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Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 7/31/13.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Diets lacking omega-3s lead to anxiety, hyperactivity in teens: Generational omega-3 deficiencies have worsening effects over time - Science Daily, 7/29/13 - "in a rodent model second-generation deficiencies of omega-3s caused elevated states of anxiety and hyperactivity in adolescents and affected the teens' memory and cognition ... this dietary deficiency can compromise the behavioral health of adolescents, not only because their diet is deficient but because their parents' diet was deficient as well. This is of particular concern because adolescence is a very vulnerable time for developing psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia and addiction."Diets lacking omega-3 fatty acids -- found in foods like wild fish, eggs, and grass-fed livestock -- can have worsened effects over consecutive generations, especially affecting teens" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Can Diabetes Lead to Liver Cancer? - Medscape, 7/26/13 - "We found that the prevalence of diabetes was significantly higher in the population with HCC (39%) compared with the chronic liver disease group (10.3%). Definitively, patients with diabetes had an increased risk for developing HCC, independent of any other liver disease. Even if they had hepatitis C infection, hepatitis B infection, or alcohol excess, diabetes still increased the risk for developing HCC"

Fish Oil's Link to Prostate Cancer Unproven - Medscape, 7/26/13 - "The bottom line is that we cannot determine from this study design whether the intake of omega-3 fatty acids will cause prostate cancer and raise a man's risk for high-grade disease. The media has taken this and sensationalized the risk associated with omega-3 fatty acid intake"

Statin Use May Reduce Parkinson's Risk, Study Says - WebMD, 7/24/13 - "Analyzing nearly 44,000 patients, scientists found that those who discontinued taking fat-soluble statins such as simvastatin (Zocor) or atorvastatin (Lipitor) were about 58 percent more likely to develop Parkinson's than those who kept taking the drugs ... Fat-soluble statins are believed to cross the blood-brain barrier, unlike water-soluble statins such as rosuvastatin (Crestor) and pravastatin (Pravachol). The drugs may decrease inflammation and even modify dopamine pathways in the brain, which are linked to Parkinson's ... The new study, which took place from 2001 to 2008 on statin patients free of Parkinson's disease, also showed that participants taking water-soluble statins developed Parkinson's at about twice the rate as those taking fat-soluble statins"

A Ginkgo Biloba Extract Promotes Proliferation of Endogenous Neural Stem Cells - Science Daily, 7/23/13 - "Researchers found that the ginkgo biloba extract EGb761 promoted and prolonged the proliferation of neural stem cells in the subventricular zone and dentate gyrus of rats with vascular dementia. The cells continued to proliferate at 4 months. EGb761 also significantly improved learning and memory in rats with vascular dementia" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.

Marijuana use in adolescence may cause permanent brain abnormalities, mouse study suggests - Science Daily, 7/24/13 - "Previous research has shown that children who started using marijuana before the age of 16 are at greater risk of permanent cognitive deficits, and have a significantly higher incidence of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia ... We wanted to identify the biological underpinnings and determine whether there is a real, permanent health risk to marijuana use ... "In the adult mice exposed to marijuana ingredients in adolescence, we found that cortical oscillations were grossly altered, and they exhibited impaired cognitive abilities ... We also found impaired cognitive behavioral performance in those mice. The striking finding is that, even though the mice were exposed to very low drug doses, and only for a brief period during adolescence, their brain abnormalities persisted into adulthood"

Sleep deprivation linked to aging skin, study suggests - Science Daily, 7/23/13 - "Our study is the first to conclusively demonstrate that inadequate sleep is correlated with reduced skin health and accelerates skin aging. Sleep deprived women show signs of premature skin aging and a decrease in their skin's ability to recover after sun exposure ... The study involved 60 pre-menopausal women between the ages of 30 and 49, with half of participants falling into the poor quality sleep category ... Using the SCINEXA skin aging scoring system, poor quality sleepers showed increased signs of intrinsic skin aging including fine lines, uneven pigmentation and slackening of skin and reduced elasticity. In this system, a higher score means a more aged appearance. The average score in the good quality sleepers was 2.2 versus 4.4 in poor quality sleepers"

Low Omega-3 in Kids Linked to Behavior, Cognitive Deficits - Medscape, 7/23/13 - "This study formed the screening stage of a previously published randomized controlled intervention study that included 362 healthy children aged 7 to 9 years from primary schools in Oxfordshire, a large county in the UK, who had low reading scores. The DOLAB study reported that supplementation with 600 mg DHA daily for 16 weeks improved reading and behavior in children with the lowest 20% of reading scores ... The study showed that reading scores were significantly and positively associated with the omega-3 fatty acids DHA (P < .003), docosapentaenoic acid (DPA; P < .04), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; P < .005), and the omega-3 index (EPA+DHA; P < .04). Total omega-6 fatty acids also showed a positive correlation with reading ... Results were similar for working memory. Scores for Recall of Digits Forward were significantly and positively associated with DHA (P < .003), DPA (P < .04), EPA (P < .005), the omega-3 index (P < .001), and total omega-3 (P < .004)" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

India May Soon Revoke Ban on Diabetes Drug Pioglitazone - Medscape, 7/23/13 - "The Indian government's suspension of the diabetes drug pioglitazone may soon be revoked if the government follows the advice of the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) there. The DTAB met July 19 and recommended that pioglitazone be put back on the market in India, albeit with a boxed warning about bladder cancer ... The Government may or may not accept its advice ... There were accusations in some of the media coverage that the motivation behind this correspondence was the fact that Dr. Mohan had received funding from Merck, Sharpe & Dohme, the Indian subsidiary of Merck & Co, whose newer diabetes drug sitagliptin (Januvia) stands to gain if pioglitazone is unavailable ... The same report adds that another Chennai-based diabetes doctor, Vijayam Balaji, MD, from Dr. Balaji Diabetes Care Centre, evaluated bladder cancer risk in 958 patients receiving pioglitazone but did not find any increased risk across all age groups, even after 2 years of treatment" - Note:  Here's a cut and past from my 7/10/13 newsletter.  Looks like I may have been right about it being a payoff:

  • India Suspends Diabetes Drug Pioglitazone - Medscape, 7/8/13 - "The ruling came seemingly out of the blue ... The government could have put some restrictions [on it] but still allowed marketing of the drug because there is no clear-cut indication that it does cause bladder cancer ... there are new data coming, which are probably in favor of pioglitazone, expected in 2014" - Note:  Now I'm mad.  That was one of the medications from India I was taking in low doses for anti-aging.  See my Insulin and Aging page.  Sounds like a payoff.  All governments seem to have that problem.

Cervical Cancer Vaccine May Also Guard Against Oral Cancer - Medscape, 7/23/13 - "The analysis is unique because it is the first demonstration of the efficacy of the bivalent vaccine (Cervarix) to prevent HPV 16 and 18 infections in the oral cavity ... These viruses are associated with an important and growing fraction of cancer of the oropharynx and tonsils ... The vaccine was found to be effective against oral HPV 16/18 infection in 93.3% of the women (95% confidence interval, 63% - 100%). There were 15 prevalent HPV 16/18 infections in the control group and only 1 in the HPV vaccine group"

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):

Plasma omega-3 and omega-6 concentrations and risk of cutaneous basal and squamous cell carcinomas in Australian adults - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013 Jul 24 - "In 1,191 white Australian adults, we prospectively investigated associations between baseline plasma concentrations of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids and cutaneous basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) ... follow-up (1997 to 2007) ... Plasma eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) concentrations and omega-3/-6 ratio showed significant inverse associations with SCC tumours, comparing higher tertiles to the lowest, in age and sex-adjusted models (p trend=0.02 and 0.03 respectively) which weakened after adjustment for past sun exposure. Associations between EPA and SCC were stronger among participants with a history of skin cancer at baseline (n=378) (highest vs. lowest tertile: RR=0.50, 95% CI=0.28-0.92; p trend=0.01). Total omega-6 was inversely associated with BCC tumours in multivariate models (p=0.04) (highest vs. lowest tertile: RR=0.71, 95% CI=0.51-0.99), and more strongly in the subgroup with past skin cancer"

Vitamin D Supplementation Affects Serum High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein, Insulin Resistance, and Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in Pregnant Women - J Nutr. 2013 Jul 24 - "Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 400 IU/d cholecalciferol supplements (n = 24) or placebo (n = 24) for 9 wk ... Vitamin D supplementation resulted in a significant decrease in serum hs-CRP (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: -1.41 vs. +1.50 μg/mL; P-interaction = 0.01) and insulin concentrations (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: -1.0 vs. +2.6 μIU/mL; P-interaction = 0.04) and a significant increase in the Quantitative Insulin Sensitivity Check Index score (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: +0.02 vs. -0.02; P-interaction = 0.006), plasma total antioxidant capacity (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: +152 vs. -20 mmol/L; P-interaction = 0.002), and total glutathione concentrations (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: +205 vs. -32 μmol/L; P-interaction = 0.02) compared with placebo. Intake of vitamin D supplements led to a significant decrease in fasting plasma glucose (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: -0.65 vs. -0.12 mmol/L; P-interaction = 0.01), systolic blood pressure (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: -0.2 vs. +5.5 mm Hg; P-interaction = 0.01), and diastolic blood pressure (vitamin D vs. placebo groups: -0.4 vs. +3.1 mm Hg; P-interaction = 0.01) compared with placebo" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Effects of vitamin C and vitamin D administration on mood and distress in acutely hospitalized patients - Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Jul 24 - "vitamin C (500 mg twice daily ... Vitamin C provided for a mean of 8.2 d increased plasma vitamin C concentrations to normal (P < 0.0001) and was associated with a 71% reduction in mood disturbance (P = 0.0002) and a 51% reduction in psychological distress" - See vitamin C at Amazon.com.

Long-term effect of dietary fibre intake on glycosylated haemoglobin A1c level and glycaemic control status among Chinese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus - Public Health Nutr. 2013 Jul 24:1-7 - "Two cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2006 and 2011, with the second one being a repeat survey on a sub-sample from the initial one ... Dietary intake was assessed with a validated FFQ ... dietary fibre intake at the first survey was inversely associated with uncontrolled glycaemic status at the second survey, with adjusted odds ratios across the tertiles of intake being 1.00, 0.72 (95 % CI 0.43, 1.21) and 0.58 (95 % CI 0.34, 0.99; P trend = 0.048) ... Dietary fibre may have a long-term beneficial effect on HbA1c level among Chinese diabetes patients" - See Garden of Life, RAW Fiber at Amazon.com.

Fish oil-enriched diet protects against ischemia by improving angiogenesis, endothelial progenitor cell function and postnatal neovascularization - Atherosclerosis. 2013 Aug;229(2):295-303 - "C57Bl/6 mice were fed a diet containing either 20% fish oil, rich in long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), or 20% corn oil, rich in n-6 PUFAs. After 4 weeks, hindlimb ischemia was surgically induced by femoral artery removal. We found that blood flow recovery was significantly improved in mice fed a fish oil diet compared to those fed a corn oil diet (Doppler flow ratio (DFR) at day 21 after surgery 78 +/- 5 vs. 56 +/- 4; p < 0.01). Clinically, this was associated with a significant reduction of ambulatory impairment and ischemic damage in the fish oil group. At the microvascular level, capillary density was significantly improved in ischemic muscles of mice fed a fish oil diet. This correlated with increased expression of VEGF and eNOS in ischemic muscles, and higher NO concentration in the plasma. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) have been shown to have an important role for postnatal neovascularization. We found that the number of EPCs was significantly increased in mice fed a fish oil diet. In addition, oxidative stress levels (DCF-DA, DHE) were reduced in EPCs isolated from mice exposed to fish oil, and this was associated with improved EPC functional activities (migration and integration into tubules). In vitro, treatment of EPCs with fish oil resulted in a significant increase of cellular migration. In addition, the secretion of angiogenic growth factors including IL6 and leptin was significantly increased in EPCs exposed to fish oil" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Silibinin reverses drug resistance in human small-cell lung carcinoma cells - Cancer Lett. 2013 Jul 20 - "The possible synergistic relationship between silibinin and chemotherapy drugs was determined by exposure of VPA17 cells to 1:1 ratios of their respective IC50 values, with serial dilutions at 0.25-2.0 x IC50 and calculation of the combination index (CI). Silibinin and etoposide showed synergism (CI = 0.46 at ED50), as did silibinin and doxorubicin (CI = 0.24 at ED50). These data indicate that in SCLC, silibinin is pro-apoptotic, reverses MDR and acts synergistically with chemotherapy drugs. Silibinin, a non-toxic natural product may be useful in the treatment of drug-resistant SCLC" - See silymarin at Amazon.com.

