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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 6/18/08.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Grape Seed Extract May Reduce Cognitive Decline Associated With Alzheimer's Disease - Science Daily, 6/17/08 - "Chemical analysis showed that the major polyphenol components in the study's grape seed extract product are catechin and epicatechin, which are also abundant in tea and cocoa. These components differ from resveratrol, a polyphenol that has been reported to reduce amyloid beta secretion in cells and generally increase lifespan by mimicking calorie restriction. Resveratrol appears to be effective only at extremely high doses, which may limit its use in people. In contrast, the catechins in the extract product studied appear to be effective at much lower doses" - My favorite is the Jarrow OPC + 95 products at iHerb.

'Big Breakfast' Diet Helps Shed Pounds - WebMD, 6/17/08 - "Eating a 600-calorie breakfast rich in carbohydrates and protein helps dieters lose more weight long term than eating a modest breakfast and following a lower-carb eating plan ... In all, members of the big-breakfast group lost more than 21% of their body weight; low-carb group members lost 4.5%"

Depression can trigger diabetes, study suggests - MSNBC, 6/17/08 - "Depressed people were 42 percent more likely to develop diabetes ... depression also pushes up the levels of stress hormones such as cortisol ... Elevated cortisol levels can impair insulin sensitivity in the body and encourage belly fat, a risk factor for diabetes"

Hypertension Treatment Effective In Reversing Vascular Damage, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 6/17/08 - "A hypertension medication called olmesartan medoxomil is effective in reversing the narrowing of the arteries that occurs in patients with high blood pressure ... After one year of treatment, olmesartan medoxomil improved the artery abnormalities in high blood pressure patients and returned arterial architecture to normal levels. This was not seen with the atenolol" - Note:  Olmesartan is an ARB, the same class of drugs as is telmisartan which has been my recommendation.  Atenolol is a beta-blocker.  I was prescribed atenolol once.  It took me an hour and forty minutes to complete a swim that usually took an hour and twenty minutes.  If that weren't bad enough, I felt like I was going to pass out after the longer time swim.

Low Testosterone Appears To Increase Long-term Risk Of Death - Science Daily, 6/17/08 - "Men with low testosterone levels had more than 2.5 times greater risk of dying during the next 10 years compared to men with higher testosterone"

Hypertension: Systolic Pressure Key - Medscape, 6/17/08 - "The diagnosis of hypertension in patients aged over 50 years should focus exclusively on the systolic blood pressure, rather than using both systolic and diastolic as is current practice, according to three experts in the field"

Drinking Large Amounts Of Coffee May Actually Extend One's Lifespan, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 6/16/08 - "Women consuming two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up period (which lasted from 1980 to 2004 and involved 84,214 women) as compared with non-consumers, and an 18 percent lower risk of death caused by something other than cancer or heart disease as compared with non-consumers during follow-up. For men, this level of consumption was associated with neither a higher nor a lower risk of death during the follow-up period"

Hearing Loss Is Twice As Common In People With Diabetes Compared To Those WIthout The Disease - Science Daily, 6/18/08 - "Adults with pre-diabetes, whose blood glucose is higher than normal but not high enough for a diabetes diagnosis, had a 30 percent higher rate of hearing loss compared to those with normal blood sugar tested after an overnight fast ... Diabetes may lead to hearing loss by damaging the nerves and blood vessels of the inner ear" - That might be another good reason to take pioglitazone if you have pre-diabetes.

Lack of vitamin D rampant in infants, teens - USA Today, 6/16/08 - "Vitamin D deficiency is much more of a health problem than anyone realized ... 40% of infants and toddlers tested below average for vitamin D. In a previous study, Gordon and fellow researchers discovered that 42% of adolescents were vitamin D deficient ... Current recommendations by the Institute of Medicine suggest 200 IUs of vitamin D a day for children and 400 IUs for adults, but Callahan, who serves on an institute committee that aims to update those guidelines, says she suggests higher levels to many of her patients, at least 800 to 1,000 IUs a day" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Adults still risk vitamin D deficiency - USA Today, 6/16/08 - "She began screening all of her patients last year and says 95% have come up deficient. "I'm even seeing it in twenty- and thirty somethings," she says"

Red Wine's Resveratrol May Help Battle Obesity - Science Daily, 6/16/08 - "resveratrol inhibited the pre-fat cells from increasing and prevented them from converting into mature fat cells. Also, resveratrol hindered fat storage. Most interesting, according to Fischer-Posovszky, was that resveratrol reduced production of certain cytokines (interleukins 6 and 8), substances that may be linked to the development of obesity-related disorders, such as diabetes and clogged coronary arteries. Also, resveratrol stimulated formation of a protein known to decrease the risk of heart attack. Obesity decreases this substance, called adiponectin" - [WebMD] - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.

