms by 2000"

Carbs May Help You Fall Asleep Faster - WebMD, 2/14/07 - "Carbs which quickly raise blood sugar (those with a high glycemic index) may hasten sleep, especially when eaten four hours before bedtime ... The men fell asleep fastest after eating the jasmine rice meal four hours before bedtime. It took them nine minutes, on average, to fall asleep that night ... They were slowest to fall asleep after eating the long-grain rice meal four hours before bedtime, taking nearly 18 minutes, on average, to fall asleep"

Calcium Lowers Cardiovascular Risk In People On A Weight Loss Program, Study Finds - Science Daily, 2/14/07 - "In addition to the low-calorie diet, participants were given daily tablets containing either a placebo or 1,200 mg of calcium with vitamin D "to facilitate calcium absorption," adds Dr. Tremblay. At the end of the 15-week period, researchers observed greater drops in LDL (bad cholesterol) and increases in HDL (good cholesterol) in the calcium-plus-vitamin D group than in the placebo group"

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

A higher dose of vitamin d reduces the risk of falls in nursing home residents: a randomized, multiple-dose study - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2007 Feb;55(2):234-9 - "Nursing home residents in the highest vitamin D group (800 IU) had a lower number of fallers and a lower incidence rate of falls over 5 months than those taking lower doses. Adequate vitamin D supplementation in elderly nursing home residents could reduce the number of falls experienced by this high falls risk group" - See Vitamin D products at iHerb.

Effect of folic Acid on endothelial function following acute myocardial infarction - Am J Cardiol. 2007 Feb 15;99(4):476-81 - "6-week treatment with high-dose folic acid improves endothelial function in post-AMI patients, independent from homocysteine status. Folic acid can be recommended to improve postinfarction endothelial dysfunction in patients with normo- and hyperhomocysteinemia"

Vitamin D and outcomes in chronic kidney disease - Curr Opin Nephrol Hypertens. 2007 Mar;16(2):77-82 - "Data currently suggests that the administration of vitamin D confers a survival benefit to patients on dialysis. There is no clear mechanism, however, to explain this association"

Dietary Zinc and Prostate Cancer Risk: A Case-Control Study from Italy - Eur Urol. 2007 Feb 5 - "In this large study we found a direct association between high zinc intake and prostate cancer risk, particularly for advanced cancers"

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