Efficacy and Safety of Tadalafil 5 mg Once Daily for Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Suggestive of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: Subgroup Analyses of Pooled Data From 4 Multinational, Randomized, Placebo-controlled Clinical Studies - Urology. 2013 Jul 19 - "The safety database included 1500 men randomized to tadalafil 5 mg once daily or placebo for 12 weeks ... In these pooled data analyses, tadalafil 5 mg improved LUTS/BPH across subgroups of age, LUTS severity, testosterone levels, and prostate volume"

Imidafenacin, an Antimuscarinic Agent, Improves Nocturia and Reduces Nocturnal Urine Volume - Urology. 2013 Jul 19 - "The novel antimuscarinic agent, imidafenacin, decreases the number of urinations and reduces nocturnal urine production, thereby improving both nocturia and nocturnal polyuria"

Eicosapentaenoic acid-enriched phospholipid ameliorates insulin resistance and lipid metabolism in diet-induced-obese mice - Lipids Health Dis. 2013 Jul 23;12(1):109 - "Male C57BL/6J mice (n = 7) were fed one of the following 4 diets for a period of 4 weeks: 1) a modified AIN-96G diet with 5% corn oil (control diet); 2) a high fat (20%, wt/wt) and high fructose (20%, wt/wt) diet (HF diet); 3) the HF diet containing 1% SOY-PL (SOY-PL diet); 4) the HF diet containing 1% EPA-PL (EPA-PL diet) ... According to our study, EPA-PL supplementation was efficacious in suppressing body fat accumulation, and alleviating insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis by modulating the secretion of adipocytokines and inflammatory cytokines, suppression of SREBP-1c mediated lipogenesis and enhancement of fatty acid beta-oxidation. These results demonstrate that EPA-PL is a novel beneficial food component for the prevention and improvement of metabolic disorders" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

HMB attenuates muscle loss during sustained energy deficit induced by calorie restriction and endurance exercise - Metabolism. 2013 Jul 19 - "Mice were divided into four groups (n=10/group): 1) ALT=ad libitum+trained (1h/d for 3d/wk); 2) ALTH=ALT+HMB (0.5g/kg BW/d); 3) C=calorie restricted (-30%)+trained (6h/d, 6d/wk); and 4) CH=C+HMB ... HMB improves body composition and sensorimotor function during normal training and attenuates muscle mass and strength loss during catabolic conditions" - See HMB at Amazon.com.

Prospective Study of Breakfast Eating and Incident Coronary Heart Disease in a Cohort of Male US Health Professionals - Circulation. 2013 Jul 23;128(4):337-43 - "Eating habits, including breakfast eating, were assessed in 1992 in 26 902 American men 45 to 82 years of age from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study who were free of cardiovascular disease and cancer ... 16 years of follow-up ... Men who skipped breakfast had a 27% higher risk of CHD compared with men who did not (relative risk, 1.27; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.53). Compared with men who did not eat late at night, those who ate late at night had a 55% higher CHD risk (relative risk, 1.55; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-2.29). These associations were mediated by body mass index, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes mellitus. No association was observed between eating frequency (times per day) and risk of CHD"

Advanced Prostate Cancer Risk in Relation to Toenail Selenium Levels - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2013 Jul 22 - "Selenium may prevent advanced prostate cancer (PCa), but most studies on this topic were conducted in populations with moderate to high selenium status. We investigated the association of toenail selenium, reflecting long-term selenium exposure, and advanced PCa risk in a population from the Netherlands where low selenium status is widespread ... All cohort members completed a baseline questionnaire, and approximately 79% of participants provided toenail clippings, which were used for toenail selenium measurements using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Incident advanced PCa case subjects from the entire cohort were identified during 17.3 years of follow-up ... Toenail selenium was associated with a reduced risk of advanced PCa; adjusted hazard ratio for the highest vs lowest quintile was 0.37 (95% CI = 0.27 to 0.51; P trend < .001). For stage IV PCa, men in the highest vs lowest quintile of toenail selenium had an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.30 (95% CI = 0.21 to 0.45; P trend < .001)" - See se-methylselenocysteine at Amazon.com.

Dietary supplementation with purified mulberry (Morus australis Poir) anthocyanins suppresses body weight gain in high-fat diet fed C57BL/6 mice - Food Chem. 2013 Nov 1 - "Three kinds of anthocyanins (cyanidin-3-glucoside, cyanidin-3-rutinoside and pelargonidin-3-glucoside) purified from Chinese mulberry (Morus australis Poir) were evaluated for suppressing body weight gain of the male C57BL/6 mice fed with high-fat diet (HFD). The results from a 12-week experiment show that consumption of purified mulberry anthocyanins (MACN) of 40 or 200mg/kg can significantly inhibit body weight gain, reduce the resistance to insulin, lower the size of adipocytes, attenuate lipid accumulation and decrease the leptin secretion. Thus, dietary supplementation with MACN can protect against body weight gain of the diet-induced obese mice" - [Nutra USA] - See PGX at Amazon.com.

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