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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 5/14/08.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Vitamin D Protects Cells From Stress That Can Lead To Cancer - Science Daily, 5/13/08 - "By inducing a specific gene to increase expression of a key enzyme, vitamin D protects healthy prostate cells from the damage and injuries that can lead to cancer" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Lignans' prostate cancer protection gets study boost - Nutra USA, 5/13/08 - "Using a concentration that was not considered toxic to the cells (non-cytotoxic) the researchers found that the density of the prostate tumour was reduced by 57.5 per cent, the metabolic activity of the tumour cells by 55 per cent, and cut secretion of prostate specific antigen (PSA) by 48.5 per cent" - [Abstract] - See Flax Essence at iHerb.

Stay Fit, Avoid Breast Cancer? - WebMD, 5/12/08 - "the women whose activity equaled 13 walking hours a week or 3.25 running hours per week had a 23% lower risk of premenopausal breast cancer compared with the less active women. The strongest association was seen with increased exercise during adolescent and young adult years (ages 12-22)"

Vitamin D and cancer: maintaining levels key to protection? - Nutra USA, 5/12/08 - "After adjusting for various potential confounding factors, the researchers report that people with the highest level of 25(OH)D (76.3 nanomoles per litre) were 55 per cent less likely to die form fatal cancer than those with the lowest levels (18.1 nmol/L)" - [Abstract] - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Pine bark extract may boost diabetics' heart health - Nutra USA, 5/12/08 - "recruited diabetic subjects with an average age of 60 and randomly assigned them to receive daily supplements of Pycnogenol (125 mg) or placebo for 12 weeks ... All subjects were receiving pharmaceutical anti-hypertension treatment (angiotensin- converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitors) ... 58.3 per cent of subjects in the Pycnogenol group experienced blood pressure control, defined as attaining a stable systolic blood pressure, compared to 20.8 per cent in the placebo group ... use of ACE inhibitors was reduced by 50 per cent in the group receiving the pine bark extract ... a 23.7 mg/dL reduction in fasting blood glucose levels in the Pycnogenol group, compared to only 5.7 mg/dL in the placebo group" - See Pycnogenol at Amazon.com.

Hypovitaminosis D Appears Common Among Skin Cancer Population - oncologystat.com, 5/12/08 - "Nearly all patients undergoing Mohs surgery for nonmelanoma skin cancer were found to be vitamin D deficient"

Statins May Reduce Risk for Lung Cancer - Medscape, 5/8/08 - "Statin use for more than 6 months was associated with a reduced risk for lung cancer of 55%"

Teen Marijuana Use Linked to Later Illness - washingtonpost.com, 5/8/08 - "Teenagers who smoke marijuana put themselves at risk for future mental illness and higher rates of depression ... studies show links between marijuana use and risk of mental illness later in life, and that use could increase the risk by as much as 40 percent ... teenagers who smoke marijuana at least once a month are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than non-users"

To Avoid Dementia, Watch Your Weight - WebMD, 5/8/08 - "obese people have an 80% increased risk for Alzheimer's disease compared to those with normal weight"

Ginseng May Help Treat Schizophrenia - WebMD, 5/8/08 - "In a small study, patients had fewer negative symptoms -- such as lack of motivation and a severe reduction in emotional expression known as "flat affect" -- when they took Panax ginseng than when they took a placebo ... patients were 50% less likely to have flat affect when taking the higher, 200-milligram dose of ginseng than when taking placebo" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.

Does Honey Relieve Cough in Children? - Medscape, 5/8/08 - "On a 6-point scale, subjects who received honey reported an average improvement of 1.89 points in cough frequency, compared with 1.39 points for DM subjects and 0.92 points for "no treatment" subjects. Parental assessment of the child's sleep improved by 2.49 points for honey patients, by 1.79 points for DM patients, and by 1.57 points for no treatment patients"

Diet High In Saturated Fat Contributes To Prostate Cancer Treatment Failure, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 5/8/08 - "Patients on a HSF diets were significantly more likely to have a PSA failure and had significantly shorter PSA-failure free survival than men on a LSF diet (26.6 vs. 44.7 months, respectively). At 5 years post radical prostatectomy, 65% of patients who consumed HSF diets had no evidence of prostate cancer compared to 80% of men who ate a LSF diet"

CDC: 52% With Diabetes Have Arthritis - WebMD, 5/8/08 - "Diabetes patients aged 18 to 44 have a 27.6% chance of having arthritis -- 2.5 times the 11% rate seen in the general population"

