Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 3/5/08.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

'Testosterone link' to depression - BBC News, 3/4/08 - "those men whose level of free testosterone was in the bottom 20% were three times more likely to be depressed than those in the top 20%"

Low Testosterone Levels Associated With Depression In Older Men - Science Daily, 3/4/08 - "men in the lowest quintile (20 percent) of free testosterone concentration had three times the odds of having depression compared to men in the highest quintile"

FDA Approves Desvenlafaxine for Treatment of Adults With Major Depressive Disorder - Doctor's Guide, 3/3/08 - "Desvenlafaxine was approved as a once-daily 50-mg dose that does not require titration, which allows physicians to start patients at the recommended therapeutic dose"

Dietary Fiber May Predict Stroke Severity and Outcome - Medscape, 2/29/08 - "Higher dietary-fiber intake may result in less severe stroke and improve stroke outcomes"

Study Questions Diabetes Threshold - WebMD, 2/29/08 - "More than 60% of the people with retinopathy didn't have fasting glucose levels in the range that is used to help diagnose type 2 diabetes"

Obese children may benefit from CLA: study - Nutra USA, 2/29/08 - "when these results were compared to those from the placebo tests, CLA improved fat loss at a rate of 0.024 kg per gram of CLA per week" - [Abstract] - Note:  0.024 kg = 0.1 lbs so the normal 3 gram dose would be 0.3 pounds per week. It might not sound like much but 0.3 x 52 = 15.6 pounds per year.  See conjugated linoleic acid at Amazon.com.

Gingko may boost memory - if you remember to take it - Nutra USA, 2/28/08 - "The new study involved 118 people age 85 and older with no memory problems. The elderly subjects were randomly assigned to receive either a ginkgo biloba extract (240 mg daily, provided by Thorne Research) or placebo for three years. The extracts were independently verified to contain at least six per cent terpene lactones and 24 per cent flavone glycosides ... when the researchers considered only people who followed the directions in taking the study pills, they found that people took at least 84 per cent of the supplements as directed had a 68 per cent lower risk of developing mild memory problems" - [Abstract] - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.

Extract Of Broccoli Sprouts May Protect Against Bladder Cancer - Science Daily, 2/28/08 - "A concentrated extract of freeze dried broccoli sprouts cut development of bladder tumors in an animal model by more than half" - [WebMD] - See indole-3-carbinol at Amazon.com and diindolylmethane at Amazon.com.

Oral sex-related cancer at 30-year high - New Scientist, 2/28/08 - "The incidence of oral cancer due to a virus transmitted during oral sex has increased steeply over the last 30 years ... The rise was largest among young white males, suggesting this group is more likely to have oral sex at a younger age now than it was 20 years ago ... What is not in doubt, says Gillison, is the need to consider giving boys the HPV vaccine, to protect them from the disease ... These strains are also thought to cause oral cancer, as well as penile and anal cancer" - I don't think people realize how serious head and neck cancer is.  The survival rate is only 25% if you get surgery and radiation and a lot less without the radiation.  With the radiation, you fry your taste sensors, saliva glands and pituitary gland.  The pituitary gland is responsible for a lot of important hormones so the best you can look forward to is a life with everything tasting like cardboard, a constantly annoying dry mouth and constant fatigue.  With the surgery you can loose your vocal cords and end up breathing through a tube and disfigurement.  See Roger Ebert.  I refused radiation because I didn't want to live like that and somehow made it through it with just some scars.  Anyway, that's my plug to get the vaccine even if you are a male.

• Cancerous Growths: Mouth Growths - "if the cancer has spread to lymph nodes, the 5-year survival rate is only 25%"

Low-intensity Exercise Reduces Fatigue Symptoms By 65 Percent, Study Finds - Science Daily, 2/28/08 - "Sedentary people who regularly complain of fatigue can increase their energy levels by 20 percent and decrease their fatigue by 65 percent by engaging in regular, low intensity exercise"

Vitamin C can keep you healthy, looking younger - CNN.com, 2/27/08 - "people who ate foods rich in vitamin C had fewer wrinkles and less age-related dry skin than those whose diets contained only small amounts of the vitamin. C helps form collagen, which smooths fine lines and wrinkles ... Farris recommends La Roche-Posay Active C facial moisturizer or SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic topical antioxidant treatment ... taking more than 700 milligrams of C supplements daily reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease by 25 percent. And a recent study from Harvard University researchers hints that women who take a combo of 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily and 600 IU of vitamin E (another antioxidant) can cut their risk of stroke by 30 percent ... Pairing vitamins C and E is smart for another reason: It may lessen your Alzheimer's risks by as much as 64 percent ..." - See La Roche-Posay Active C facial moisturizer or SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic at Amazon.com and vitamin C products at Amazon.com and Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.

Statins May Reduce Risk of Kidney Cancer - Medscape, 2/26/08 - "Treatment with a statin was associated with a 48% reduced risk of renal cell carcinoma"

Elevated IL-6 Levels Associated With Increased Atrial Fibrillation Risk - Medscape, 2/26/08 - "a doubling of IL-6 level was independently associated with a 49% increase in the odds of developing AF"

Farmed Fish Fed Cheap Food May Be Less Nutritious For Humans - Science Daily, 2/26/08 - "Vegetable oils have been shown to stimulate the appetite and feed intake of fish, and to increase growth rate and carcase quality ... Marine oils are rich in long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), which have been shown to have beneficial effects on heart and circulatory system disease in man ... heart patients with atherosclerosis (disease of the cardiac arteries) were placed on three different diets, using salmon meat containing varying amounts of fish oil and vegetable oil. It was shown that the fat composition of the salmon meat affected the fatty acid profile of the patients’ blood and that the advantageous marine omega-3 fatty acids increased markedly in those patients that ate fish fed on feed containing pure fish oils. It was also shown that in these patients the levels of marker substances for heart and vessel disease were much better than in patients eating fish fed pure rapeseed oil"

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

Indole-3-carbinol as a chemopreventive and anti-cancer agent - Cancer Lett. 2008 Feb 29 - "Indole-3-carbinol and its metabolite 3,3'-diindoylmethane (DIM) target multiple aspects of cancer cell-cycle regulation and survival including Akt-NFkappaB signaling, caspase activation, cyclin-dependent kinase activities, estrogen metabolism, estrogen receptor signaling, endoplasmic reticulum stress, and BRCA gene expression. This broad spectrum of anti-tumor activities in conjunction with low toxicity underscores the translational value of indole-3-carbinol and its metabolites in cancer prevention/therapy. Furthermore, novel anti-tumor agents with overlapping underlying mechanisms have emerged via structural optimization of indole-3-carbinol and DIM, which may provide considerable therapeutic advantages over the parental compounds with respect to chemical stability and anti-tumor potency. Together, these agents might foster new strategies for cancer prevention and therapy" - See indole 3 carbinol at Amazon.com and diindolylmethane at Amazon.com.

beta-Sitosterol induces G(2)/M arrest, endoreduplication, and apoptosis through the Bcl-2 and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways - Cancer Lett. 2008 Feb 29 - "beta-Sitosterol (SITO) is a potentially valuable candidate for cancer chemotherapy ... results suggest that SITO induces endoreduplication by promoting spindle microtubule dynamics through the Bcl-2 and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways" - See beta sitosterol at Amazon.com.

Elevated plasma homocysteine and low vitamin B-6 status in nonsupplementing older women with rheumatoid arthritis - J Am Diet Assoc. 2008 Mar;108(3):443-53 - "Poor vitamin B-6 status and elevated plasma homocysteine concentrations were seen in older women with rheumatoid arthritis compared to healthy controls and may contribute to their increased risk of cardiovascular disease"

Molecular mechanisms of mistletoe plant extract-induced apoptosis in acute lymphoblastic leukemia in vivo and in vitro - Cancer Lett. 2008 Feb 29 - "Aqueous mistletoe extracts (MT) ... Both MTs significantly improved survival (up to 55.4 days) at all tested concentrations in contrast to controls (34.6 days) without side effects"

Glutamine: role in critical illness and ongoing clinical trials - Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2008 Mar;24(2):190-7 - "Severe glutamine deficiencies occur rapidly in critical illness. The magnitude of glutamine deficiency is correlated with ICU mortality. Further, metaanalysis reveals glutamine reduces morbidity and mortality in critical illness" - See glutamine products at iHerb.

Dietary fructose and the metabolic syndrome - Curr Opin Gastroenterol. 2008 Mar;24(2):204-9 - "Recent animal studies have confirmed the link between fructose feeding and increased plasma uric acid, a potentially causative factor in metabolic syndrome. Advanced glycation end products are also implicated because of their direct protein modifications and indirect effects on inflammation and oxidative stress. Human studies have demonstrated fructose's ability to change metabolic hormonal response, possibly contributing to decreased satiety ... There is much evidence from both animal models and human studies supporting the notion that fructose is a highly lipogenic nutrient that, when consumed in high quantities, contributes to tissue insulin insensitivity, metabolic defects, and the development of a prediabetic state"

Long-term effect of magnesium consumption on the risk of symptomatic gallstone disease among men - Am J Gastroenterol. 2008 Feb;103(2):375-82 - "The age-adjusted relative risks (RRs) for men with total magnesium intake and dietary magnesium, when the highest and lowest quintiles were compared, were 0.67 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.59-0.77, P for trend <0.0001) and 0.67 (CI 0.59-0.76, P for trend <0.0001), respectively. After adjusting for multiple potential confounding variables, when extreme quintiles were compared, the multivariate RR of total magnesium intake (RR 0.72, CI 0.61-0.86, P for trend = 0.006) and dietary magnesium (RR 0.68, CI 0.57-0.82, P for trend = 0.0006) remained significant with a dose-response relationship ... Our findings suggest a protective role of magnesium consumption in the prevention of symptomatic gallstone disease among men" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.

Effects of One-Year Treatment with Isoflavone Extract from Red Clover on Prostate, Liver Function, Sexual Function, and Quality of Life in Men with Elevated PSA Levels and Negative Prostate Biopsy Findings - Urology. 2008 Feb;71(2):185-90 - "isoflavonoid extract from red clover ... daily 60-mg dose of an isoflavone extract for 1 year ... The average PSA level was 10.16 ng/mL at baseline versus 7.15 ng/mL after 12 months, for a statistically significant reduction of 33% ... The sexual hormone levels did not change throughout the study. We registered a significant increase in all three liver transaminases after 3 months"

Conjugated linoleic acid reduces body fat accretion and lipogenic gene expression in neonatal pigs fed low- or high-fat formulas - J Nutr. 2008 Mar;138(3):449-54 - "CLA reduced body fat accretion regardless of dietary fat content ... Adipose tissue expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase-alpha and lipoprotein lipase were significantly reduced by CLA treatment" - See conjugated linoleic acid at Amazon.com.

A randomized placebo-controlled trial of ginkgo biloba for the prevention of cognitive decline - Neurology. 2008 Feb 27 - "In the secondary analysis, where we controlled the medication adherence level, the GBE group had a lower risk of progression from CDR = 0 to CDR = 0.5 (HR = 0.33, p = 0.02), and a smaller decline in memory scores" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.

Very Low n-3 Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid Status in Austrian Vegetarians and Vegans - Ann Nutr Metab. 2008 Feb 28;52(1):37-47 - "The vegetarian diet, with an average n-6/n-3 ratio of 10/1, promotes biochemical n-3 tissue decline. To ensure physical, mental and neurological health vegetarians have to reduce the n-6/n-3 ratio with an additional intake of direct sources of EPA and DHA, regardless of age and gender" - See Mega Twinlab Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.

n-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids in patients with the metabolic syndrome: a case-control study in Korea - Br J Nutr. 2008 Feb 28;:1-6 - "trans fatty acids of erythrocytes (RBC) ... There were significant positive relationships between trans fatty acids and waist circumference, and between trans fatty acids and BMI. The results suggested that RBC trans fatty acids might be a predictor of increased risk for the metabolic syndrome, but n-3 fatty acids were not in this population"

Both inorganic and organic selenium supplements can decrease brain monoamine oxidase B enzyme activity in adult rats - Br J Nutr. 2008 Feb 28;:1-6 - "tocopherol group (T group, positive control), selenite group (SE group, representing the inorganic Se group) and seleno-yeast group (SY group, representing the organic Se group) ... MAO-B activity showed a significant decrease in the T, SE and SY groups in rat brains but no significant change could be noted in the rat livers. In conclusion, the present study indicates that inorganic or organic Se supplementation can decrease the brain MAO-B enzyme activity in adult rats and can be accomplished by the effect of the Se antioxidation capability" - See selenium at Amazon.com.

• Monoamine Oxidase Type B Inhibitors May Help in Early Parkinson's Disease - Doctor's Guide, 8/13/04
• Hormones for Perimenopausal and Postmenopausal Depression - Psychiatric Times, 1/04 - "Estrogen inhibits MAO, thereby diminishing the degradation of norepinephrine and serotonin and thus increasing their activity, while progesterone has the reverse impact on MAO"
• Three Depression Subtypes Respond Selectively - Clinical Psychiatry News, 1/03 - "Psychotic depression ... In general, the antidepressant needs to be helped along by an adjunctive antipsychotic agent or by ECT ... That constellation of symptoms known as atypical depression seems to preferentially respond to our old friends—the MAO inhibitors"
• MAOIs Still Good for Depression Rescue - Clinical Psychiatry News, 6/02
• Youthful Brain, Youthful Body - Life Extension Magazine, 5/98

Incidence trends for human papillomavirus-related and -unrelated oral squamous cell carcinomas in the United States - J Clin Oncol. 2008 Feb 1;26(4):612-9 - "oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCCs) ... Life-table analyses were used to compare 2-year overall survival for HPV-related and HPV-unrelated OSCCs. RESULTS: HPV-related OSCCs were diagnosed at younger ages than HPV-unrelated OSCCs (mean ages at diagnosis, 61.0 and 63.8 years, respectively; P < .001). Incidence increased significantly for HPV-related OSCC from 1973 to 2004 (annual percentage change [APC] = 0.80; P < .001), particularly among white men and at younger ages. By contrast, incidence for HPV-unrelated OSCC was stable through 1982 (APC = 0.82; P = .186) and declined significantly during 1983 to 2004 (APC = -1.85; P < .001). When treated with radiation, improvements in 2-year survival across calendar periods were more pronounced for HPV-related OSCCs (absolute increase in survival from 1973 through 1982 to 1993 through 2004 for localized, regional, and distant stages = 9.9%, 23.1%, and 18.6%, respectively) than HPV-unrelated OSCCs (5.6%, 3.1%, and 9.9%, respectively). During 1993 to 2004, for all stages treated with radiation, patients with HPV-related OSCCs had significantly higher survival rates than those with HPV-unrelated OSCCs"

Fish oil in critical illness - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2008 Mar;11(2):121-7 - "Inclusion of fish oil in nutrition may influence the immune response and clinical outcomes by balancing the negative effects of n-6 fatty acids. Application as a part of enteral immunonutrition in surgical or acute respiratory distress syndrome patients and in lipid emulsions in surgical patients has beneficial effects" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.

Serum Selenium Levels and All-Cause, Cancer, and Cardiovascular Mortality Among US Adults - Arch Intern Med. 2008 Feb 25;168(4):404-10 - "we found a nonlinear association between serum selenium levels and all-cause and cancer mortality. Increasing serum selenium levels were associated with decreased mortality up to 130 ng/mL. Our study, however, raises the concern that higher serum selenium levels may be associated with increased mortality"

Neat Gadgets:

• The price of flash drives are coming down.  See the OCZ OCZUSBATV32G 32GB ATV USB Flash Drive at Amazon.com ($139 with free shipping as of 2/22/08).  32 GB is more than enough for most people to keep a backup of every file on their computer on their key chain.  My 4000 karaoke songs take 14.3 GB, less than half of what this drive will hold.  If you're going to use it for karaoke, you'll need a player that has a USB port such as the CAVS 203 USB.  See my karaoke page at http://www.qualitycounts.com/k/.  Get something like MyFax.com and tell it to store in the .pdf format and you could have every fax for like on your key chain.  It may work well with GoodSync software.  There was a segment on this software on ABC News Now.
• I see where Amazon.com has new brand X HP compatible Laserjet cartridges for less than half what the HP ones are going for plus they have good reviews and some are saying 2400 pages (5% coverage) compared to HP's 2000 (5% coverage.  For example for my HP 1012 Laserjet, see Compatible HP Q2612A, HP Q2612A (HP 12A) Compatible Toner Cartridge for HP Laserjet 1010, 1012, 1015 Printer and Compatible HP Q2612A ($29.59 with shipping and got 4.5 starts and #2 sales rank in electronics).

Health Focus (Liothyronine/Cytomel®/Triiodothyronine - T3):

Where to purchase T-3 (check with your doctor first) - I take 50 mcg of T4 on odd days and 20 mcg of T3 on even days to keep my TSH around 1.3:

• T3 at International Anti-aging Systems

T-3 CME courses:

• Triiodothyronine Augmentation For the Treatment of Depression in Substance Misusers Unresponsive to Tricyclic Antidepressants - HKMJ 2001;7:299-302 - "we believed this treatment strategy should be used more often in local practice"

T-3 News & Research:

• Wilson's Reverse T3 Dominance Syndrome - knoxintegrativemed.com - "However, when a person experiences prolonged stress, the adrenal glands respond by manufacturing a large amount of cortisol. Cortisol inhibits the conversion of T4 to T3 and favors the conversion of T4 to RT3. If stress is prolonged, a condition called Reverse T3 Dominance occurs and persists even after the stress passes and cortisol levels fall. Apparently, RT3 itself acts like cortisol and blocks the conversion of T4 to T3"
• Wilson's Syndrome - providentmedical.com - "We know that elevated amounts of cortisol, the major stress hormone, can block 5 prime deiodinase, keeping T4 from being converted to T3.  This results in most of the T4 being converted into reverse T3, which then needs the available 5 prime deiodinase to be converted into T2."
• T3 Supplementation Raises Patients' Response to Sertraline - Clinical Psychiatry News, 11/06 - "The sertraline-T3 cohort also was much more likely (odds ratio 2.69) to go into remission by the sixth week of treatment. At that point, 58.5% (31/53) of the T3-augmented patients but only 38% (19/50) of the placebo group was in remission"
• Longer-lived Rodents Have Lower Levels Of Thyroid Hormone - Science Daily, 10/12/06 - "T4 levels varied significantly between all of the groups, with the shorter-lived groups having higher levels of T4 than longer-lived groups ... However, because T3, levels did not differ significantly among all the groups, further research in this area using larger sample sizes (numbers of rodents in each group) is needed"
• Thyroid Supplementation Enhances Antidepressant Response - Medscape, 9/21/06 - "Remission occurred in 31 patients (58.5%) receiving T3 compared with 19 patients (38%) in the placebo group" - See T3 at International Anti-aging Systems but check with your doctor first.
• T3 Therapy Not Yet Ready for Psychiatric Use - Clinical Psychiatry News, 2/05 - "Today, many patients with complaints of chronic malaise or fatigue approach their physician seeking T3 therapy, but the fact is that none of the handful of well-designed randomized controlled trials done since then has been able to confirm the initial report of superior outcomes ... There is reason for concern that supraphysiologic doses of T3 in this setting could interfere with protein and fat metabolism and interact synergistically with catecholamines to increase myocardial oxygen demand, with resultant increased arrhythmia, MI, heart failure, and death"
• Reply to Doctor Who States that T3 is Dangerous--Fibromyalgia, Hypothyroidism, Thyroid Hormone Resistance - DrLowe.com, 12/8/03
• Combinination Levothyroxine/Liothyronine Shows No Obvious Benefit Over Levothyroxine Alone in Patients With Primary Hypothyroidism - Doctor's Guide, 12/11/03
• Combination Therapy No Better Than T4 Alone for Primary Hypothyroidism - Medscape, 12/9/03
• Thyroxine Plus 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine Treatment for Depressed Patients with Hypothyroidism Does Not Improve Patient-Assessed Well-Being - Doctor's Guide, 10/30/03
• Thyroid Hormone T3 Doesn't Boost Effectiveness of SSRIs - Clinical Psychiatry News, 10/03
• Adding T3 to Paroxetine Adds No Benefit in Depressed Patients - Doctor's Guide, 4/28/03
• Algorithm-Based Treatment Shows High Lack Of Response To Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors - Doctor's Guide, 4/17/03 - "When the clinicians added T3, they found it was effective among 10 out of 16 women patients (62.5%), but was not effective in any of the 9 male patients who received it. Although values were within the normal range, patients who responded to T3 had higher serum thyroid-stimulating hormone levels than those who did not ... The effect of T3 may be related to thyroid function even within the normal range"
• Options for Treatment-Resistant Depression - Psychiatric Times, 7/02 - "Use of T3 may interfere with thyroid metabolism if taken chronically, so its use should generally be limited to two or three weeks. Doses of T3 between 25 mcg/day to 50 mcg/day are more effective than T4"
• Bipolar Patients Sensitive to Thyroid Function Variations - Doctor's Guide, 1/8/02 - "They studied 65 patients in the depressed phase of bipolar I disorder to test the hypothesis that patients with lower thyroid function, even within the normal range, might have a poorer response to treatment initially ... Outcomes were relatively poor unless patients had FTI [free thyroxine index] values above the median and TSH values below the median"
• Does thyroid supplementation accelerate tricyclic antidepressant response? A review and meta-analysis of the literature - Am J Psychiatry 2001 Oct;158(10):1617-22 - "This meta-analysis supports the efficacy of T(3) in accelerating clinical response to tricyclic antidepressants in patients with nonrefractory depression"
• Sustained Release T3 / Time Release T3 - WilsonSyndrome.com - "When Dr. Wilson first started treating Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome, Cytomel (instant release) was all he used. When he had about 300 patients at a time on Cytomel, he would get about 6-8 beeper pages over the weekend from patients having complaints and 2-3 of those calls would be about some pretty worrisome side effects. When Dr. Wilson conceived of and started using T3 mixed with a sustained release agent (see WTS history) he would go 6 months without a page"
• Synthroid / Armour Thyroid - WilsonSyndrome.com - "Some patients and physicians hear about the need for T3 and think they can gain the benefits of T3 by using Armour instead of Synthroid because it contains T3. But Armour thyroid doesn't contain just T3. It contains a lot of T4 as well! T4 is the very hormone we're trying to reduce in WTS in order to deplete RT3 levels"
• Thyroid Hormones Accelerate Depressive Response to Drug Therapy - Doctor's Guide, 10/30/01 - "Five of the six studies found T3 to be significantly more effective than placebo in accelerating clinical response ... Investigators say they found that the average effect was highly significant"
• The acute effect of calcium carbonate on the intestinal absorption of levothyroxine - Thyroid 2001 Oct;11(10):967-71 - "When 1,000 microg of levothyroxine alone was given to subjects, the maximum average total T4 absorption was 837 microg (83.7% of the dose ingested) at 120 minutes. When levothyroxine was coadministered with 2.0 g of calcium (as calcium carbonate), the maximum average T4 absorption decreased to 579 microg (57.9% of the dose ingested) at 240 minutes"
• Use OF T3 Thyroid Hormone to Treat Depression - DrMirkin.com, 5/19/01 - "some people become depressed when they take just T4 and their depression can be cured when they take both thyroid hormones, T3 and T4"
• Replacing T4 With Triiodothyronine Improves Cognition And Mood In Hypothyroidism - Doctor's Guide, 7/5/00 - "Substituting T3 for a portion of T4 changed the concentrations of thyroid hormones and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) as well as improving cognition and mood"
• T3---fibromyalgia, hypothyroidism, thyroid hormone resistance - drlowe.com
• Wilson's Thyroid Syndrome - "Conversion of T4 to T3 can also be impaired by glucocorticoids" - Maybe that is the mechanism by which cortisol causes depression, and if so, could T3 then cure the depression? - Ben
• Adding Natural Hormone Boosts Brain Function In Hypothyroidism - Doctor's Guide, 2/11/99 - "We found there wasn't much difference between the two treatments in terms of metabolic effects or effects on various peripheral organs," Prange said. "There were big differences, however, in the mental state of the patients. If these findings hold up, they will be very important."
• Depression Management - ContinuingEducation.com, exp. 12/31/02 - See table six, recommends 5 - 50 mcg T3, 100 mcg (.1 mg) T4
• Liothyronine Sodium - RxList.com - "Twenty-five mcg of liothyronine [T3] is equivalent to approximately 1 gram of desiccated thyroid or thyroglobulin and 0.1 mg of L-thyroxine [T4]" - I don't know if that is correct concerning 1 gram of desiccated thyroid.  That would mean that it would take 17 of the normal 60 mg desiccated thyroid capsules to equal 25 mcg T3 and 100 mcg T4 (1000/60 = 17).  I would think that that amount would be lethal.  Maybe it should have been grains instead of grams.  Any feedback would be appreciated. - Ben

T-3 Abstracts:

• ACUTE EFFECTS OF TRIIODOTHYRONINE REPLACEMENT THERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEART FAILURE AND LOW-T3 SYNDROME: A RANDOMIZED, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED STUDY - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Jan 2 - "Low-triiodothyronine (T3) syndrome is a predictor of poor outcome in patients with cardiac dysfunction ... dilated cardiomyopathy (DC) ... In DC patients, short-term synthetic L-T3 replacement therapy significantly improved neuroendocrine profile and ventricular performance"
• Low triiodothyronine: a strong predictor of outcome in acute stroke patients - Eur J Clin Invest. 2007 Aug;37(8):651-7 - "The 1-year mortality was 27.34% for low T3 and 19.37% for normal T3 cases (P = 0.006). A smaller percentage of patients with low T3 values were independent at 1 year compared to those with normal T3 values [54.2% vs. 68.7%, chi(2) = 12.09, P < 0.001, odds ratio (OR) = 0.53"
• Free triiodothyronine and thyroid stimulating hormone are directly associated with waist circumference, independently of insulin resistance, metabolic parameters and blood pressure in overweight and obese women - Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2007 Jun 4
• A Comparison of Lithium and T3 Augmentation Following Two Failed Medication Treatments for Depression: A STAR*D Report - Am J Psychiatry. 2006 Sep;163(9):1519-30 - "After a mean of 9.6 weeks (SD=5.2) of treatment, remission rates were 15.9% with lithium augmentation and 24.7% with T(3) augmentation"
• T3 augmentation of SSRI resistant depression - J Affect Disord. 2006 Apr;91(2-3):211-5 - "The women took a mean daily dose of 40.6 mug of T3 for a mean duration of 3.75 weeks, while the men were on a mean daily dose of 43.8 mug of T3 for 3.5 weeks. T3 augmentation was associated with a statistically significant drop (p<.003) in the mean HAMD at end of the three weeks compared to baseline scores"
• Critical appraisal: Combined T3 and T4 replacement therapy is not better than replacement with T4 alone - Rev Med Chil. 2005 Sep;133(9):1116-9
• Natural killer activity and thyroid hormone levels in young and elderly persons - Gerontology 2001 Sep-Oct;47(5):282-8 - "Decreased serum concentrations of total T(3) may contribute to low NK activity in the 'almost healthy' subgroup of the elderly"
• Effect of triiodothyronine on mitochondrial energy coupling in human skeletal muscle - J Clin Invest 2001 Sep;108(5):733-7 - "these data suggest that T(3) promotes increased thermogenesis in part by promoting mitochondrial energy uncoupling in skeletal muscle"
• Topical triiodothyronine stimulates epidermal proliferation, dermal thickening, and hair growth in mice and rats - Thyroid 2001 Aug;11(8):717-24 - "hair length that was 1,180% longer ... 85% more hairs per millimeter ... topically applied thyroid hormone has dramatic effects on both skin and hair growth. These observations offer a new strategy for developing thyroid hormone and its analogues for treating disorders of skin and hair growth"
• Does low tri-iodothyronine independently predict mortality in elderly hospitalised patients? -  Int J Clin Pract 2001 Jul-Aug;55(6):409-10 - "Our study shows an association of low serum T3 with patient mortality in elderly hospitalised patients"
• Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapy - Horm Res 2001 Jan;56 Suppl S1:74-81 - "Desiccated thyroid contains both thyroxine (T(4)) and triiodothyronine (T(3)); serum T(3) frequently rises to supranormal values in the absorption phase, associated with palpitations. Liothyronine (T(3)) has the same drawback and requires twice-daily administration in view of its short half-life ... TSH values of </=0.1 mU/l carry a risk of development of atrial fibrillation and are associated with bone loss although not with a higher fracture rate. It is thus advisable not to allow TSH to fall below - arbitrarily - 0.2 mU/l ... recent animal experiments indicate that only the combination of T(4) and T(3) replacement, and not T(4) alone, ensures euthyroidism [normal thyroid status] in all tissues of thyroidectomized rats ... It could well be that a slow-release preparation containing both T(4) and T(3) might improve the quality of life, compared with T(4) replacement alone, in some hypothyroid patients"
• Effects of thyroxine as compared with thyroxine plus triiodothyronine in patients with hypothyroidism - N Engl J Med. 1999 Feb 11;340(6):469-70 - "among 15 visual-analogue scales used to indicate mood and physical status, the results for 10 were significantly better after treatment with thyroxine [t4] plus triiodothyronine [t3]"

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