Recent Longevity News for the week ending 1/6/16

New class of blood pressure meds as effective as old, analysis shows - Washington Post, 1/4/16 - "The new analysis, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings on Monday, involves a second look at 106 randomized trials with 254,301 patients that took place after 2000 and shows that during this time period patient outcomes on the two medications were remarkably similar. The one difference they found was that ARBs tend to be better tolerated by patients, meaning that they have fewer side effects or result in fewer adverse events. ACE inhibitors are poorly tolerated by many patients because they can produce a bothersome dry cough, and some end up stopping medication as a result ... The other piece of good news regarding the medications is that ACE inhibitors, as well as many ARBs, are now generic -- meaning that the cost difference is minimal" - I've been pointing that out for years.  See my Telmisartan as a first line treatment page.

Making sure that sushi is as good for you as you think it is - Washington Post, 1/4/16 - "Depending on the type of roll, this can add up to well over 1,000 calories, because you are consuming a lot of rice per roll (about one-third to one-half cup of rice per roll). In addition, sugar and salt are usually added when the rice is made. This can lead to increased calories, unnecessary sodium and an abundance of empty carbs"

Could Vitamin D Help Fight Multiple Sclerosis? - WebMD, 12/30/15 - "His team tested two doses in 40 adults with MS. Over six months, one group took 10,400 IU of vitamin D a day -- about 17 times the amount that the U.S. government recommends for healthy adults (600 IU a day); the other group took 800 IU a day ... In the end, only the high-dose group showed changes in their immune system activity. The largest effect, Calabresi said, was a reduction in cells that produce an inflammatory protein called interleukin-17" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

More Side Effects in First Year With BPH Drugs - Medscape, 12/31/15 - "At year 1, the incidence of impotence was significantly higher with finasteride (1.9-fold higher; p=0.006) and combination therapy (2.4-fold higher; p <0.001). Beyond year 1, the rates between the drug treatment groups and placebo were similar ... Incidence rates for decreased libido were also significantly higher at year 1 with finasteride (1.7-fold higher; p=0.021) and combination therapy (2-fold higher; p=0.001). After year 1, the rates between the treatment groups and placebo were similar ... at year 1, the incidence of abnormal ejaculation was significantly higher with finasteride (2.5-fold higher; p=0.002) and combination therapy (5.5-fold higher; p<0.001). And after year 1, only the combination therapy group had a significantly higher incidence rate compared with placebo"

Here's How Sugar Might Fuel the Growth of Cancer - NBC News, 12/31/15 - "Sucrose or table sugar is actually composed of two sugars: glucose and fructose ... Fructose is processed more by the liver, glucose by the pancreas ... When the mice got more fructose, they grew larger tumors and faster ... This supports other findings that have shown pancreatic tumors also thrive on fructose ... It seems that fructose is driving this inflammatory process more than glucose ... It seems from these series of experiments that it really fructose that within the sucrose that is the driver of the tumorigenic process ... Any sugar helped make the tumors grow faster, but fructose did it significantly more"

Relax and stay healthy staring at geeky Yule log videos - CNET, 12/31/15 - "Last year, scientists at the University of Alabama determined that watching a Yule log could lower your blood pressure, even if it was merely a video of the log ... there was an average of a 5 percent decrease in blood pressure among the adults who watched the fireplace complete with the crackling log sounds" - Note: Pair is up with Chromecast (http://amzn.to/1YTZkrx).  Make sure you set the highest resolution before selecting Chromecast.

Abstracts from this week:

Association between Metformin Use and Mortality after Cervical Cancer in Older Women with Diabetes - Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2015 Dec 31 - "Cumulative dose of metformin after cervical cancer diagnosis was independently associated with a decreased risk of cervical cancer-specific mortality and overall mortality in a dose-dependent fashion (HR 0.79 ... This finding has important implications if validated prospectively, as metformin is inexpensive and can be easily combined with standard treatment for cervical cancer" - See metformin at The Antiaging Store.

