Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 6/27/07.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

More vitamin D can put more pep in seniors' steps - Reuters, 6/26/07 - "Declining physical performance among some Dutch seniors may not be a simple consequence of aging, it may actually be due to a vitamin D deficiency ... nearly half (47 percent) of the seniors had low vitamin D levels at the start of the study" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com at iHerb.

Lancet: Echinacea does fight colds - USA Today, 6/25/07 - "the popular herbal supplement echinacea cuts the chance of catching a cold by 58% and can reduce the duration of colds by about a day and a half" - See echinacea goldenseal at Amazon.com.

U.S. Diabetes Rate Soars - WebMD, 6/25/07 - "the diabetes epidemic is growing by almost 5% a year" - Ways to help prevent it:

• Drug 'Avandia' May Prevent Diabetes - WebMD, 9/15/06 - "People at high risk for diabetes who took the drug Avandia reduced their risk of developing the disease by 60% in the three-year trial ... taking the drug metformin (Glucophage), which is already widely used for diabetes prevention, was associated with a 31% reduction in disease risk -- about half that seen in the Avandia study"

Study Links Blood Sugar to Newborn Risks - Intelihealth, 6/25/07 - "The higher a pregnant woman's level of blood sugar, the greater the risk to her newborn -- whether the mother has diabetes or not"

Estrogen Therapy Gives Aging Brain Cells A Boost - Science Daily, 6/25/07 - "estrogen significantly improved cognitive function in older animals but not in young monkeys"

Antidepressants May Speed Bone Loss - WebMD, 6/25/07 - "Over an average follow up of five years, the SSRI users were found to have higher rates of hip bone loss than women who took tricyclic antidepressants and those who did not take antidepressants"

Can Blindness Be Prevented Through Diet? - Science Daily, 6/24/07 - "Increasing intake of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, found in popular fish-oil supplements, may protect against blindness resulting from abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye ... Mice on the omega-3 diet, rich in DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and its precursor EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), had less initial vessel loss in the retina than the omega-6-fed mice: the area with vessel loss was 40 to 50 percent smaller" - [WebMD] - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com or Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Fructose-Sweetened Drinks Tougher on Arteries - washingtonpost.com, 6/23/07 - "Fructose-sweetened drinks are more likely to provoke the development of fatty artery deposits in overweight adults than glucose-sweetened beverages ... Those who drank fructose-sweetened drinks also had a boost in fasting blood concentrations of LDL ("bad") cholesterol and other measures. Those levels were unaltered in those consuming glucose-sweetened drinks, however"

Common Drugs Cut Diabetes Nerve Damage - WebMD, 6/22/07 - "protection was 35% for statins and 48% for fibrates -- statistically the same protection -- and these effects were independent of blood sugar control, height, age, other things associated with neuropathy"

Omega-3 Fatty Acids May Lower Genetic Risk for Prostate Cancer - Medscape, 6/21/07 - "Overall, diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids reduced prostate tumor growth, slowed histopathological progression, and increased survival, the researchers write. The 12-month survival rate was 60% for mice fed a diet high in omega-3, 10% on the low–omega-3 diet, and 0% on the high–omega-6 diet. The ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is 1:1, and mice fed diets with this ratio of fatty acids were able to delay both the formation and progression of prostate tumors and prolong their survival" - See Twinlab Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com or Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.

Omega-3 Supplements Can Help With Alzheimer's Symptoms, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 6/21/07 - "There was no observable difference in therapeutic effect between the patients receiving the omega-3 and the placebo group. However, when the researchers took into account which of the patients carried the susceptibility gene APOE4 and which did not, an appreciable difference appeared. Carriers of the gene who had received active treatment responded positively to the omega-3 as regards agitation symptoms, while non-bearers of the gene showed an improvement in depressive symptoms" - See Twinlab Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com or Jarrow Max DHA at iHerb.