Vitamin D Linked to Reduced Mortality Rate in Chronic Kidney Disease - Doctor's Guide, 5/7/08 - "For patients with moderate to severe chronic kidney disease (CKD), treatment with activated vitamin D may reduce the risk of death by approximately one-fourth" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Perk of Good Job: Aging Mind Is Sharp - WebMD, 5/7/08 - "Jobs that have elements where you need to solve problems, plan and organize, and think flexibly and on your feet appear to carry cognitive benefits throughout your life. You can potentially draw on them later as reserves"

Direct Evidence for Beneficial Effect of Growth Hormone Replacement on Mortality in Adults With Deficiency - Doctor's Guide, 5/7/08 - "Levels of insulin growth factor I (IGF-I) correlate with mortality rates in patients with severe growth hormone deficiency (GHD) on growth hormone (GH) replacement therapy ... Significantly increased mortality rates in the study population were seen for: females (1.36; 95% CI, 1.10-1.66); diabetes insipidus (1.66; 95% CI, 1.31-2.07); craniopharyngioma (2.00; 95% CI, 1.40-2.77); and malignancy as underlying disease (3.03; 95% CI, 2.15-4.16). Nonfunctioning pituitary adenoma was associated with significantly decreased SMR (0.57; 95% CI, 0.45-0.72)"

Plants' Flavonoids Have Beneficial Effect On Alzheimer's Disease, Study In Mice Suggests - Science Daily, 5/7/08 - "Researchers administered molecules called flavonoids, which are found in certain fruits and vegetables, to a mouse model genetically programmed to develop Alzheimer's disease. Using two of these molecules, luteolin and diosmin, they were able to reduce the levels of a protein called amyloid-beta, which forms the sticky deposits that build up in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's" - See bioflavonoids at Amazon.com.

I saw one the the fed's energy czars mention Jatropha on the news a couple days ago when he was question on bio-fuel increasing the price of food.  Just to show readers how ridiculous bio-fuel is and how people are getting snowed I added this to the paragraph on bio-fuel in last week's newsletter:

  • ... "Yeah, I read about the Jatropha plant years ago.  It's supposed to grow nearly anywhere with very little water.  They know the numbers don't add up on that so they argue that they can grow it in poor countries and pay low wage to pick Jatropha seeds.  Sounds like code for the equivalent of childhood sweat shops paying kids 3 cents per day so people can run their SUVs.  It might be outside but it's just as hot.  I was going to buy stock in the main company producing it but had second thoughts the more I read.  If it was viable, why are we wasting our time with corn and soy?  Just doing rough calculations there is no way the numbers ad up.  I calculate that Jatropha will yield 5600 gallons per square mile per year (Slide 13 and doing the math).  There are 3,537,441 square miles in the United States.  So if planted every inch of the US, which is impossible with the lakes, road, building, etc., you would get 19,809,669,600.  So let's say 20 * 109.  Then let's say 200 million people in the US average 20 gallons per week.  That's 208 * 109. (that's less that the 284 * 109 that this site claims is the actual number in 2002 which shows how close my guestimates are).  That's still less than a tenth of what we need, probably about a twentieth of what we need growing every inch of the United States with Jatropha which is impossible.  Even with 8th grade math the numbers don't come anywhere near adding up.  You can't grow the equivalent of millions of years of dead dinosaurs"
  • Some other statistics that were on the news this weeks:
    • It takes 450 bushels of corn to make 25 gallons of gas which is basically a tank of gas for gas guzzlers.  Figuring 2000 calories per day, that same 450 bushels of corn would feed a person for a year.
    • Fox News had a breakdown on the price of gas:  72% goes to the oil producing countries, most of which are hostile to the US (so we're funding the people who want to send us a suitcase nuke), 12% goes to taxes, 8% goes to refining and 8% is profit.  So it seems that the politicians are going after the people tied for the smallest cut.  They also had a panel discussion on high gas prices and at the end asked for everyone's recommended solution.  I thought they were all dumb but one had a point.  He said that there is enough energy in a bathtub full of water to power America for a year and that we need to be putting all our money in research on fusion.  My university professor was saying in the early '70's that the solution on fusion would be solved if they had the research money.  I'd worry that even if we diverted research money on alternative energy and cancer and everything else and the government borrowed every dime they could get that they still might not solve it and then we'd be in a real jam.  They've got it solved long enough for a fusion (hydrogen) bomb, they just can't get the controlled reaction part down.  It must be possible though as that's what keeps the sun going but the sun is large enough to have the gravitational pull to compress the hydrogen.  They claim the fusion from deuterium (heavy hydrogen which has a neutron and proton in the nucleus vice just a proton) from sea water would have fuel for 150 billion years.  I think man will nuke themselves into oblivion or we'll be hit by a large astroid like that which wiped out the dinosaurs or we'll mutate into something like those creatures in the movie "Independence Day" or a virus that's spread like the cold but deadlier than AIDS will hit long before that so I wouldn't worry about hurting future generations on that one.

