Recent Longevity News for the week ending 2/17/16

New study finds clear differences between organic and non-organic milk and meat - Science Daily, 2/15/16 - "both organic milk and meat contain around 50% more beneficial omega-3 fatty acids than conventionally produced products ... Other positive changes in fat profiles included lower levels of myristic and palmitic acid in organic meat and a lower omega-3/omega-6 ratio in organic milk. Higher levels of fat soluble vitamins such as vitamin E and carotenoids and 40% more CLA in organic milk were also observed"

How to use the iPhone as the Best Backpacking GPS - Note:  I like the $5 MotionX app for my iPhone better than I like the $300 Garmin hiking GPS that I have.  You can expand the screen and tell if you're five steps off course.  The problem is that I don't know if I'd trust the iPhone GPS chip in places where my life depended on it.  That said the iPhone is a good backup.  See the bottom of my 'trails" page (http://qualitycounts.com/trails/) for how to import .gpx tracks into MotionX.  Alltrails.com generates the .gpx's but they charge $50 per year for the membership but they usually have a discount for $30 per year.  I also have the Anker portable charger that they show.  It will charge your iPhone, headlamp, GPS, etc. It's a life saver.

Proton Pump Inhibitors Linked to Dementia - Medscape, 2/15/16 - "These users had a significantly higher risk for dementia compared with those not taking this drug (hazard ratio [HR], 1.44 ... Researchers are not clear on how PPI use might raise dementia risk. Evidence suggests some PPIs may cross the blood–brain barrier and interact with brain enzymes and, in mice, may increase beta amyloid levels in the brain ... Although the current study did not include vitamin B12 levels, other research has linked PPI use to vitamin B12 deficiency, which has been shown to be associated with cognitive decline ... Dr Kuller also pointed to evidence of PPIs possibly increasing both production and degradation of amyloid, at least in animals, and of reduced B12 and other nutrients among PPI users, which could be tied to dementia risk" - Note:  I read somewhere that it lowered IGF-1 (growth hormone) by 10% then in another study, lower IGF-1 was associated with dementia.

Starting age of marijuana use may have long-term effects on brain development - Science Daily, 2/10/16 - "participants who began using marijuana at the age of 16 or younger demonstrated brain variations that indicate arrested brain development in the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for judgment, reasoning and complex thinking. Individuals who started using marijuana after age 16 showed the opposite effect and demonstrated signs of accelerated brain aging ... These three indexes indicate that when participants began using marijuana before age 16, the extent of brain alteration was directly proportionate to the number of weekly marijuana use in years and grams consumed"

Abstracts from this week:

Consumption of Fish Oil Providing Amounts of Eicosapentaenoic Acid and Docosahexaenoic Acid That Can Be Obtained from the Diet Reduces Blood Pressure in Adults with Systolic Hypertension: A Retrospective Analysis - J Nutr. 2016 Jan 27 - "In a double-blind, placebo-controlled RCT, healthy men and women (n = 312) consumed a control oil or fish oil (FO) providing 0.7 or 1.8 g EPA+DHA/d, in random order, each for 8 wk ... FO-induced reduction (mean: 5 mm Hg) in systolic BP, specifically in those with isolated systolic hypertension" - [Nutra USA] - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Acute effects of theanine, caffeine and theanine-caffeine combination on attention - Nutr Neurosci. 2016 Feb 11 - "In a placebo-controlled, five-way crossover trial in 20 healthy male volunteers, we compared the effects of l-theanine (200 mg), caffeine (160 mg), their combination, black tea (one cup) and a placebo (distilled water) on cognitive (simple [SVRT] and recognition visual reaction time [RVRT]) and neurophysiological (event-related potentials [ERPs]) measures of attention ... Mean RVRT was significantly improved by theanine (P = 0.019), caffeine (P = 0.043), and theanine-caffeine combination (P = 0.001), but not by tea (P = 0.429) or placebo ... A dose of theanine equivalent of eight cups of back tea improves cognitive and neurophysiological measures of selective attention, to a degree that is comparable with that of caffeine. Theanine and caffeine seem to have additive effects on attention in high doses" - See theanine at Amazon.com.

The protective effect of lycopene intake on bone loss in ovariectomized rats - J Bone Miner Metab. 2015 May;33(3):270-8 - "Our findings suggest that lycopene intake significantly inhibits bone loss by suppressing bone resorption in ovariectomized rats" - See lycopene at Amazon.com.

Associations of egg and cholesterol intakes with carotid intima-media thickness and risk of incident coronary artery disease according to apolipoprotein E phenotype in men: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study - Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Feb 10 - "common carotid artery intima-media thickness (CCA-IMT) ... Egg or cholesterol intakes were not associated with the risk of CAD ... Egg or cholesterol intakes were also not associated with increased CCA-IMT"

Efficacy and Safety of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) Root Extract in Improving Sexual Function in Women: A Pilot Study - Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:284154 - "high-concentration ashwagandha root extract (HCARE) ... subjects consumed either HCARE or placebo capsules of 300mg twice daily for 8 weeks ... treatment with HCARE leads to significantly higher improvement, relative to placebo, in the FSFI Total score (p < 0.001), FSFI domain score for "arousal" (p < 0.001), "lubrication" (p < 0.001), "orgasm" (p = 0.004), and "satisfaction" (p < 0.001), and also FSDS score (p < 0.001) and the number of successful sexual encounters (p < 0.001) at the end of the treatment" - [Nutra USA] - See Ashwagandha at Amazon.com.

Melatonin Prevents Mitochondrial Damage Induced by Doxorubicin in Mouse Fibroblasts Through Ampk-Ppar Gamma-Dependent Mechanisms - Med Sci Monit. 2016 Feb 10;22:438-46 - "Melatonin given with doxorubicin successfully countered apoptosis generated by doxorubicin alone, which points to its potential as a protective agent against cell death in doxorubicin chemotherapy. This also implies that patients should be receiving doxorubicin treatment when their physiological level of melatonin is at its highest, which is early in the morning" - See melatonin at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (Omega-3):