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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 9/5/12.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Even in normal range, high blood sugar linked to brain shrinkage - Science Daily, 9/3/12 - "The study involved 249 people age 60 to 64 who had blood sugar in the normal range as defined by the World Health Organization. The participants had brain scans at the start of the study and again an average of four years later ... Those with higher fasting blood sugar levels within the normal range and below 6.1 mmol/l (or 110 mg/dL) were more likely to have a loss of brain volume in the areas of the hippocampus and the amygdala, areas that are involved in memory and cognitive skills, than those with lower blood sugar levels. A fasting blood sugar level of 10.0 mmol/l (180 mg/dL) or higher was defined as diabetes and a level of 6.1 mmol/l (110 mg/dL) was considered impaired, or prediabetes ... blood sugar on the high end of normal accounted for six to 10 percent of the brain shrinkage"

High doses of vitamin D help tuberculosis patients recover more quickly - Science Daily, 9/3/12 - "high doses of the vitamin Can dampen down the body's inflammatory response to infection, enabling patients to recover faster, with less damage to their lungs ... their results suggest that vitamin D supplementation might help patients recover better from other diseases such as pneumonia ... Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB, was cleared from the patients' sputum (the phlegm coughed up from deep in the lungs) faster in those who were taking vitamin D, taking an average of 23 days to become undetectable under the microscope compared to 36 days in the patients who were taking the placebo" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Pregnant? Get Your Choline! - U.S. News, 8/31/12 - "The take-home message is best summarized by a review in the Journal of Pediatrics: Choline in the diet of the pregnant mother and the infant is directly related to permanent changes in brain function. Without enough choline during the critical time of brain growth and development, intelligence, memory, and possibly mood regulation will be damaged permanently. We may not be able to measure the exact impact on IQ or other brain functions, but we know enough at this point to start preaching the choline message" - See citicholine at Amazon.com.

Are Mites Causing Your Rosacea? - WebMD, 8/30/12 - "Demodex mites live on the skin of 20% to 80% of adults. The tiny bugs are invisible to the naked eye. Until recently, it was thought that the mites lived harmlessly, feeding off the oily sebum that coats the skin ... people with rosacea have more than 10 times as many Demodex mites on their skin as people without the condition ... Those bacteria trigger an immune reaction that causes redness and inflammation of the skin ... This study contains evidence, but it's not proof"

Why your cellphone has more germs than a toilet - MSNBC, 8/30/12 - "Cellphones carry 10 times more bacteria than most toilet seats" - See BD Alcohol Swabs Thicker, Softer, 100 Individually Foil Wrapped at Amazon.com.

Dieting Monkeys Don't Always Live Longer, Says Study - ABC News, 8/29/12 - "As the latest Nature dispatch found, the NIA monkeys fed a calorie-restricted diet didn't live any longer than monkeys on a higher-calorie diet. No matter what they ate, maximum lifespan seems to hover around 40 years of age. Half the monkeys that began the study as youngsters were still alive, but the researchers say, based on survival patterns, they predict the remaining calorie-restrictors and controls will all live to be about the same age ... These latest findings are at odds with the WNPRC study in which calorie-restricted monkeys have far outlived the controls ... the study design might account for some of the disparities ... For one thing, the Wisconsin monkeys subsisted on a diet that shared many of the same unhealthy aspects of a typical Western diet ... The NIA monkeys were already eating so healthy to begin with, the calorie reduction may not have provided much more of a health advantage"

Chocolate: A sweet method for stroke prevention in men? - Science Daily, 8/29/12 - "While other studies have looked at how chocolate may help cardiovascular health, this is the first of its kind study to find that chocolate ... Those eating the highest amount of chocolate had a 17-percent lower risk of stroke, or 12 fewer strokes per 100,000 person-years compared to those who ate no chocolate ... In a larger analysis of five studies that included 4,260 stroke cases, the risk of stroke for individuals in the highest category of chocolate consumption was 19 percent lower compared to non-chocolate consumers. For every increase in chocolate consumption of 50 grams per week, or about a quarter cup of chocolate chips, the risk of stroke decreased by about 14 percent ... The beneficial effect of chocolate consumption on stroke may be related to the flavonoids in chocolate" - See Garden of Life, Radical Fruits Antioxidant Complex at Amazon.com.  I'm still betting it covers the flavonoids without the calories or the headache I get from chocolate.  For example, one of it's ingredients is blueberry extract.  See:

Your Gym's Dirty Little Secrets - ABC News, 8/18/12 (but it just showed up) - "One study found that three-fourths of weight equipment was contaminated with cold-causing rhinoviruses, and even wiping surfaces down twice didn't completely nix germs ... The sniffles are the least of your worries: MRSA (!) and other types of staph infections can be contracted if a cut or scrape on your skin comes in contact with the bacteria"

Specific Plants Protect Against Specific, Not All, Cancers - Medscape, 8/29/12 - "Plants do not produce chemicals to help us fight cancer; essentially, plants produce an arsenal of toxic chemicals that kill yeast, bacteria, and insects. Out of this huge chemodiversity, research has shown that some of these chemicals have potent anticancer properties ... Probably the best example of a phytochemical that serves as an antiinflammatory is curcumin. "Turmeric is the most potent source of curcumin, and curcumin is the most potent antiinflammatory phytochemical we know,"" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.

