Recent Longevity News for the week ending 1/7/15

Fructose more toxic than table sugar, mouse study suggests - Science Daily, 1/5/15 - "The new study compared two groups of mice that were fed a healthy diet with 25 percent calories from processed sugars. One group ate a mix of fructose-glucose monosaccharides like those in high-fructose corn syrup. The other group ate sucrose ... Female mice on the fructose-glucose diet had death rates 1.87 times higher than females on the sucrose diet. They also produced 26.4 percent fewer offspring ... The new study found no differences in males on the two diets in terms of survival, reproduction or ability to compete for territory. But Potts said the 2013 study showed male mice were a quarter less likely to hold territory and reproduce on the fructose-glucose mix compared with starch. That, combined with the new findings, "suggests sucrose is as bad for males as high-fructose corn syrup,""

Whole Grains Help You Live Longer, Study Finds - NBC News.com, 1/5/15 - "each average daily serving of whole grains lowers a person's risk of dying from heart disease by 9 percent and lowers the overall risk of dying from anything by 5 percent over a quarter-century. That's even taking into account that whole grain lovers tend to do other healthy stuff, too ... The benefits probably come from the bran" - See brown rice pasta at Amazon.com.

Cautious Doctors Use Telemedicine to Diagnose Flu - ABC News, 1/1/15 - "If you're really feeling crummy and you have the symptoms of influenza, your chances of having influenza are very, very high -- over 90 percent ... Although the rapid influenza test is effective at determining whether children have the virus (as opposed to some kind of bacterial infection), it's wrong 25 percent of the time in adults because their bodies don't produce as much of the virus when they're sick ... many doctors will discuss symptoms over the phone and prescribe an antiviral medication ... this approach is cost effective because patients avoid the cost of the test and the doctors visit. And they don't spread the virus to other people by coming to the doctors office. The influenza virus is highly infectious and can be spread to people within 3 feet of a sick patient when that patient coughs, sneezes or talks"

Significant link between daily physical activity, vascular health - Science Daily, 12/31/14 - "The researchers studied the early effects on the body's blood vessels when someone transitions from high daily physical activity -- 10,000 or more steps per day -- to low daily physical activity, less than 5,000 steps per day. Five thousand steps is the national average, but only half of the daily recommendation from the U.S. Surgeon General. The researchers found going from high to low levels of daily physical activity for just five days decreases the function of the inner lining of the blood vessels in the legs  ... The impairment we saw in just five days was quite striking ... It shows just how susceptible the vascular system is to physical inactivity"

Magnesium, the invisible deficiency that hurts health - CNN.com, 12/31/14 - "Magnesium is involved in over 300 biochemical reactions in your body. It affects everything from your heartbeat to your muscles to your hormones ... only about 25% of U.S. adults are at or above the recommended daily amount of 310 to 320 milligrams for women and 400 to 420 for men ... at least half of the U.S. population had inadequate intakes of magnesium ... a magnesium deficiency may eventually cause noticeable problems with your muscle and nerve function such as tingling, cramping, numbness and contractions (like that annoying eye twitch you just can't shake). In its worst stages, magnesium deficiency could even cause seizures, personality changes, or abnormal heart rhythms ... Since only 1% of magnesium is found in your blood (most is in your bones or organs), a simple needle prick often won't help determine your levels" - See Jarrow Formulas, MagMind at Amazon.com.

Deadly Flu Outbreak Kills 3 Children in Minnesota - ABC News, 12/29/14 - "H3 subtypes tend to lead to the largest number of hospitalizations and deaths, particularly for children, the elderly and anyone with a compromised immune system ... To complicate matters, this year’s strain is not well-matched to what was predicted by the surveillance community, so the current vaccine is not a great match"

• Flu Virus Kills Three Children in Minnesota Video - ABC News, 12/29/14 - See about 50 seconds into the video where she says we’re on par with being the highest number of flu cases in December ever and emergency rooms overflowing and discusses blood steam infections, brain problems and problems with overactive immune systems flooding you lungs with mucus.

Triglycerides Predict Ten-Years All-Cause Mortality in T2DM - Medscape, 12/26/14 - "mean triglycerides levels during follow-up (III vs I tertile: HR:1.87; IC95%: 1.12–3.12) and lipid-lowering treatment (HR:0.56; IC95%: 0.35–0.90) were significantly associated with all-cause mortality, independent of confounding factors such as mean values of LDL-C, HDL-C, HbA1c, blood pressure, BMI, fasting glucose, and antihypertensive and antidiabetic treatment"

Abstracts from this week:

Association of Sex Hormones with Sexual Function, Vitality and Physical Function of Symptomatic Older Men with Low Testosterone Levels at Baseline in the Testosterone Trials - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Dec 30 - "Baseline serum TT and FT, but not E2 or SHBG levels had small, but statistically significant associations with validated measures of sexual desire, erectile function and sexual activity. None of these hormones was significantly associated within or across trials with FACIT-Fatigue, PHQ-9 Depression or Physical Function-10 scores, or gait speed"

Docosahexaenoic acid prevents paraquat-induced reactive oxygen species production in dopaminergic neurons via enhancement of glutathione homeostasis - Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2014 Dec 26 - "Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels are reduced in the substantia nigra area in Parkinson's disease patients and animal models, implicating docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) as a potential treatment for preventing Parkinson's disease and suggesting the need for investigations into how DHA might protect against neurotoxin-induced dopaminergic neuron loss. The herbicide paraquat (PQ) induces dopaminergic neuron loss through the excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). We found that treatment of dopaminergic SN4741 cells with PQ reduced cell viability in a dose-dependent manner, but pretreatment with DHA ameliorated the toxic effect of PQ" - See docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com.

Fish consumption and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma: systematic review and meta-analysis - Cancer Causes Control. 2014 Dec 23 - "n-3 PUFA was associated with 51 % reduction in HCC risk (highest vs. lowest category SRRs = 0.49, 95 % CI 0.19-0.79). However, no significant inverse association was found in ALA" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Dietary magnesium intake and metabolic syndrome in the adult population: dose-response meta-analysis and meta-regression - Nutrients. 2014 Dec 22 - "Based on eight cross-sectional studies and two prospective cohort studies, the pooled relative risks of metabolic syndrome per 150 mg/day increment in magnesium intake was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.84-0.93; I2 = 36.3%). The meta-regression model showed a generally linear, inverse relationship between magnesium intake (mg/day) and metabolic syndrome. This dose-response meta-analysis indicates that dietary magnesium intake is significantly and inversely associated with the risk of metabolic syndrome" - See Jarrow Formulas, MagMind at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Apolipoprotein A-I (ApoA-I)):