Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 4/11/07.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Stress May Help Cancer Cells Stay Alive - Doctor's Guide, 4/10/07 - "the stress hormone epinephrine causes changes in prostate and breast cancer cells that may make them resistant to cell death"

Study Examines Calorie Restriction and Glycemic Load - Doctor's Guide, 4/10/07 - "Unlike several other long-term studies, which have reported greater weight loss with low GL diets at six months but no differences by 12 months, our data show no significant short-term or long-term differences"

Too Few Take Aspirin for Heart Health - WebMD, 4/10/07 - "only 41% of Americans over 40 regularly take aspirin ... expected to see greater than 70% utilization rates"

Chocolate Lowers Blood Pressure - WebMD, 4/9/07 - "The results showed four of the five cocoa studies reported a reduction in both systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. The reduction was an average of 4.7 points systolic and 2.8 points diastolic"

Menopause tied to sexual dysfunction - MSNBC, 4/9/07 - "Women who have particularly low levels of the hormone DHEA during menopause may be more likely to have sexual dysfunction ... Women with relatively low blood levels of the hormone were 59 percent more likely to report sexual problems than those with high levels"

Improving Outcomes With HDL Cholesterol - Physician's Weekly, 4/9/07 - "Patients who have high HDL levels appear to have better protection against vascular disease than others and some variants of HDL may actually reduce plaque in the coronary arteries. Essentially, HDL acts as a scavenger compound; it moves the lipids from the blood vessel to the liver, where they are then excreted from the body ... Currently, in the United States, the only medication other than statins designed specifically to help physicians raise the HDL cholesterol levels in their patients is niacin" - See niacin at Amazon.com.

Herbal supplement may help treat recurrent bladder infections - USA Today, 4/8/07 - "If these results could be duplicated in human studies, forskolin could offer a new treatment option for recurrent" urinary tract infection"

Timing Key in Hormone Heart Risk - WebMD, 4/3/07 - "The researchers found no increased risk of heart disease among women who begin hormone therapy within 10 years of the onset of menopause. Taking hormones 20 or more years after menopause or taking them after age 69 was associated with increased heart risk"

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

Zinc and the Liver: An Active Interaction - Dig Dis Sci. 2007 Apr 6 - "zinc could protect against liver diseases"

The Effect of a Silybin-Vitamin E-Phospholipid Complex on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Pilot Study - Dig Dis Sci. 2007 Apr 5 - "silybin conjugated with vitamin E and phospholipids could be used as a complementary approach to the treatment of patients with chronic liver damage"

Erythrocyte fatty acids and breast cancer risk: a case-control study in Shanghai, China - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Apr;85(4):1090-7 - "Our results support a protective effect of n-3 fatty acids on breast cancer risk" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.

Fish consumption, n-3 fatty acids, and subsequent 5-y cognitive decline in elderly men: the Zutphen Elderly Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Apr;85(4):1142-7 - "Fish consumers had significantly (P = 0.01) less 5-y subsequent cognitive decline than did nonconsumers. A linear trend was observed for the relation between the intake of EPA+DHA and cognitive decline (P = 0.01). An average difference of approximately 380 mg/d in EPA+DHA intake was associated with a 1.1-point difference in cognitive decline" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.

Depressive Symptoms, omega-6:omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Inflammation in Older Adults - Psychosom Med. 2007 Mar 30 - "Diets with high n-6:n-3 PUFA ratios may enhance the risk for both depression and inflammatory diseases"

Effect of inhibition of the Renin-Angiotensin system on development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (meta-analysis of randomized trials) - Am J Cardiol. 2007 Apr 1;99(7):1006-12. Epub 2007 Feb 16 - "In ACE inhibitor trials, the odds of developing DM were reduced by 28% (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.84, p <0.001), and in the 5 ARB studies, there was a 27% reduction (OR 0.73, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.84, p <0.001) in the odds. In conclusion, evidence accumulated to date indicates that inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system may contribute to the prevention of DM"

A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Multicenter Study to Assess the Efficacy and Safety of Topiramate Controlled-Release in the Treatment of Obese, Type 2 Diabetic Patients - Diabetes Care. 2007 Mar 15 - "By the end of week 16, patients in the placebo and topiramate groups lost 2.5 kg and 6.0 kg, which represented 2.3% and 5.8%, respectively, of their baseline body weight ... HbA(1c) improved from a baseline of 7.4% in the placebo and 7.6% in the topiramate groups to 7.1% and 6.7% respectively, representing a 0.4%, and 0.9% reduction from baseline ... Topiramate also significantly reduced blood pressure and urinary albumin excretion"

The beneficial effect of L-thyroxine on cardiovascular risk factors, endothelial function and quality of life in subclinical hypothyroidism: randomised, crossover trial - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2007 Feb 13 - "Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) is defined as raised serum thyrotropin (TSH) levels with circulating thyroid hormones within the reference range ... L-thyroxine treatment reduced TC (versus placebo) from 231.6 to 220 mg/dL, p<0.001; LDL cholesterol from 142.9 to 131.3 mg/dL, p<0.05; waist-hip ratio from 0.83 to 0.81, p<0.006; and improved FMD from 4.2 to 5.9% ... SCH treated by L-thyroxine leads to a significant improvement in CV risk factors and symptoms of tiredness"

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