Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 4/22/09.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Pesticide Exposure Found To Increase Risk Of Parkinson's Disease - Science Daily, 4/22/09 - "In a new epidemiological study of Central Valley residents who have been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, researchers found that years of exposure to the combination of these two pesticides increased the risk of Parkinson's by 75 percent. Further, for people 60 years old or younger diagnosed with Parkinson's, earlier exposure had increased their risk for the disease by as much as four- to six-fold"

Antioxidant Found In Berries, Other Foods Prevents UV Skin Damage That Leads To Wrinkles - Science Daily, 4/21/09 - "Using a topical application of the antioxidant ellagic acid, researchers at Hallym University in the Republic of Korea markedly prevented collagen destruction and inflammatory response – major causes of wrinkles -- in both human skin cells and the sensitive skin of hairless mice following continuing exposure to UV-B, the sun's skin-damaging ultraviolet radioactive rays ... Ellagic acid is an antioxidant found in numerous fruits, vegetables and nuts, especially raspberries, strawberries, cranberries and pomegranates ... the results demonstrate that ellagic acid works to prevent wrinkle formation and photo-aging caused by UV destruction of collagen and inflammatory response"

Charred Meat May Increase Risk Of Pancreatic Cancer - Science Daily, 4/21/09 - "subjects who preferred very well done steak were almost 60 percent as likely to get pancreatic cancer as compared to those who ate steak less well done or did not eat steak. When overall consumption and doneness preferences were used to estimate the meat-derived carcinogen intake for subjects, those with highest intake had 70 percent higher risk than those with the lowest intake"

Drinking Wine May Increase Survival Among Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Patients - Science Daily, 4/21/09 - "those who drank wine had a 76 percent five-year survival compared with 68 percent for non-wine drinkers. Further research found five-year, disease-free survival was 70 percent among those who drank wine compared with 65 percent among non-wine drinkers"

Too Much Or Too Little Sleep Increases Risk Of Diabetes - Science Daily, 4/21/09 - "The risk is 2½ times higher for people who sleep less than 7 hours or more than 8 hours a night"

Walnuts Fight Breast Cancer - WebMD, 4/21/09 - "Standard testing showed that eating walnuts cut the risk of developing breast tumors in half ... If mice did get breast tumors, the growth rate was also slowed, by 50% ... Extrapolating to humans, this would be about a nine-year delay"

Fresh Take on Fructose vs. Glucose - WebMD, 4/21/09 - "Both the groups gained weight during the trial, but imaging studies revealed that most of the added fat in the fructose group occurred in the belly, while most of the fat gained by the glucose group was subcutaneous (under the skin) ... Belly fat, but not subcutaneous fat, has been linked to an increased risk for heart disease and diabetes ... The fructose group had higher total cholesterol and LDL "bad" cholesterol, plus greater insulin resistance, which are consistent with metabolic syndrome, while the glucose group did not"

Naturally Occurring Compounds Selectively Deplete Mutant P53 In Tumor Cells - Science Daily, 4/20/09 - "This study demonstrates for the first time that phenethyl isothiocyante (PEITC), a naturally-occurring compound, can selectively deplete mutant p53. The authors also made an intriguing observation that the depletion of mutant p53 in human cancer cells is accompanied by restoration of the wild type p53. PEITC is a member of the isothiocyanate family compounds found in cruciferous vegetables, such as watercress, broccoli and cabbage. PEITC has been shown to have cancer preventive activity"

Eating red meat may hike kidney cancer risk - MSNBC, 4/20/09 - "The researchers found no relationship between fruit and dairy food consumption and renal cell carcinoma. However, both men and women who ate red meat five or more times a week were more than four times as likely to develop the disease compared to people who consumed red meat less than once a week"

Human Lung Tumors Destroy Anti-cancer Hormone Vitamin D, Pitt Researchers Find - Science Daily, 4/20/09 - "Human lung tumors have the ability to eliminate Vitamin D, a hormone with anti-cancer activity"