Cannabis 'can harm foetal brain' - BBC News, 6/16/08 - "Now we demonstrate the extent of this signalling system and that complex network of neurons - the backbones of higher cognitive functions - do not develop normally when endocannabinoid signalling is disturbed ... babies born to mothers who took cannabis while they were pregnant went on to experience problems with physical activity"

Dietary Agents for Chemoprevention of Prostate Cancer - oncologystat.com, 6/16/08 - "In this review, we have summarized the findings from clinical and preclinical studies on dietary agents including green tea, pomegranate, lupeol, fisetin, and delphinidin that are currently being investigated in our laboratory for their chemopreventive potential against CaP" - Click here for the review but it is 172 pages in the .pdf format.

Low Testosterone May Cause Health Problems That Lead To Erectile Dysfunction - Science Daily, 6/16/08 - "It is becoming clear that obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and erectile difficulties are intertwined, and a common denominator is testosterone deficiency"

Low Melatonin Associated with Increased Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women - Science Daily, 6/15/08 - "women with the lowest levels of melatonin had a statistically significantly higher incidence of breast cancer than those with the highest levels" - See melatonin at Amazon.com.

Oily Fish Can Protect Against Rheumatoid Arthritis, But Smoking And Psychosocial Stress Increase Its Risk - Science Daily, 6/13/08 - "For the first time, the intake of oily fish has been demonstrated to have a protective effect against the development of RA, reducing an individual's risk by 20-30%" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com.

Proscar Lowers Prostate Cancer Risk in All Men - Medscape, 6/13/08 - "Finasteride (Proscar) reduces the risk of prostate cancer regardless of a patient's risk level for the malignancy ... In the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial, finasteride treatment was associated with a 25% reduction in the risk of prostate cancer"

Pomegranate extract may stop inflammation, says Bugs - Nutra USA, 6/13/08 - "COX-1 and COX-2 activity was significantly reduced in the pomegranate-fed animals, compared to control, particularly for COX-2. Indeed, COX-1 activity was reduced by about seven per cent following ingestion of the extract, while COX-2 activity decreased by about 26 per cent" - [Science Daily] - See pomegranate at Amazon.com.

Smoking Appears Linked With Risk for Poor Memory in Middle Age - Medscape, 6/12/08 - "current smokers vs participants who had never smoked had a 37% greater risk of being in the lowest quintile of cognitive function (odds ratio, 1.37"

Vitamin D: New Way To Treat Heart Failure? - Science Daily, 6/11/08 - "treatments with activated vitamin D prevented heart muscle cells from growing bigger – the condition, called hypertrophy, in which the heart becomes enlarged and overworked in people with heart failure. The treatments prevented heart muscle cells from the over-stimulation and increased contractions associated with the progression of heart failure" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Chromium ingredient may have diabetes benefits: study - Nutra USA, 6/11/08 - "This suggests that [niacin-bound chromium] is more effective form of [chromium (III) ion] in preventing vascular inflammation in diabetic rats, and thereby, can potentially reduce risk of CVD in diabetes ... ChromeMate is also highly effective in helping maintain healthy blood sugar levels and body weight, which is important for people with diabetes. Given the close link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease, ChromeMate represents a triple benefit in promoting good health" - See chromium supplements at Amazon.com.

Exhaustive Review of the Literature Reveals Even Moderate Alcohol Intake Increases Risk of Cancer - bu.edu, 5/08 - "Alcohol intake of approximately 2 drinks per day increases the risk of cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx by 75 percent, the risk of esophageal cancer by 50 percent, and the risk of laryngeal cancer by 40 percent" - Complete 194 study.

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):

High-sugar diets increase cardiac dysfunction and mortality in hypertension compared to low-carbohydrate or high-starch diets - J Hypertens. 2008 Jul;26(7):1402-1410 - "Diets high in sugar accelerated cardiac systolic dysfunction and mortality in hypertension compared to either a low-carbohydrate/high-fat or high-starch diet"

Choline-stabilized orthosilicic acid supplementation as an adjunct to Calcium/Vitamin D3 stimulates markers of bone formation in osteopenic females: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial - BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2008 Jun 11;9(1):85 - "There were no ch-OSA related adverse events observed and biochemical safety parameters remained within the normal range ... Combined therapy of ch-OSA and Ca/Vit D3 had a potential beneficial effect on bone collagen compared to Ca/Vit D3 alone which suggests that this treatment is of potential use in osteoporosis" - See Jarrow BioSil at Amazon.com.  I take about 9 drops per day of it with my orange juice.

