Recent Longevity News for the week ending 10/21/15

'Psychobiotic' May Help Ease Stress, Improve Memory - Medscape, 10/20/15 - "The emerging concept of the gut microbiome as a key regulator of brain and behavior represents a paradigm shift in neuroscience. Precise targeting of the microbiome-gut-brain axis with psychobiotics — live microorganisms with a potential mental health benefit — is a novel approach for the management of stress-related conditions ... 22 healthy male volunteers (mean age, 25.5 years) ingested a capsule containing B longum NCIMB 41676 daily for 4 weeks and a matching placebo capsule for another 4 weeks ... B longum NCIMB 41676 led to a reduction in cumulative output of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as a blunted increase in subjective anxiety. On the questionnaire, the men reported being less stressed and anxious while taking the probiotic. They also showed subtle improvement on a visual memory task after receiving the probiotic, as well as altered EEG output" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Calcium supplements may increase the risk of kidney stone recurrence - Science Daily, 10/14/15 - "Patients who took calcium supplements had lower total calcium and oxalate (which are components of kidney stones) in their urine while blood levels were unaffected. However, these patients also had a faster rate of kidney stone growth suggesting that the mechanism of calcium supplementation on stone formation may not be straightforward. Vitamin D supplementation also decreased urinary calcium excretion as well as stone growth, suggesting that it may help prevent the risk of stone formation"

Abstracts from this week:

Vitamin D, muscle function and cardiorespiratory fitness in adolescents from the Young Hearts Study - J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2015 Oct 20 - "boys aged 15 years in the highest tertile of standardized serum 25(OH)D concentration (>51nmol/L) had significantly higher muscle strength (β=3.90, P=<0.001) compared to those in the lowest tertile (<32nmol/L)" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Association of Sex Hormone Binding Globulin and Free Testosterone with Mortality in Men with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus - Eur J Endocrinol. 2015 Oct 19 - "Low circulating testosterone levels have been associated with increased mortality in men. We hypothesized that the prognostic role of testosterone in men with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is influenced by its carrier protein sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) ... higher SHBG (Hazard Ratio (HR) 1.012 [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.002-1.022], p=0.02) and lower calculated free testosterone (cFT) (HR 0.995 [95% CI 0.993-0.998], p=0.001) were risk factors for all cause mortality ... By contrast, the inverse association of total testosterone (TT) with mortality weakened after these adjustments (p=0.11). SHBG remained associated with mortality (p<0.001) both if substituted for or added to TT in the multivariable model. In the fully adjusted model, an increase of SHBG by 17.3 nmol/L (1 SD) increased mortality by 22% and a decrease in cFT by 81 pmol/L (1 SD) increased mortality by 45%"

Erectile Dysfunction and cardiovascular risk factors in a Mediterranean diet cohort - Intern Med J. 2015 Oct 20 - "ED presence and severity were associated with age, obesity, waist circumference, hypertension, antihypertensive treatment and ischemic disease. Patients with ED were more frequently smokers, sedentary and consumed more alcohol. In multivariate analysis, consumption of nuts (> twice a week) (OR 0.41 [95% CI 0.25 to 0.67] and vegetables (≥ once a day) (OR 0.47 [95% CI 0.28 - 0,77]), were inversely related to ED. Obesity (as BMI ≥ 30 kg/m2 ) (OR 2.49 [95% CI 1.48 -4.17]), ischemic disease (OR 2.30 [95% CI 1.22 to 4.33], alcohol consumption (alcohol-units a day) (OR 1.14 [95% CI 1.04 to 1.26], and age (year) (OR = 1.07 [95% CI 1.04-1.10] were directly related to ED"

Dietary Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load Are Positively Associated with Risk of Developing Metabolic Syndrome in Middle-Aged and Elderly Adults - J Am Geriatr Soc. 2015 Oct;63(10):1991-2000 - "Dietary GI and GL have a potential role in the development of MetS and associated clinical features, with particular age-dependent considerations"

Specific serum carotenoids are inversely associated with breast cancer risk among Chinese women: a case-control study - Br J Nutr. 2015 Oct 20:1-9 - "Significant inverse associations were observed between serum α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein/zeaxanthin and the risk for breast cancer. The multivariate OR for the highest quartile of serum concentration compared with the lowest quartile were 0.44 (95 % CI 0.30, 0.65) for α-carotene, 0.27 (95 % CI 0.18, 0.40) for β-carotene, 0.41 (95 % CI 0.28, 0.61) for lycopene and 0.26 (95 % CI 0.17, 0.38) for lutein/zeaxanthin" - See carotenoids at Amazon.com.

Low serum magnesium is associated with coronary artery calcification in a Korean population at low risk for cardiovascular disease - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2015 Aug 13 - "low < 1.9 mg/dL (n = 931), normal = 1.9-2.3 mg/dL (n = 32,341), and high > 2.3 mg/dL ... The odds ratio for CAC in the low serum magnesium group compared to the normal group was 2.10 (1.40-3.15, P < 0.001) ... CONCLUSION: Low serum magnesium level is associated with CAC in a Korean population at low risk for cardiovascular disease. Further studies are needed to generalize this finding and to verify the causal relationship between low serum magnesium and CAC" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.

Lycopene Enriched Tomato Extract Inhibits Hypoxia, Angiogenesis, and Metastatic Markers in early Stage N-Nitrosodiethylamine Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma - Nutr Cancer. 2015 Oct 16:1-8 - "The study provides evidence that prophylactic dietary supplementation with LycT may counteract HCC progression and/or protect against disease onset" - See lycopene at Amazon.com.

The relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and ambulatory arterial stiffness index in newly diagnosed and never-treated hypertensive patients - Blood Press Monit. 2015 Oct 12 - "ambulatory arterial stiffness index (AASI) ... Arterial stiffness measured by AASI in newly diagnosed and untreated patients with essential hypertension were significantly related to vitamin D levels" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Eating Frequency Is Positively Associated with Overweight and Central Obesity in US Adults - J Nutr. 2015 Oct 14 - "eating frequency (EF) ... meal frequency (MF), and snack frequency (SF) ... This cross-sectional study suggests that higher EF, MF, and SF are associated with increased likelihood of overweight/obesity and central obesity in US adults" 

Health Focus (Telomeres):