Turmeric: India's 'Holy Powder' Finally Reveals Its Centuries-old Secret - Science Daily, 4/20/09 - "Using a high-tech instrument termed solid-state NMR spectroscopy, the scientists discovered that molecules of curcumin act like a biochemical disciplinarian. They insert themselves into cell membranes and make the membranes more stable and orderly in a way that increases cells' resistance to infection by disease-causing microbes"

Adding Walnuts To Good Diet May Help Older People Improve Motor And Behavioral Skills - Science Daily, 4/19/09 - "the 6 percent walnut study diet is equivalent to a human eating 1 ounce, or about 7 to 9 walnuts, a day ... The study found that in aged rats, the diets containing 2 percent or 6 percent walnuts were able to improve age-related motor and cognitive shortfalls, while the 9 percent walnut diet impaired reference memory. Walnuts, eaten in moderation, appear to be among other foods containing polyphenols and bioactive substances that exhibit multiple effects on neural tissue"

How Plants Protect Us From Disease - Science Daily, 4/19/09 - "Everyday foods, beverages, and spices contain healthful compounds that help us fight harmful inflammation. And, in doing that, these phytochemicals—the resveratrol in red wine or the catechins in green, white and black teas, for instance—may also reduce our risk of diseases associated with chronic inflammation, including cancer and diabetes"

Fish Oil Protects Against Diseases Like Parkinson's - Science Daily, 4/19/09 - "Dr. Nicolas Bazan, Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence, Boyd Professor, and Ernest C. and Yvette C. Villere Chair of Retinal Degenerative Diseases Research at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, will present new research findings showing that an omega three fatty acid in the diet protects brain cells by preventing the misfolding of a protein resulting from a gene mutation in neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Huntington's ... the omega three fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), protects cells from this defect ... Dr. Bazan's laboratory discovered earlier that neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1), a naturally-occurring molecule in the human brain that is derived from DHA also promotes brain cell survival" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Blueberries May Banish Belly Fat - WebMD, 4/19/08 - "enriched with whole blueberry powder or carbohydrates as 2% of their total diet ... After 90 days, the rats fed blueberries had less abdominal fat, lower cholesterol, and improved glucose control and insulin sensitivity. The latter two factors are markers of how well the body processes sugar for energy and are related to diabetes risk"

Fatty Liver Disease: The Next Big Thing - Science Daily, 4/19/09 - "New research in The Journal of Physiology connects low aerobic capacity to another serious condition – non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) – and suggests that the resulting liver problems play a crucial step developing obesity-related illnesses ... Sufferers of NAFLD accumulate fat in their livers and have high levels of fat in their blood, amplifying the risk-factors of obesity. The disease leads to a form of liver damage called fibrosis, similar to the results of alcohol abuse"

Very Low Blood Sugar Linked to Dementia - WebMD, 4/17/09 - "Compared to patients with no history of low blood sugar requiring treatment, patients with a single episode of hospital-treated hypoglycemia were found to have a 26% increase in dementia risk ... Patients treated three or more times for hypoglycemia had nearly double the dementia risk of patients who had never been treated" - It doesn't say what they mean by very low.  I would think that low enough to be hospitalized would be below 50 and I'd think that would be very uncommon but again, I'm not a doctor.

Low vitamin A and C levels may boost asthma risk - Nutra USA, 4/17/09 - "vitamin A dietary intakes were significantly lower among asthmatics than in those who had not been diagnosed with the disease ... When Leonardi-Bee and his co-workers considered vitamin C they found low blood levels of the vitamin and low dietary intakes of vitamin-C foods were associated with a 12 per cent increase in the risk of asthma"

Epilepsy Drug Linked to Babies' Lower IQ - WebMD, 4/15/09 - "Women with epilepsy who took the drug valproate ( Depakote) during pregnancy gave birth to children whose IQ at age 3 averaged up to 9 points lower than the scores of children exposed to other epilepsy drugs"