Hypomagnesemia Induced by Proton Pump Inhibition - Medscape, 8/29/12 - "PPI-induced hypomagnesaemia (PPIH) ... Proper identification and treatment of PPIH therefore mainly rests on three pillars: First, serum magnesium monitoring on a regular basis. In event of existing hypomagnesaemia discontinuation of PPIs should result in a rapid normalisation, which may be supported by additional magnesium and calcium supplementation.[60] This step is crucial to exclude other causes of hypomagnesaemia. Second, regular determination of serum magnesium (and concomitant other electrolytes) should be done to monitor the course of recovery. This should be accompanied by urinary magnesium measurements to assure renal magnesium retention. Third, patients with PPIH have the chance to escape hypomagnesaemia by alternative acid suppressants. Therefore, switching to H2RA should be attempted.[45] In cases of insufficient relief from acid related complains under H2RA, tapered or intermittent regimes including PPIs might be helpful. Also here, urinary magnesium monitoring is of benefit as it declines prior to the serum magnesium as an early indication.[61] In most cases reviewed here, supplementation with electrolytes could be stopped after normal serum magnesium was obtained" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.

Aspirin May Help Men With Prostate Cancer Live Longer, Study Suggests - Science Daily, 8/28/12 - "The study looked at almost 6,000 men in the Cancer of the Prostate Strategic Urologic Research Endeavor (CaPSURE) database who had prostate cancer treated with surgery or radiotherapy ... The findings demonstrated that 10-year mortality from prostate cancer was significantly lower in the group taking anticoagulants, compared to the non-anticoagulant group -- 3 percent versus 8 percent, respectively. The risks of cancer recurrence and bone metastasis also were significantly lower. Further analysis suggested that this benefit was primarily derived from taking aspirin, as opposed to other types of anticoagulants"

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):

Maternal use of Folic Acid and Other Supplements and Risk of Childhood Brain Tumors - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2012 Aug 31 - "childhood brain tumors (CBT) ... The odds ratios (ORs) for any maternal use of folic acid, use of folic acid without iron or vitamins B6, B12, C or A, and any vitamin use before pregnancy, were: 0.68 (95% CI 0.46, 1.00), 0.55 (95% CI 0.32, 0.93) and 0.68 (95% CI 0.46, 1.01) respectively ... These results suggest that folic acid supplements before and possibly during pregnancy may protect against CBT. Such associations are biologically plausible through established mechanisms. Impact This study provides evidence of a specific protective effect of prenatal folic acid supplementation against the risk of CBT that is not attributable to the actions of the other micronutrients investigated" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com.

Losartan improves erectile dysfunction in diabetic patients: a clinical trial - Int J Impot Res. 2012 Aug 30 - "A total of 124 diabetic patients with ED were included in this study and treated with losartan or tadalafil or losartan plus tadalafil or watch for waiting as control for 12 weeks ... Losartan or tadalafil or losartan plus tadalafil significantly improved the mean IIEF-5 scores ... The combination of losartan and tadalafil is more effective than the single-use of losartan or tadalafil" - See losartan and tadalafil at OffshoreRx1.com.

Silymarin Decreases Connective Tissue Growth Factor to Improve Liver Fibrosis in Rats Treated with Carbon Tetrachloride - Phytother Res. 2012 Aug 30 - "connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) ... The results suggest that oral administration of silymarin protects against CCl(4) -induced hepatic fibrosis in rats, likely due to the decrease in fibrotic parameters such as CTGF" - See silymarin at Amazon.com.

Neural effects of green tea extract on dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Aug 29 - "Green tea is being recognized as a beverage with potential benefits for human health and cognitive functions. In vivo studies provide preliminary evidence that green tea intake may have a positive role in improving effects on cognitive functions ... priori-defined region of interest (ROI) analysis of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) ... These data suggest that green tea extract may modulate brain activity in the DLPFC, a key area that mediates working memory processing in the human brain. Moreover, this is the first neuroimaging study implicating that functional neuroimaging methods provide a means of examining how green tea extract acts on the brain" - [Nutra USA] - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.

Higher TSH level is a risk factor for differentiated thyroid cancer - Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2012 Aug 27 - "Higher TSH levels are associated with differentiated thyroid cancers (DTC). To validate this association, we compared TSH levels obtained from euthyroid patients with DTC with TSH levels from controls in the general population ... The mean TSH level of the case group was significantly higher than the mean TSH level of the control group (1.95 +/- 0.9 mIU/L vs. 1.62 +/- 0.8 mIU/L, p < 0.001), and was associated with DTC risk. Multiple logistic regression, after controlling for age, sex, and the presence of a family history of thyroid cancer, showed that the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the second, third, and fourth quartiles of TSH levels were 1.27 (1.03-1.57), 1.55 (1.25-1.92) and 2.21 (1.78-2.74), respectively"

Tocopherols and tocotrienols plasma levels are associated with cognitive impairment - Neurobiol Aging. 2012 Oct;33(10):2282-90 - "Vitamin E includes 8 natural compounds (4 tocopherols, 4 tocotrienols) with potential neuroprotective activity. α-Tocopherol has mainly been investigated in relation to cognitive impairment ... Low plasma tocopherols and tocotrienols levels are associated with increased odds of MCI and AD" - [Nutra USA] - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.

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