Sulforaphane produces antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like effects in adult mice - Behav Brain Res. 2015 Dec 22 - "Increasing evidence suggests that depression is accompanied by dysregulation of neuroimmune system. Sulforaphane (SFN) is a natural compound with antioxidative, anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective activities ... these findings demonstrated that SFN has antidepressant- and anxiolytic-like activities in stressed mice model of depression, which likely occurs by inhibiting the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and inflammatory response to stress. These data support further exploration for developing SFN as a novel agent to treat depression and anxiety disorders" - See sulforaphane at Amazon.com.

Current Evidence Supporting the Link Between Dietary Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Disease - Lipids. 2015 Dec 30 - "Evidence suggests of the potential importance of restricting n-6 PUFA up to 10 % of energy and obtaining an n-6/n-3 ratio as close as possible to unity, along with a particular emphasis on consuming adequate amounts of essential fatty acids. The latest evidence shows cardioprotective effects of MUFA-rich diets, especially when MUFA are supplemented with essential fatty acids; namely, docosahexaenoic acid. MUFA has been newly suggested to be involved in regulating fat oxidation, energy metabolism, appetite sensations, weight maintenance, and cholesterol metabolism. These favorable effects might implicate MUFA as the preferable choice to substitute for other fatty acids, especially given the declaration of its safety for up to 20 % of total energy"

Leucine partially protects muscle mass and function during bed rest in middle-aged adults - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Dec 30 - "muscle protein synthesis (MPS) ... leucine supplementation (LEU group: 0.06 g ∙ kg-1 ∙ meal-1) or an alanine control (CON group) during 14 d of bed rest ... Leucine protected knee extensor peak torque (CON compared with LEU group: -15% ± 2% and -7% ± 3%; group × time interaction, P < 0.05) and endurance (CON compared with LEU: -14% ± 3% and -2% ± 4%; group × time interaction, P < 0.05), prevented an increase in body fat percentage (group × time interaction, P < 0.05), and reduced whole-body lean mass loss after 7 d (CON compared with LEU: -1.5 ± 0.3 and -0.8 ± 0.3 kg; group × time interaction, P < 0.05) but not 14 d (CON compared with LEU: -1.5 ± 0.3 and -1.0 ± 0.3 kg) of bed rest. Leucine also maintained muscle quality (peak torque/kg leg lean mass) after 14 d of bed-rest inactivity (CON compared with LEU: -9% ± 2% and +1% ± 3%; group × time interaction, P < 0.05)" - See leucine products at Amazon.com.

Intakes of fish and PUFAs and mild-to-severe cognitive impairment risks: a dose-response meta-analysis of 21 cohort studies - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Dec 30 - "As an important source of marine n-3 PUFAs, a 0.1-g/d increment of dietary docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) intake was associated with lower risks of dementia (RR: 0.86; 95% CI: 0.76, 0.96; P < 0.001, I2 = 92.7%) and AD (RR: 0.63" - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

Niacin Suppresses Progression of Atherosclerosis by Inhibiting Vascular Inflammation and Apoptosis of Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells - Med Sci Monit. 2015 Dec 29;21:4081-9 - "Niacin inhibits vascular inflammation and apoptosis of VSMCs via inhibiting the NF-κB signaling and the FAK signaling pathway, respectively, thus protecting ApoE-/- mice against atherosclerosis" - See Life Extension Vitamin B3 Niacin 500 Mg 100 capsules.

Treatment with chondroitin sulfate to modulate inflammation and atherogenesis in obesity - Atherosclerosis. 2015 Dec 13;245:82-87 - "chondroitin sulfate (CS) ... CS interferes with the pro-inflammatory activation of monocytes and endothelial cells driven by TNF-α thus reducing the propagation of inflammation and preventing the formation of atherosclerotic plaques" - See chondroitin sulfate at Amazon.com.

Longer duration of statin therapy is associated with decreased carotid plaque vascularity by magnetic resonance imaging - Atherosclerosis. 2015 Dec 1;245:74-81 - "carotid plaque neovasculature (as assessed by Vp) ... shorter duration of statin therapy (P = 0.01), the presence of metabolic syndrome (P = 0.02), and higher body mass index (P = 0.01) and lipoprotein(a) (P = 0.01) were all significantly associated with higher baseline Vp values" 

Health Focus (Iron):