Vitamin D status and response to treatment in post-menopausal osteoporosis - Osteoporos Int. 2008 Jun 13 - "The adjusted odds ratio for incident fractures in vitamin D deficient as compared to vitamin D repleted women was 1.77 ... Optimal vitamin D repletion seems to be necessary to maximize the response to anti-resorbers in terms of both BMD changes and anti-fracture efficacy" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Dietary alpha-, beta-, gamma- and delta-tocopherols in lung cancer risk - Int J Cancer. 2008 Jun 10 - "When we entered the other tocopherols in our model, only the association with dietary alpha-tocopherol intake remained significant; i.e., increasing intake of dietary alpha-tocopherol accounted for 34-53% reductions in lung cancer risk"

Translating the A1C Assay Into Estimated Average Glucose Values - Diabetes Care. 2008 Jun 7 - "28.7 x A1C - 46.7" - That's about right.  It would make my average glucose about 95.

Glycemic index, glycemic load, and cancer risk: a meta-analysis - Am J Clin Nutr. 2008 Jun;87(6):1793-801 - "Overall, both GL and GI were significantly associated with a greater risk of colorectal (summary RR = 1.26; 95% CI: 1.11, 1.44 and RR = 1.18; 95% CI: 1.05, 1.34, respectively) and endometrial (RR = 1.36; 95% CI: 1.14, 1.62 and RR = 1.22; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.49) cancer than of breast and pancreatic cancer"

Neat Tech Stuff :

Windows Live OneCare 2.0 - "All-in-one security from Microsoft protects personal and financial documents from the latest viruses, worms, hackers, spyware, and online identity scams ... Automate "janitorial tasks," including disk cleaning and defragmentation, to help improve PC performance ... Easily back up your files to a CD, DVD, external hard drive, locally networked computers, or most USB-connected storage devices ... Protect your PC from outside security threats while keeping things on the inside running smoothly" - Free with the $30 rebate but then $49 per year for up to 3 PC's.  Good until 6/21/08.

Pricier Gasoline Makes Hybrids A Better Deal - WSJ.com, 6/12/08 - "Toyota Prius ... .3.5 [years to break even]" - Note:  That's figuring 15,000 miles per year (about what I drive) but $4.01 per gallon.  I'd like to know where they are getting gas for $4.01 per gallon.  It's $4.59 per gallon average in San Diego.  Also, the Honda Civic GX (Natural Gas Powered) is already at break even in California with the $4000 rebate from the fed and $3000 rebate from the state.  That brings it to about $18,000 which is about what the regular Civic go for with the same options.  Plus if you purchase the garage refueler, it's only $1.31 per equivalent gallon.

Boone Pickens: U.S. In Energy Crisis - oilandgasinvestor.com, 6/10/08 - "We’re 12 years away from disaster and the guys running for president don’t get it. The candidates don’t understand the problem ... Pickens said the abundance of recent natural gas discoveries in the U.S. is divine intervention and foresees a short-term solution in which natural gas replaces gasoline and diesel in Americans' cars. Pickens himself owns such a car that he refills through an attachment in his garage from his home’s natural gas line ... At today’s prices, the price to fill up with natural gas correlates to about $1.25 per gallon"

Oil from algae? Scientists seek green gold - MSNBC, 11/29/07 - "An acre of corn can produce about 20 gallons of oil per year, Ruan said, compared with a possible 15,000 gallons of oil per acre of algae ... An algae farm could be located almost anywhere. It wouldn't require converting cropland from food production to energy production. It could use sea water. And algae can gobble up pollutants from sewage and power plants" - I just heard on Fox News that Jatropha produces 20 times more bio-fuel per acre than corn and requires very little water.  That's not as good as algae but the point is that even though these may not be the solution to our energy problem they are a heck of a lot better than corn.  We have a serious crisis with energy yet our representatives in congress seem to be more concerned with getting support for programs in their states.

One 6/4 I mentioned that Next Generation Remote Control Extender.  By rerouting cables, some at the cable box and a splitter/booster I'm able to use my Time Warner DVDR with three different TVs.  I was able to buy two more new Time Warner remotes from ebay.com.  I just typed in the remote model number (1056B01).  Not only did it save me two $7.95 per month boxes but I have the DVDR features on two extra TVs.  The directions on the Next Generation Remote Control Extender were confusing.  The one AAA that it takes I believe needs to be the rechargeable type.  Add some A/B switches and a triple mouse emitter for the Next Generation Remote Control Extender and you'll have your DVR, etc. on those TVs also.  Plus it's great that you don't have to point the remote for it to work.  If you plug the Next Generation Remote Control Extender into the back of DVDR make sure the DVDR setting are set up so that the outlet is always on or else you'll be able to turn the DVDR off from other rooms but you'll have to go back to the room with the DVDR to turn it back on.  Either that or just plug the Next Generation Remote Control Extender into another outlet.

Health Focus (Hearing Loss):

Alternative Hearing Loss News:

Other Hearing Loss News: