Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 7/4/07.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Depression Associated With Accelerated Bone Loss in Older Women - Medscape, 6/29/07 - "We found that depressive symptoms were associated with greater rates of bone loss in a group of older women (average age about 75 years old); the more depressive symptoms women had, the greater their rates of bone loss"

Vitamin D Level May Be Low Despite Adequate Sun Exposure - Medscape, 6/29/07 - "Despite this abundant sun exposure, 51% of the subjects had serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations below 30 ng/mL, defined as "low vitamin D status ... Overall, vitamin D level did not correlate with age, skin color, or sun exposure" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Vitamin C 'benefits diabetics' - BBC News, 6/28/07 - "Vitamin C neutralises free radicals, while Telmisarten stimulates the natural removal of the molecules by cells"

Telmisartan Staves Off Overt Diabetic Nephropathy - Medscape, 6/27/07 - "During a mean follow-up of 1.3 years, transition rates to overt nephropathy were significantly lower with telmisartan 40 mg (22.6%) and telmisartan 80 mg (16.7%) than with placebo (49.9%)"

Prostate Drug May Not Dim Sex - WebMD, 6/26/07 - "Six months after the men started taking their assigned drugs, the survey scores were about three points higher for the men taking Proscar. By the end of the study, that gap narrowed to about two points" - See finasteride at OffshoreRx1.com.

• Finasteride as a Chemopreventive Agent in Prostate Cancer - Medscape, 9/15/06 - "Prostate cancer was detected in 803 of 4,368 men (18.4%) taking finasteride as opposed to 1,147 of the 4,692 men (24.4%) in the placebo group (P <0.001). This was a 24.8% relative risk reduction in prevalence of prostate cancer during the trial ,,, The PCPT has shown finasteride to be an effective chemopreventive agent in low-grade prostate cancer"

Diabetes Linked to Alzheimer's Disease - WebMD, 6/26/07 - "the relatively high levels of insulin in people with type 2 diabetes may spur development of the amyloid protein that is present in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. High insulin levels may also trigger a cascade of potentially harmful chemical signals in the brain" - See my Insulin and Aging page for ways to reduce it.

Angiotensin Receptor Blockers: Benefits Beyond Blood Pressure Lowering? - Medscape, 6/26/07 - "I would say that at this time, both ACE inhibitors and ARBs can be said to be useful in preventing or delaying progression of nondiabetic patients into type 2 diabetes"

An Evidence-Based Me dicine Approach to the Appropriate Selection of Supplementation with Omega-3 Fatty - PowerPak.com, 6/1/07 - "Fish oils EPA and DHA appear to result in different physiologic effects than their precursor, the plant-derived ALA.12-14 Biosynthesis of EPA or DHA from ALA is limited. Although dietary consumption of ALA alone will prevent EFA deficiency, emerging scientific evidence indicates that for optimum health or body function, the fish oils EPA and DHA should also be ingested regularly, either from dietary or supplement sources. Use of ALA supplementation alone, even with high dose or long-term consumption, does not result in lowered triglyceride concentrations seen with EPA or DHA, nor does it demonstrate similar in vitro susceptibility to oxidation of LDL cholesterol" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.

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

Cereal fiber intake may reduce risk of gastric adenocarcinomas: The EPIC-EURGAST study - Int J Cancer. 2007 Jun 20 - "Intakes of cereal fiber, but not total, fruit or vegetable fiber, were associated with reduced GC risk [adjusted HR for the highest vs. lowest quartile of cereal fiber 0.69"

High dietary glycemic load and glycemic index increase risk of cardiovascular disease among middle-aged women: a population-based follow-up study - J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007 Jul 3;50(1):14-21 - "Dietary glycemic load (mean = 100; SD = 17) was associated with increased risk of CVD, adjusted for CVD risk factors and dietary variables, with a hazard ratio (HR) for the highest against lowest quartile of 1.47 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.04 to 2.09; p(trend) = 0.03). Similar results were observed for dietary glycemic index with a corresponding HR of 1.33"