Statins May Lower Stroke Risk - Science Daily, 4/15/09 - "strokes were 18% less likely among patients taking statins than among those who didn't get statins ... For every drop of 39 mg/dL in LDL "bad" cholesterol, stroke risk dropped by 21%"

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):

Serum calcium and the risk of prostate cancer - Cancer Causes Control. 2009 Apr 18 - "These data do not support the hypothesis that high serum calcium levels is a risk factor for prostate cancer. On the contrary, the data suggest that high serum levels of calcium in young overweight men may be a marker for a decreased risk of developing prostate cancer"

Metformin restores impaired HDL-mediated cholesterol efflux due to glycation - Atherosclerosis. 2009 Mar 19 - "In the presence of metformin or aminoguanidine (100mM), glycated HDL-mediated cholesterol efflux was restored to 97.5+/-4.3% and 96.9+/-3.1%, respectively"

Insulin resistance independently predicts the progression of coronary artery calcification - Am Heart J. 2009 May;157(5):939-45 - "After controlling for these variables, higher fasting insulin levels independently predicted CAC progression"

Resveratrol attenuates angiotensin II-induced interleukin-6 expression and perivascular fibrosis - Hypertens Res. 2009 Apr 17 - "Resveratrol significantly attenuated Ang II-induced IL-6 mRNA expression and IL-6 protein in the supernatant of VSMC in a dose-dependent manner. Resveratrol suppressed the IL-6 gene promoter activity. Resveratrol inhibited the Ang II-induced cAMP-response element-binding protein and nuclear factor-kappa B activity, which are critical for Ang II-induced IL-6 gene activation. An increase in the serum concentration of IL-6 induced by Ang II infusion was attenuated by an oral administration of resveratrol. Resveratrol also inhibited Ang II-induced hypertension and perivascular fibrosis of the heart. Although hydralazine reduced blood pressure level equal to resveratrol, it did not reduce the Ang II-induced IL-6 production and perivascular fibrosis. These data suggest that the inhibition of Ang II-induced vascular inflammation and high blood pressure by resveratrol may contribute, at least in part, to the anti-atherogenic effects of resveratrol" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.

Relationship between selenium and breast cancer: a case-control study in the Klang Valley - Singapore Med J. 2009 Mar;50(3):265-9 - "Breast cancer risk decreased with the increasing quartiles of selenium intake, with odds ratios (95 percent confidence interval) of 2.95 (1.22-7.12), 2.17 (1.13-4.19) and 1.71 (0.84-3.52), respectively. However, the association diminished after adjustment for confounding factors ... it is essential for Malaysian women to achieve a good selenium status by consuming good food sources of selenium as a chemopreventive agent"

Evaluation of Topical Vitamin B(12) for the Treatment of Childhood Eczema - J Altern Complement Med. 2009 Apr 15 - "Skin treated with topical vitamin B(12) improved significantly more than placebo treated skin at 2 and 4 weeks"

Neat Tech Stuff :

D-Link ships $139.99 PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit - engadget.com, 4/15/09 - "While we wait for the phenomenon that is wireless HD to actually matter, D-Link's forging ahead with technology that's here, now. Starting today, the outfit is shipping a new PowerLine kit that can stream high-def footage throughout a home's integrated electrical wiring system. In other words, it's not wireless, but it's far from being messy. The PowerLine HD Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit (DHP-303) includes a pair of wall plugs / adapters which convert power sockets into access points for streaming media across the network. D-Link promises that users will see up to 200Mbps of throughput, and of course, the tried-and-rarely-true "plug-and-play" buzzword is thrown in as well. Assuming it actually works, the $139.99 asking price ain't too bad" - See it at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Avodart (dutasteride)):

Related Topics:

• prostate concerns / saw palmetto / Proscar (finasteride) / Rapaflo (silodosin)

Where to purchase:

• Dutasteride (Avodart) 30 x 0.5mg capsules at International Antiaging Systems
• OffshoreRx1.com

Alternative News:

• See saw palmetto
• Relieve Common Men’s Condition with Saw Palmetto Extract - Healthwell Exchange Daily News, 9/16/04 - "Comparison trials found its effects to be similar to those of finasteride and tamsulosin ... however, while some men using the standard medications experienced sexual dysfunction as a side effect, men using the herbal extract did not" - See saw palmetto at Amazon.com.

News & Research:

• Avodart (dutasteride) - rxlist.com - "AVODART (dutasteride) is a synthetic 4-azasteroid compound that is a selective inhibitor of both the type 1 and type 2 isoforms of steroid 5a-reductase (5AR), an intracellular enzyme that converts testosterone to 5a-dihydrotestosterone (DHT)"
• Diet, Drugs May Stop Prostate Cancer - WebMD, 9/24/07
• Diet And Medications May Assist Prevention Of Prostate Cancer - Science Daily, 9/24/07 - "dutasteride, has reduced by 50 percent the number of cancerous biopsies among men with benign prostatic hypertrophy ... In one study of selenium, the incidence of prostate cancer was reduced by 49 percent over ten years ... Data already suggests novel uses of statins, commonly prescribed cholesterol-lowering agents, and insulin modulating drugs, such as metformin or the glitazones"
• Treatment Found To Reverse Hair Loss - Science Daily, 6/11/07 - "one of each pair of twins was given 0.5 mg/day of the medication, the other receiving a placebo ... After both 6 and 12-month intervals, hair loss was found to not only have been halted in twins using dutasteride, but hair growth was actively improved"

Abstracts:

• Association of Sexual Dysfunction With Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms of BPH and BPH Medical Therapies: Results From the BPH Registry - Urology. 2009 Jan 21 - "The severity of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) has correlated with erectile dysfunction (ED) and ejaculatory dysfunction (EjD) ... The alpha(1A)-subtype nonsuperselective quinazoline alpha(1)-blockers alfuzosin, doxazosin, and terazosin appeared to be associated with better ejaculatory function than were the alpha(1A)-subtype superselective sulfonamide alpha(1)-blocker tamsulosin, 5alpha-reductase inhibitors, and alpha(1)-blocker plus 5alpha-reductase inhibitor combination therapy"
• Effect of Dutasteride on Intraprostatic Androgen Levels in Men With Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia or Prostate Cancer - Urology. 2008 Aug 19 - "The results of our study have shown that dutasteride provides near-maximal suppression of both serum and intraprostatic DHT levels in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia or prostate cancer at all points assessed"
• The Rationale for Inhibiting 5alpha-Reductase Isoenzymes in the Prevention and Treatment of Prostate Cancer - J Urol. 2008 Feb 14 - "The 2 5alpha-reductase inhibitors currently clinically available are finasteride, a type 2 5alpha-reductase inhibitor, and dutasteride, a dual 5alpha-reductase inhibitor. Dual inhibition by dutasteride has been shown to translate into a greater degree and consistency of dihydrotestosterone suppression compared with finasteride. The Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial showed that finasteride significantly decreased the 7-year risk of prostate cancer in men with prostate specific antigen 3.0 ng/ml or less, while the ongoing Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events study is assessing whether dutasteride decreases the risk of biopsy detectable prostate cancer in men with prostate specific antigen 2.5 to 10 ng/ml and a previous negative biopsy"
• The importance of dual 5alpha-reductase inhibition in the treatment of male pattern hair loss: results of a randomized placebo-controlled study of dutasteride versus finasteride - J Am Acad Dermatol. 2006 Dec;55(6):1014-23 - "Dutasteride increased target area hair count versus placebo in a dose-dependent fashion and dutasteride 2.5 mg was superior to finasteride at 12 and 24 weeks" - Note:  Dutasteride is Avodart®.  See dutasteride at OffshoreRx1.com or International Antiaging Systems.

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