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

High blood pressure linked to reduced Alzheimer's risk, meds may be reason: Study authors say its likely protective effect comes from antihypertensive drugs - Science Daily, 6/26/15 - "It may be that high blood pressure is protective, or it may be that something that people with high blood pressure are exposed to more often, such as antihypertensive medication, is protecting them from Alzheimer's disease ... This is to date the most authoritative paper looking at causal relationships between Alzheimer's disease and these potentially modifiable factors"

• New Hypertension After 80 Linked to Lower Dementia Risk - Medscape, 7/14/14 - "Risk for Dementia by Measured Blood Pressure at 90+ Study Baseline
  
  Blood Pressure Category (mmHg) Relative Risk
  <120 systolic or < 80 diastolic Reference
  129-139 systolic or 80-89 diastolic 0.76
  140-169 systolic or 90-99 diastolic 0.72
  160+ systolic or 100+ diastolic 0.58
  
  This analysis was adjusted for use of antihypertensive treatment, she noted, "so the association was not due to the medications that they may have been taking."

Vitamin D Improves Depression in Women With Liver Disease - Medscape, 6/25/15 - "in depressed patients, we found a significant improvement in BDI-II scores after both 3 and 6 months of vitamin D therapy, after which patients got significantly worse on BDI-II scores once vitamin D treatment was stopped" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Better Than Oral Iron for Preop Anemia? IV Iron, Maybe - Medscape, 6/24/15 - "standard therapy of oral iron has limitations of its own. In fact, issues with noncompliance typically caused by gastrointestinal discomfort can occur in more than 30% of patients ... The increase in median ferritin level from baseline to surgery was significantly greater with the IV therapy (32 µg/L to 544 µg/L) than with the oral therapy (76 µg/L to 107 µg/L; P < .001). And at 3 months, ferritin levels were significantly higher in the IV group than in the oral group (176 µg/L vs 90 µg/L; P < .001)" - Note:  I through this in because supplement can take up to five years.

• Iron supplements improve anemia, quality of life for women with heavy periods - Science Daily, 6/9/14 - "One year after treatment women in the anemic group had a significant increase in energy, along with physical and social function, and a decrease in anxiety and depression compared to the non-anemic group. It took five years for the iron stores to reach normal levels" - See iron supplements at Amazon.com.

For vitiligo patient, arthritis drug restores skin color - Science Daily, 6/24/15 - "Within two months of treatment, the patient experienced partial repigmentation on her face, arms, and hands -- the areas that concerned her most. After five months, the white spots on her face and hands were nearly gone, with only a few spots remaining on other parts of her body. Notably, tofacitinib caused no adverse side effects during the course of treatment" - Note: Tofacitinib is the one that also grows hair if you can afford the price tag.  Here's a cut and paste from a previous newsletter:

• Hairless Man Now Hairy, Thanks to Arthritis Drug - WebMD, 6/20/14 - "After three more months taking 15 milligrams a day of the drug, he had a full head of hair and clearly visible eyebrows and eyelashes, as well as facial, armpit and other hair ... Tofacitinib citrate (marketed as Xeljanz) is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis" - NBC News has better pictures of the spectacular results.  It only runs about $42 per 5 mg tablet and you need three per day so about $126 per day.  No problem for the average person.
• Cancer drug makes fruit flies live longer - Science Daily, 6/25/15 - "Female fruit flies were given trametinib as an additive in their food. A small dose of 1.56 µM, which is approximately equivalent to a daily dose of the drug in a human cancer patients, increased the fruit flies' average life expectancy by 8%. With a higher dose of 15.6 µM, the flies lived 12% longer on average"

Antipsychotic Use Increases Mortality in Parkinson's - Medscape, 6/23/15 - "Table. Mortality Risks by Antipsychotic Class and Specific Drug (Intention-to-Treat Analysis) ... Typical antipsychotic ... 3.65 [Hazard Ratio] ... Haloperidol ... 5.08"

Abstracts from this week:

Supplementation with two probiotic strains, Lactobacillus curvatus HY7601 and Lactobacillus plantarum KY1032, reduces fasting triglycerides and enhances apolipoprotein A-V levels in non-diabetic subjects with hypertriglyceridemia - Atherosclerosis. 2015 Jun 18 - "After the treatment, the probiotic group showed an 18.3% (P < 0.001) reduction in TGs and increases of 21.1% (P = 0.001) and 15.6% (P < 0.001) in the apo A-V and LDL particle size, respectively. The probiotic group had a significant reduction in TGs (P = 0.040) and increases in the plasma apo A-V (P = 0.003) and LDL particle size (P < 0.001) compared with the placebo group" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Resveratrol induces brown-like adipocyte formation in white fat through activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) α1 - Int J Obes (Lond). 2015 Jun;39(6):967-76 - "Resveratrol induces brown-like adipocyte formation in iWAT via AMPKα1 activation and suggest that its beneficial antiobesity effects may be partly due to the browning of WAT and, as a consequence, increased oxygen consumption" - [Nutra USA] - See ReserveAge Resveratrol Vegetarian Capsules, 500 Mg, 60-Count at Amazon.com. 

High glycemic index diet as a risk factor for depression: analyses from the Women's Health Initiative - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Jun 24 - "We found a progressively higher dietary GI to be associated with increasing odds of incident depression in fully adjusted models (OR for the fifth vs. first quintile: 1.22; 95% CI: 1.09, 1.37), with the trend being statistically significant (P = 0.0032). Progressively higher consumption of dietary added sugars was also associated with increasing odds of incident depression (OR for the fifth vs. first quintile: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.07, 1.41; P-trend = 0.0029). Higher consumption of lactose, fiber, nonjuice fruit, and vegetables was significantly associated with lower odds of incident depression, and nonwhole/refined grain consumption was associated with increased odds of depression"

Symbiotics in irritable bowel syndrome - better than probiotics alone? - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2015 Jun 23 - "Probiotics appear to be beneficial in IBS. Data supporting the use of symbiotics is sparse. Whether symbiotics are superior to probiotics is unclear"

Effect of Combined Treatment with Ursolic Acid and Resveratrol on Skin Tumor Promotion by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate - Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2015 Jun 22 - "Treatment with UA + Res during skin tumor promotion with TPA produced greater inhibition of tumor multiplicity and tumor size than with either agent alone. Collectively, the greater ability of the combination of UA + Res to inhibit skin tumor promotion was due to the greater inhibitory effects on growth factor and inflammatory signaling, skin inflammation and epidermal hyperproliferation induced by TPA treatment" - See ursolic acid at Amazon.com and ReserveAge Resveratrol Vegetarian Capsules, 500 Mg, 60-Count at Amazon.com.

Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters Block the Protumorigenic Effects of Obesity in Mouse Models of Postmenopausal Basal-Like and Claudin Low Breast Cancer - Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2015 Jun 22 - "Obesity induces chronic inflammation and is an established risk and progression factor for triple-negative breast cancers, including basal-like (BL) and claudin-low (CL) subtypes ... EPA+DHA supplementation in DIO mice reduced growth of Wnt-1 and M-Wnt tumors; reduced leptin:adiponectin ratio and pro-inflammatory eicosanoids in the serum; improved insulin sensitivity; and decreased tumoral expression of cyclooxygenase-2 and phospho-p65. Thus, EPA+DHA supplementation in mouse models of postmenopausal BL and CL breast cancer offsets many of the pro-tumorigenic effects of obesity" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

The best portable USB battery pack for daily use - engadget.com, 6/26/15 - "The Anker 2nd Gen Astro 6400 ($20) is the best pocket-size USB battery for most people, because it comes closest to hitting the sweet spot for price, charging speed, capacity, and portability. Thanks to its smart-charging circuitry, it works well with any current smartphone, and it should be able to handle new models that come out in the next couple of years, too. It's sturdy enough for the daily grind and small enough for a pair of relaxed-fit jeans"

Health Focus (Head & Neck Cancer):