Rose-hip 'remedy' for arthritis - BBC News, 6/18/07 - "Just under half took the rose-hip remedy LitoZin while the others took a placebo ... Activity among the first group improved by 20-25%"

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds:

Vitamin D and Parkinson's disease--a hypothesis - Mov Disord. 2007 Mar 15;22(4):461-8 - "We hypothesize, based upon several lines of evidence, that documented chronically inadequate vitamin D intake in the United States, particularly in the northern states and particularly in the elderly, is a significant factor in the pathogenesis of PD. This hypothesis implies that dietary aid for prevention and therapy for PD is possible" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Low Intake of Vitamin B-6 Is Associated with Increased Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Japanese Men - J Nutr. 2007 Jul;137(7):1808-1814 - "We observed a significant inverse association between vitamin B-6 intake and colorectal cancer in men. Compared with the lowest quartile, the multivariate hazard ratio (95% [CI]) in the highest quartile of intake was 0.69"

Intakes of coffee, tea, milk, soda and juice and renal cell cancer in a pooled analysis of 13 prospective studies - Int J Cancer. 2007 Jun 21 - "Coffee consumption was associated with a modestly lower risk of renal cell cancer (pooled multivariate RR for 3 or more 8 oz (237 ml) cups/day versus less than one 8 oz (237 ml) cup/day = 0.84 ... Tea consumption was also inversely associated with renal cell cancer risk (pooled multivariate RR for 1 or more 8 oz (237 ml) cups/day versus nondrinkers = 0.85"

Cereal fiber intake may reduce risk of gastric adenocarcinomas: The EPIC-EURGAST study - Int J Cancer. 2007 Jun 20 - "There was a strong inverse association for diffuse [HR 0.43, 0.22-0.86], but not intestinal type [HR 0.98, 0.54-1.80] tumors"

Dietary risk factors for nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Maghrebian countries - Int J Cancer. 2007 Jun 20 - "consumption of rancid butter, rancid sheep fat and preserved meat not spicy (mainly quaddid) were associated with significantly increased risk of NPC, while consumption of cooked vegetables and industrial preserved fish was associated with reduced risk. Other foods such as fresh citrus fruits and spicy preserved meat (mainly osban) in childhood, industrial made olive condiments in adulthood, were marginally associated. In multivariate analyses, only rancid butter, rancid sheep fat and cooked vegetables were significantly associated with NPC"

Fibre intake and renal cell carcinoma: A case-control study from Italy - Int J Cancer. 2007 Jun 20 - "The continuous OR for an increase in intake equal to the difference between the 80th and the 20th percentile were 0.94 (95% CI: 0.82-1.08) for total dietary fibre, 0.98 (95% CI: 0.85-1.13) for soluble noncellulose polysaccharides, 0.92 (95% CI: 0.80-1.05) for total insoluble fibre, 0.90 (95% CI: 0.78-1.04) for cellulose, 0.95 (95% CI: 0.84-1.06) for insoluble noncellulose polysaccharides and 1.06 (95% CI: 0.93-1.21) for lignin"

Health Focus (weight control):

