Recent Longevity News for the week ending 10/14/15

Association Between Use of Marijuana and Male Reproductive Hormones and Semen Quality - Medscape, 10/8/15 - "Regular marijuana smoking more than once per week was associated with a 28% (95% confidence interval (CI): −48, −1) lower sperm concentration and a 29% (95% CI: −46, −1) lower total sperm count after adjustment for confounders. The combined use of marijuana more than once per week and other recreational drugs reduced the sperm concentration by 52% (95% CI: −68, −27) and total sperm count by 55%"

New study says 30 minutes of exercise a day is not enough. You should double or quadruple that - Washington Post, 10/6/15 - "those following the 30-minutes-a-day guidelines issued by the American Heart Association had “modest reductions” in heart failure risk compared to those who did not work out at all ... But those who did twice and four times as much exercise experienced “a substantial risk reduction" of 20 and 35 percent respectively" - Note:  This has been going back and forth for years.  I never bought off on the "less is more" theory.

Abstracts from this week:

Panax ginseng Improves Functional Recovery after Contusive Spinal Cord Injury by Regulating the Inflammatory Response in Rats: An In Vivo Study - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2015;2015:817096 - "Ginseng is well known to possess anti-inflammatory effects ... P. ginseng treated group in SCI showed a significant improvement in locomotor function after the injury. The protein expression of COX-2 and iNOS at the lesion site and the cavity area were decreased following SCI by P. ginseng treatment. These results suggest that P. ginseng may improve the recovery of motor function after SCI which provides neuroprotection by alleviating posttraumatic inflammatory responses" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.

Monosodium l-glutamate in soup reduces subsequent energy intake from high-fat savoury food in overweight and obese women - Br J Nutr. 2015 Oct 12:1-9 - "The soup with MSG in comparison with the control soup resulted in significantly lower consumption of energy at lunch. The addition of MSG in the soup also reduced energy intake from high-fat savoury foods" - See Aji No Moto Ajinomoto Monosodium Glutamate Umami Seasoning 454g / 1LB / 16oz HALAL at Amazon.com.

Oral N-acetylcysteine reduces plasma homocysteine concentrations regardless of lipid or smoking status - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Oct 7 - "hyperlipidemic group (HYL ... Four weeks of oral NAC treatment significantly decreased plasma tHcy concentrations, irrespective of lipid or smoking status, and lowered systolic blood pressure in both normolipidemic and hyperlipidemic men, with significant diastolic blood pressure reductions in the HYL group only. Increased oral intake of cysteine may therefore be considered for primary or secondary prevention of vascular events with regard to the 2 independent risk factors of hyperhomocysteinemia and arterial hypertension" - See n-acetyl cysteine at Amazon.com.

Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Is Lower in US Adults Taking Chromium-Containing Supplements - J Nutr. 2015 Oct 7 - "Compared with nonusers, the odds of having T2D (HbA1c ≥6.5%) were lower in persons who consumed chromium-containing supplements within the previous 30 d than in those who did not (OR: 0.73" - See chromium supplements at Amazon.com.

Clinical evaluation of purified Shilajit on testosterone levels in healthy volunteers - Andrologia. 2015 Sep 22 - "placebo-controlled clinical study at a dose of 250 mg twice a day. Treatment with Shilajit for consecutive 90 days revealed that it has significantly (P < 0.05) increased total testosterone, free testosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEAS) compared with placebo. Gonadotropic hormones (LH and FSH) levels were well maintained" - [ Nutra USA] - See shilajit ayursante at Amazon.com.

Milk and dairy consumption correlates with cerebral cortical as well as cerebral white matter volume in healthy young adults - Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2015 Oct 5:1-4 - "Total cerebral cortex, total cerebral white matter, and total cerebral parenchyma were significantly related with cottage cheese and total protein intake from milk and dairy also when controlled for age and gender in the multivariate model. Our results indicate that dietary habits related with milk and dairy are proportionally associated with volumes of both cerebral cortex and cerebral white matter" - See my yogurt recipe at the top of my yogurt page.

Vitamin D Deficiency Increases the Risk of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies - Nutrients. 2015 Oct 1 - "The meta-analysis of 20 studies including 9209 participants showed that women with vitamin D deficiency experienced a significantly increased risk for developing GDM (odds ratio (OR) = 1.53" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (Sytrinol):