Recent Longevity News for the week ending 3/18/15

Diet soda linked to increases in belly fat in older adults - Science Daily, 3/17/15 - "The San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA) enrolled 749 Mexican- and European-Americans who were aged 65 and older at the start of the study (1992-96) ... the increase in waist circumference among diet soda drinkers, per follow-up interval, was almost triple that among non-users: 2.11 cm versus 0.77 cm, respectively. After adjustment for multiple potential confounders, interval waist circumference increases were 0.77 cm for non-users, 1.76 cm for occasional users, and 3.04 cm for daily users. This translates to waist circumference increases of 0.80 inches for non-users, 1.83 inches for occasional users, and 3.16 inches for daily users over the total 9.4-year SALSA follow-up period"

Folic Acid May Help Ward Off Stroke in People With High Blood Pressure - WebMD, 3/15/15 - "20,000 adults in China with high blood pressure who had not suffered a heart attack or stroke ... Participants were randomly assigned to take a daily pill with folic acid and the high blood pressure drug enalapril (brand name Vasotec) or a pill with enalapril alone ... the risk of stroke was 21 percent lower among those taking enalapril/folic acid" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com.

Teen cannabis users have poor long-term memory in adulthood - Science Daily, 3/12/15 - "Teens who were heavy marijuana users -- smoking it daily for about three years -- had an abnormally shaped hippocampus and performed poorly on long-term memory tasks ... The brain abnormalities and memory problems were observed during the individuals' early twenties, two years after they stopped smoking marijuana ... Young adults who abused cannabis as teens performed about 18 percent worse on long-term memory tests than young adults who never abused cannabis ... The longer the individuals were chronically using marijuana, the more abnormal the shape of their hippocampus"

Promising 'natural' Alzheimer's treatment moves toward clinical trials - Science Daily, 3/11/15 - "This particular research has focused on Ashwagandha, an herbal remedy that's been used in Eastern medicines for centuries ... While plants cannot be patented, compounds from it can. MSU holds the patent for withanamides, and earlier research revealed that the compound, found in the plants' seeds, proved to be a powerful anti-oxidant -- double the strength of what's on today's market. The potent compound has shown that it can protect cells against damaging attacks by a rogue protein - the earliest stage of Alzheimer's" - See Ashwagandha at Amazon.com.

Can Statins Help Improve Prostate Cancer Survival? - WebMD, 3/10/15 - "Taking a statin alongside androgen deprivation therapy slowed the progress of prostate cancer by about 10 months ... Patients on a statin have a significantly longer time to progression"

High levels of vitamin D is suspected of increasing mortality rates - Science Daily, 3/10/15 - "If your vitamin D level is below 50 or over 100 nanomol per litre, there is an greater connection to deaths. We have looked at what caused the death of patients, and when numbers are above 100, it appears that there is an increased risk of dying from a stroke or a coronary" - Note:  The conversion for nmol/l to ng/ml for vitamin D is at http://www.endmemo.com/medical/unitconvert/Vitamin__D.php.  See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

• Low Vitamin D Tied to Premature Death - NYTimes.com, 5/12/14 - "people with a blood level below 9 nanograms per milliliter had almost double the risk of premature death compared with those with levels of 50 or higher ... there was little danger in taking vitamin D supplements, “as long as we keep blood levels below 200 nanograms per milliliter.”" - Note:  Did I do this right.  That same line shows 200 nanograms per milliliter as 499 nanomol per liter.
• Note: I don’t always believe mortality studies in suggesting that was what caused the earlier deaths. My blood vitamin D level is 61 ng/ml which is 152 nmol/L. That same blood test claims it should be between 30 and 100 ng/ml (55 to 249 nmol/L). The average of that range is 65 ng/ml (162 nmol/L) so I’m still in the lower half. It took 7,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day for years to get that to 61. I’ve even increased it to 10,000 IU per day to get it in the upper half of normal regardless of what one study claims.

Abstracts from this week:

Like I was saying last week about not getting abstracts for a couple weeks then NIH fixes the problem then I get thousands per day.  This will increase throughout the day:

Effect of Ginkgo biloba Extract (EGb-761) on Recovery of Erectile Dysfunction in Bilateral Cavernous Nerve Injury Rat Model - Urology. 2015 Mar 12 - "Forty-three male Sprague-Dawley rats underwent cavernous nerve crush injury and were randomized into 4 groups, including: vehicle only, high-dose GBE, medium-dose GBE, and low-dose GBE ... Administration of GBE increases neuron survival and preserves the neural nitric oxide synthase nerve fiber and contents of the corpus cavernosum after bilateral cavernous nerve injury. These implications indicate the beneficial effects of GBE use in the repair of the cavernous nerve and recovery of erectile function after radical prostatectomy" - See Ginkgo biloba at Amazon.com.

Curcumin attenuates cardiomyocyte hypertrophy induced by high glucose and insulin via the PPARγ/Akt/NO signaling pathway - Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2015 Feb 21 - "The results suggested that curcumin supplementation can improve HGI-induced cardiomyocytes hypertrophy in vitro through the activation of PPARγ/Akt/NO signaling pathway" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.

• Cardiac Hypertrophy - cts.usc.edu - "Cardiac hypertrophy is a thickening of the heart muscle (myocardium) which results in a decrease in size of the chamber of the heart, including the left and right ventricles. A common cause of cardiac hypertrophy is high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart valve stenosis"

Low Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Concentrations Are Associated with Increased Likelihood of Having Depressive Symptoms among Japanese Workers - J Nutr. 2015 Mar;145(3):541-6 - "Depressive symptoms were inversely associated with 25(OH)D. Compared with those with a 25(OH)D concentration of <20 μg/L, multivariable-adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for depressive symptoms (CES-D scale score ≥16) were 0.75 (0.59, 0.95) and 0.66 (0.41, 1.06) for those with a 25(OH)D concentration of 20-29 μg/L and ≥30 μg/L, respectively (P-trend = 0.01). After further adjustment for leisure-time physical activity and shift work (factors closely related to photo-initiated vitamin D production), the OR (95% CI) for the highest category of 25(OH)D was 0.70 (0.43, 1.14). The association between 25(OH)D and depressive symptoms appears to be linear" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Multivitamin-Mineral Use Is Associated with Reduced Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Mortality among Women in the United States - J Nutr. 2015 Mar;145(3):572-8 - "Multivitamin-mineral (MVM) ... multivitamin (MV) ... We observed no significant association between CVD mortality and users of MVMs or MVs compared with nonusers; however, when users were classified by the reported length of time products were used, a significant association was found with MVM use of >3 y compared with nonusers (HR: 0.65; 95% CI: 0.49, 0.85). This finding was largely driven by the significant association among women (HR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.37, 0.85) but not men (HR: 0.79; 95% CI: 0.44, 1.42)" - Note: Yeah but think about what they are defining as multi-vitamins and multi-vitamin minerals. Most of that stuff like One-a-Day or Centrum I wouldn't take even if it were free because if you take it on top of a decent vitamin you could get vitamin overload and some such as vitamin A.

Higher-Protein Diets Are Associated with Higher HDL Cholesterol and Lower BMI and Waist Circumference in US Adults - J Nutr. 2015 Mar;145(3):605-14 - "Americans of all body weights typically consume protein in excess of the RDA. Higher-protein diets are associated with lower BMI and waist circumference and higher HDL cholesterol compared to protein intakes at RDA levels. Our data suggest that Americans who consume dietary protein between 1.0 and 1.5 g/kg BW potentially have a lower risk of developing cardiometabolic disease"

n-3 Long-chain PUFAs reduce respiratory morbidity caused by iron supplementation in iron-deficient South African schoolchildren: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled intervention - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Mar;101(3):668-79 - "Iron supplementation increased morbidity (mostly respiratory) in iron-deficient South African schoolchildren with low DHA/EPA intake, but when iron was given in combination with DHA/EPA, this effect was prevented" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Associations between Yogurt, Dairy, Calcium, and Vitamin D Intake and Obesity among U.S. Children Aged 8-18 Years: NHANES, 2005-2008 - Nutrients. 2015 Mar 3;7(3):1577-93 - "Yogurt intake was associated with lower total fat and saturated fat intakes and body fat as measured by subscapular skinfold thickness"

Long-chain ω-3 fatty acid intake and endometrial cancer risk in the Women's Health Initiative - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Mar 4 - "In women with body mass index (BMI; in kg/m(2)) <25, those in the upper compared with lowest quintiles of total LCω-3PUFA intake (sum of eicosapentaenoic, docosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic acids) had significantly reduced endometrial cancer risk (HR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.40, 0.82; P-trend = 0.001), whereas there was little evidence of an association in overweight or obese women" - Note:  The RSS version contained significantly more text than the link that went to the NIH page.  I think they must have changed the abstract after it was fed to the RSS feed.  See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Statin use and risk of primary liver cancer in the clinical practice research datalink - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2015 Feb 26;107(4) - "Statin use was associated with a statistically significantly reduced risk of liver cancer (ORadj = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.45 to 0.69), especially among current users (ORadj = 0.53, 95% CI = 0.42 to 0.66). The reduced risk was statistically significant in the presence (ORadj = 0.32, 95% CI = 0.17 to 0.57) and absence of liver disease (ORadj = 0.65, 95% CI = 0.52 to 0.81) and in the presence (ORadj = 0.30, 95% CI = 0.21 to 0.42) and absence of diabetes (ORadj = 0.66, 95% CI = 0.51 to 0.85)"

Lutein protects dopaminergic neurons against MPTP-induced apoptotic death and motor dysfunction by ameliorating mitochondrial disruption and oxidative stress - Nutr Neurosci. 2015 Mar 2:NNS398 - "Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress-mediated apoptosis play an important role in various neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) ... In this study, lutein significantly reversed the loss of nigral dopaminergic neurons by increasing the striatal dopamine level in mice. Moreover, lutein-ameliorated MPTP induced mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and motor abnormalities. In addition, lutein repressed the MPTP-induced neuronal damage/apoptosis by inhibiting the activation of pro-apoptotic markers (Bax, caspases-3, 8 and 9) and enhancing anti-apoptotic marker (Bcl-2) expressions" - See lutein at Amazon.com.

Coffee Extracts Suppress Tryptophan Breakdown in Mitogen-Stimulated Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells - J Am Coll Nutr. 2015 Mar 4:1-12 - "When extrapolating the in vitro results to in vivo, IFN-γ-mediated breakdown of tryptophan could be counteracted by the consumption of coffee or decaffeinated coffee. This may increase tryptophan availability for the biosynthesis of the neurotransmitter 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) and thereby improve mood and quality of life"

Docosahexaenoic acid partially ameliorates deficits in social behavior and ultrasonic vocalizations caused by prenatal ethanol exposure - Behav Brain Res. 2015 Mar 5 - "Animals exposed to ethanol prenatally vocalized less, play fought less, and crossed a significantly shorter gap than control-treated animals. Administration of DHA ameliorated these ethanol-induced deficits such that the ethanol-exposed animals given DHA were no longer significantly different to control-treated animals. Thus, DHA administration may have therapeutic value to reverse some of ethanol's damaging effects" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D, Plasma Klotho, and Lower-Extremity Physical Performance Among Older Adults: Findings From the InCHIANTI Study - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2015 Mar 7 - "Each natural log of 25(OH)D (ng/mL) was associated with 0.61 higher average Short Physical Performance Battery scores (95% confidence interval: 0.35 to 0.88, p value < .001) after adjustment for covariates, a result that changed little after adjustment for klotho" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Hesperidin Supplementation Modulates Inflammatory Responses Following Myocardial Infarction - J Am Coll Nutr. 2015 Mar 11:1-7 - "Hesperidin supplementation could compensate for decreased levels of adiponectin and HDL-C and increased levels of E-selectin in patients with myocardial infarction. These results support the concept that certain flavonoids in the diet can be associated with significant health benefits, including heart health" - See hesperidin at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (Resveratrol).