IGF-1 and IGFBP-3: Risk of prostate cancer among men in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial - Int J Cancer. 2007 Jun 27 - "our large prospective study showed no overall association between the insulin-like growth factor axis and prostate cancer risk, however, IGFmr was related to risk for aggressive prostate cancer in obese men" - One less thing to worry about for men on hGH. - Ben

Pioglitazone and Rosiglitazone Have Different Effects on Serum Lipoprotein Particle Concentrations and Sizes in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Dyslipidemia - Diabetes Care. 2007 Jun 26 - "PIO-treatment increased total VLDL particle concentration less than ROSI-treatment and decreased VLDL particle size more than ROSI. PIO-treatment reduced total LDL particle concentration whereas ROSI-treatment increased it. Both treatments increased LDL particle size, with PIO-treatment having a greater effect. Whereas PIO-treatment increased total HDL particle concentration and size, ROSI-treatment decreased them; both increased HDL cholesterol levels"

Supplement Focus (Resveratrol):

1. Red Wine Protects The Prostate - Science Daily, 5/25/07 - "men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red wine per week are only 52% as likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who do not drink red wine ... when white wine was compared with red, red had the most benefit ... But much of the speculation focuses on chemicals—including various flavonoids and resveratrol—missing from other alcoholic beverages"
2. Life-extending compound may be great news -- for mice - CNN, 12/21/06 - "In one study, scientists provided mice a high-calorie, high-fat diet and then gave half of the animals resveratrol. At 114 weeks -- old age for mice -- less than a third of the mice taking resveratrol died. More than half of the mice who did not take resveratrol died. In another study, mice who took resveratrol lost weight, increased metabolism and doubled their exercise endurance"
3. Red Wine Ingredient Increases Endurance, Study Shows - New York Times, 11/16/06 - "Resveratrol makes you look like a trained athlete without the training"
4. Healthy Life Prolonged in Mice - Medscape, 11/3/06 - "In addition to extending their lives, resveratrol also kept the mice fit and healthy in their old age"
5. Wine Ingredient May Nix Fat's Effects - WebMD, 11/1/06 - "A new study shows obese, middle-aged mice fed a fatty diet supplemented with resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red wine, seemed to be spared most of the unhealthy effects of their extra weight and lived longer than those fed the same fat-laden diet without resveratrol"
6. 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"
7. Red Wine vs. Colon Cancer - WebMD, 10/24/06 - "3% of red wine drinkers had such abnormal growths, compared with nearly 9% of white wine drinkers and almost 10% of teetotalers ... they suggest that a compound found in grapes and red wine – the antioxidant resveratrol -- may cut the odds of getting abnormal colon growths that can become cancerous"
8. Resveratrol in red wine could cut colorectal cancer risk - Nutra USA, 10/23/06 - "Drinking more than three glasses of red wine a week could cut the risk of colorectal cancer by almost 70 per cent ... the active component in wine that may be behind the apparent benefits is most likely resveratrol"
9. Longevity Genes and Caloric restriction - Life Extension Magazine, 7/06 - "Humans seeking to slow aging and reduce degenerative disease risk may consider reducing food intake and ingesting 20-40 mg of resveratrol and 250-850 mg of metformin each day"
10. Red Wine Ingredient May Delay Aging - WebMD, 2/10/06 - "Researchers found adding resveratrol, an organic compound found in grapes and particularly in red wine, to the daily diet of short-lived fish prolonged their lifespan and delayed the onset of age-related memory and other problems"
11. Natural Compound Prolongs Lifespan And Delays Onset Of Aging-related Traits In A Short-lived Vertebrate - Science Daily, 2/7/06 - "The researchers added resveratrol to daily fish food and found that this treatment increased longevity and also retarded the onset of aging-related decays in memory and muscular performance"
12. Compound In Wine Reduces Levels Of Alzheimer's Disease-causing Peptides - Science Daily, 11/4/05 - "resveratrol, a compound found in grapes and red wine, lowers the levels of the amyloid-beta peptides which cause the telltale senile plaques of Alzheimer's disease ... Resveratrol in grapes may never reach the concentrations required to obtain the effect observed in our studies"
13. Red Wine Lovers, Take Heart: More Evidence Points To The Drink's Cardiac Health Benefits - Science Daily, 12/10/04 - "a well-known antioxidant found in red wine, called resveratrol, may benefit heart tissue by limiting the effects of a condition called cardiac fibrosis"
14. Daily Glass of Red Wine May Cut Risk of Developing Prostate Cancer - Doctor's Guide, 9/23/04 - "men who consumed four or more glasses of red wine per week reduced their risk of prostate cancer by 50 percent ... That compound, Stanford and colleagues believe, may be an antioxidant called resveratrol, which is abundant in the skins of red grapes but much less so in the skins of white grapes"
15. Does red wine hold the secret to long life? - MSNBC, 7/15/04 - "resveratrol acted on fruit flies and worms in the same way as a method known to extend the life of animals ... We found this chemical that can extend the life span of every organism we give it to"
16. Study Identifies Genetics Of Fat Metabolism, Red Wine Link - Science Daily, 7/9/04 - "When cells were exposed to resveratrol, our studies showed a pretty dramatic reduction in the conversion to fat cells and a lesser but still significant increase in the mobilization of existing fat, or the rate at which the cells metabolized stored fat"
17. Fruits Offer Powerful Protection From Skin Cancer - Intelihealth, 10/30/03 - "Resveratrol significantly inhibited UVB-mediated increases in skin thickness and edema; epidermal cyclooxygenase (COX-2); ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) enzyme and protein levels; and protein levels of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), all of which are established markers of tumor promotion. Resveratrol also further stimulated a UVB-mediated increase in p53 protein levels and was found to inhibit UVB exposure-mediated increases in cell cycle promoting signals including the activation of cell division"
18. Red Wine Ingredient May Fight COPD - WebMD, 10/27/03 - "resveratrol, a compound found in the skins of red fruits such as grapes, may slow down the inflammatory process involved in the lung disease COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)"
19. “Grape Expectations”: Lengthen Lifetime with Red Wine? - Physician's Weekly, 9/15/03 - "Resveratrol, a molecule that exists naturally in grapes and red wine, was shown to extend the life span of yeast cells (polyphenols) by up to 80%. The researchers plan to examine resveratrol's effect in multi-cellular organisms such as worms, fruit flies, and eventually humans"
20. Drinking Red Wine May Slow Aging - WebMD, 8/25/03 - "resveratrol mimics calorie restriction in yeast -- activating enzymes that slow aging, increasing the stability of DNA, hence extending lifespan by as much as 70% ... Researchers now hope to eventually test how resveratrol works in other subjects, including humans"
21. Resveratrol inhibits expression and binding activity of the monocyte chemotactic protein-1 receptor, CCR2, on THP-1 monocytes - Atherosclerosis. 2007 May 11 - "Monocyte chemotactic protein-1 and its receptor, CCR2, play a key role in atherosclerosis ... These inhibitory effects of resveratrol on chemokine receptor binding and expression may contribute, in part, to its cardiovascular protective activity in vivo"
22. The cancer preventative agent resveratrol is converted to the anticancer agent piceatannol by the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP1B1 - Br J Cancer 2002 Mar 4;86(5):774-8 - "This observation provides a novel explanation for the cancer preventative properties of resveratrol. It demonstrates that a natural dietary cancer preventative agent can be converted to a compound with known anticancer activity by an enzyme that is found in human tumours"
23. See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.  My favorite is Jarrow Resveratrol Synergy.

Affiliates (I could sure use some sales.  You can drag the links onto your desktop and use them so that I get credit for the sale.  Click here for more stores):