1. Does Orlistat, OTC Diet Pill Alli, Live Up To Its Name? - Science Daily, 6/12/07 - "people taking orlistat and following low-fat diets lost almost five percent of their initial body weight, about seven to15 pounds, over four months" - See Alli at Amazon.com.
2. CLA: The New Miracle Weight Loss Pill? - WebMD, 5/24/04 - "Both CLA groups lost weight -- about 4 pounds; the placebo group stayed the same ... The CLA syrup group had a 9% body fat loss; the CLA pill group had 7% loss; the placebo group had no body fat loss" [Abstract] - See iHerb or Vitacost CLA products.
3. Six months supplementation with conjugated linoleic acid induces regional-specific fat mass decreases in overweight and obese - Br J Nutr. 2007 Mar;97(3):550-60 - "randomised into two groups supplemented with either 3 x 4 g/d CLA or placebo for 6 months. CLA significantly decreased BFM at month 3 (Delta=- 0 x 9 %, P=0 x 016) and at month 6 (Delta=- 3 x 4 %, P=0 x 043) compared with placebo. The reduction in fat mass was located mostly in the legs (Delta=- 0 x 8 kg, P<0 x 001), and in women (Delta=-1 x 3 kg, P=0 x 046) with BMI >30 kg/m2 (Delta=-1 x 9 kg, P=0 x 011), compared with placebo. The waist-hip ratio decreased significantly (P=0 x 043) compared with placebo. LBM increased (Delta=+0 x 5 kg, P=0 x 049) within the CLA group ... Adverse events did not differ between the groups" - See conjugated linoleic acid at Amazon.com.
4. Effects of metformin on the body composition in subjects with risk factors for type 2 diabetes - Diabetes Obes Metab. 2005 Mar;7(2):189-92 - "In the metformin group, there was a decrease in fat weight from 25.9 +/- 9.4 to 20.8 +/- 9.2 kg, p < 0.01, an increase in lean weight from 57.05 +/- 13.6 to 61.9 +/- 16.5 kg, p < 0.01, an increase in basal metabolism from 1735 +/- 413 to 1878 +/- 505 calories/day, p < 0.05 and an increase in body water" - See metformin at IAS or OffshoreRx1.com.  Note:  That's a 19.7% decrease in fat (25.9-20.8)/25.9 = 19.7%, a 8.5% increase in lean weight (61.9-57.05)/57.05 = 8.5% and a 8.2% increase in basal metabolism (1878-1735)/1735 = 8.2%. - Ben
5. Vinegar as a Sweet Solution? - Science News, 12/18/04 - "a 2-pound weight loss, on average, over the 4 weeks in the vinegar group" - See apple cider vinegar at Amazon.com.
6. Vinegar may help dieters eat less - Nutra USA, 9/7/05 - "Both glucose and insulin responses were about 25 per cent lower at 90 minutes when the volunteers had consumed the highest level of vinegar compared to the reference meal ... This level of vinegar is equivalent to about two to three tablespoons" - See vinegar supplements at Amazon.com (1 Source Natural 500 mg tablet equals 2 tsb of vinegar.  4.5 tablets equals about 3 tablespoons by my calculations. 
7. About 5% of Long-term Niacin Users Evolve Into HDL Hyperresponders - Doctor's Guide, 3/14/06 - "Overall, these patients lost 4% of body weight while on niacin treatment" - See niacin at Amazon.com.
8. Green Tea Fights Fat - WebMD, 1/26/05 - "the first group drank a bottle of oolong tea fortified with green tea extract containing 690 milligrams of catechins, and the other group drank a bottle of oolong tea with 22 milligrams of catechins ... After three months, the study showed that the men who drank the green tea extract lost more weight (5.3 pounds vs. 2.9 pounds) and experienced a significantly greater decrease in BMI, waist size, and total body fat" - See iHerb or Vitacost green tea extracts.
9. 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"
10. 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" - See Acomplia at International Antiaging Systems.
11. Biology Dictates Diet Success - WebMD, 5/15/07 - "The low-glycemic-load diet was effective for a lot of the individuals who were high-insulin secretors and who previously had challenges losing weight and keeping it off"
12. Soup First Cuts Calories Later - WebMD, 5/1/07 - "Participants consumed 20% fewer calories when they started their meals with soup"
13. Low Glycemic Index Diet Best For Weight Loss And Cardiovascular Health - Science Daily, 7/26/06 - "Between the two high-carbohydrate diets, lowering the glycemic index doubled fat loss"
14. Rosiglitazone decreases 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 in subcutaneous adipose tissue - Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2007 Jun 6 - "Part of the beneficial effects of rosiglitazone may be mediated by a reduction in the 11beta-HSD1 mRNA expression and activity in subcutaneous abdominal fat"
15. Telmisartan But Not Valsartan Increases Caloric Expenditure and Protects Against Weight Gain and Hepatic Steatosis - Hypertension. 2006 Mar 27 - "Telmisartan, but not valsartan, promoted increases in caloric expenditure and protected against dietary-induced weight gain ... Telmisartan reduced the accumulation of visceral fat and decreased adipocyte size to a much greater extent than valsartan and was also associated with a significant reduction in hepatic triglyceride levels" - See telmisartan at OffshoreRx1.com.
16. Vitamin Supplements May Slow Middle-Age Weight Gain - HealthDay, 9/10/04 - "the people who had taken multivitamins, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and chromium had less weight gain over the previous 10 years than other respondents"
17. Low-glycemic-index plan is better than low-fat or low-carb diets, study says - HealthDay, 8/26/04 - "After two to four months, the researchers found that the rats given the high-glycemic-index diet had 71 percent more body fat and 8 percent less lean muscle mass, compared with rats on the low-glycemic-index diet"

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