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):

Vitamin C consumption is associated with less progression in carotid intima media thickness in elderly men: A 3-year intervention study - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2008 May 7 - "Vitamin C containing foods may protect against the progression of carotid atherosclerosis in elderly men"

Plasma eicosapentaenoic acid is inversely associated with severity of depressive symptomatology in the elderly: data from the Bordeaux sample of the Three-City Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 May;87(5):1156-62 - "Higher plasma EPA was associated with a lower severity of DS in elderly subjects, especially those taking antidepressants" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.

Enterolactone restricts the proliferation of the LNCaP human prostate cancer cell line in vitro - Mol Nutr Food Res. 2008 Apr 8;52(5):567-580 - "The capacity of a pure mammalian lignan, enterolactone (ENL) ... the antiproliferative activity of ENL is a consequence of altered expression of cell cycle associated genes and provides novel molecular evidence for the antiproliferative properties of a pure lignan in prostate cancer" - I take one of the Flax Essence at iHerb everyday for hair loss.  See:

  • Flax lignans: a cure for hair loss? - Nutra USA, 5/9/05 - "Ten male sufferers of androgenetic alopecia aged between 20- and 70- years received a 50mg daily dose of SDG in the form of one 250 mg capsule of Acatris’ LinumLife Extra ... eight of the participants reported a modest improvement in their hair loss condition, one reported a great improvement and one reported no effect at all"

Vitamin C Intake and Serum Uric Acid Concentration in Men - J Rheumatol. 2008 May 1 - "An inverse dose-response association was observed through vitamin C intake of 400-500 mg/day, and then reached a plateau ... Greater vitamin C intake was associated with lower prevalence of hyperuricemia (serum uric acid > 6 mg/dl). Multivariate odds ratios for hyperuricemia across total vitamin C intake categories were 1 (reference), 0.58, 0.57, 0.38, and 0.34 (95% CI 0.20-0.58; P for trend < 0.001). When we used dietary data, which were assessed 4-8 years before blood collection, as predictors, we observed similar inverse associations between vitamin C intake and uric acid ... These population-based data indicate that vitamin C intake in men is inversely associated with serum uric acid concentrations. These findings support a potential role of vitamin C in the prevention of hyperuricemia and gout" - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com.

Efficacy of Probiotics in Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Meta-Analysis of Randomized, Controlled Trials - Dis Colon Rectum. 2008 May 9 - "Pooling of eight trials for the outcome of clinical improvement yielded a significant relative risk of 1.22 ... Probiotics may improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and can be used as supplement to standard therapy" - See probiotics at Amazon.com.

Low Serum Levels of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Predict Fatal Cancer in Patients Referred to Coronary Angiography - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 May 7 - "After adjustment for possible confounders, the Cox proportional hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) of the fourth 25(OH)D quartile was 0.45 (0.22-0.93) when compared with the first quartile and the hazard ratio per increase of 25 nmol/L in serum 25(OH)D concentrations was 0.66 (0.49-0.89)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Curcumin and cancer: An "old-age" disease with an "age-old" solution - Cancer Lett. 2008 May 5 - "The activity of curcumin reported against leukemia and lymphoma, gastrointestinal cancers, genitourinary cancers, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, lung cancer, melanoma, neurological cancers, and sarcoma reflects its ability to affect multiple targets. Thus an "old-age" disease such as cancer requires an "age-old" treatment" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.

Low Serum Levels of 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Predict Fatal Cancer in Patients Referred to Coronary Angiography - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2008 May 7 - "our data suggest that low levels of 25(OH)D are associated with increased risk of fatal cancer in patients referred to coronary angiography and that the maintenance of a sufficient vitamin D status might therefore be a promising approach for the prevention and/or treatment of cancer" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Hyperhomocysteinemia is a risk factor for erectile dysfunction in men with adult-onset diabetes mellitus - Urology. 2008 May;71(5):897-900 - "Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) ... those with HHcy had 5.2 times the odds of vasculogenic ED compared with men without HHcy"

Multi-targeted prevention and therapy of cancer by proanthocyanidins - Cancer Lett. 2008 May 3 - "A wide variety of botanicals, mostly dietary flavonoids or polyphenolic substances, have been reported to possess substantial anti-carcinogenic and antimutagenic activities because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Proanthocyanidins are considered as one of them, and are abundantly available in various parts of the plants, such as fruits, berries, bark and seeds. Their modes of action were evaluated through a number of in vitro and in vivo studies which showed their potential role as anti-carcinogenic agent. We summarize and highlight the latest developments on anti-carcinogenic activities of proanthocyanidins from different sources, specifically from grape seeds, and their molecular targets, such as NF-kappaB, mitogen-activated protein kinases, PI3K/Akt, caspases, cytokines, angiogenesis and cell cycle regulatory proteins and other check points, etc. Although the bioavailability and metabolism data on proanthocyanidins is still largely unavailable, certain reports indicate that at least monomers and smaller oligomeric procyanidins are absorbed in the gut. The modulation of various molecular targets by proanthocyanidins in vitro and in vivo tumor models suggests their importance, contribution and mechanism of action to the prevention of cancers of different organs" - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com and Pycnogenol at Amazon.com.  Some say the grape seed extract if the same as Pycnogenol without the patent markup.

Neat Tech Stuff (iPod thru FM Players in Order of Ratings - prices on 4/27/08) - I bought the 4 GB Nano which was $21 cheaper after taxes at Amazon.com vice Costco, $134 delivered:

Or Record Lectures with Your iPod:

Or iPod Music Systems:

Or iPod Cables:

Or iPod Software:

  • dvdvideosoft.com - Free YouTube to iPod converter.  It also works for every newscast on the local news shows that I've tried.
  • Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 10 - It will convert TV shows recorded with Microsoft Media Center to iPod.  I've also got Nero 8 (for super CD+G karaoke) but didn't see that option.
  • Tune4Win Audio Converter: DRM M4P to MP3 converter converts copy protected music or audio files, iTunes M4P to MP3, M4B to MP3, M4P to WAV, m4p to wma - After you convert them to MP3 you can import them back un-copy protected.  It's really easy.  You load both iTunes and Tune4Win.  Then in iTunes you select "Edit - Preferences - Advanced (Tab) then L: Tune4Win Virtual CD-RW.  That makes iTunes think your hard drive is a CD-ROM.  Then you make a playlist and burn it like you normally would but instead of going to the CD-ROM, the songs go to your hard drive in the .MP3 format.  Then if you want them back into iTunes, in iTunes select "File - Import".  When you import them, they will be in the .m4a unprotected format vice the .m4p protected format.  You'll show duplicated in iTunes.  You can tell which ones are protected by going "View - View Options" and putting a check mark at "Kind".  The easiest way is to go "File - Add folder to Library ...".  That will import the .mp3 songs.  Then go through and convert each .mp3 to .m4a (right click the .mp3 version and select "Convert Selection to AAC").  Tune4Win sometimes has problems when it goes the consecutive virtual disc.  I fixed that my keeping the playlists that I burn down to 16 songs.
  • Roxio MyTV to Go - See review.  Sounds like it does the same as above but I couldn't find a place that sells it.  Several site offer a free download but I don't know if I'd trust them.
  • Power CD+G to iPod Karaoke Converter - You'll probably also need the Griffin 9757-IKAROKE iKaraoke Microphone for iPod.
  • iTunes - Yeah, you already need it for iPod but I was surprised that many don't know that it will convert your CD's to iPod.
  • 1CLICK DVDTOIPOD - iPod Classic, Nano, Touch and iPhone - Converts DVD to iPod but you'll probably also need AnyDVD.  You'll need a lot of memory for the movies.  For example, Wild Hogs is 1 hour 39 minutes (relatively short by today's standards) and is nearly a gigabyte.
  • SlySoft CloneDVD mobile | DVD to PSP, DVD to iVideo, DVD to ZEN - Similar to above but you'll probably also need AnyDVD.

Or iPod Headphones (those Apple ones won't stay in my ear):

Or Waterproof iPod:

Or iPod Cases:

Supplement Focus (Flavonoids):

Specific Flavonoid Recommendation:

Flavonoid News & Research:

Flavonoid Abstracts: