Recent Longevity News for the week ending 5/25/16

Marijuana use in College Linked to Poor Health Years Later - Medscape, 5/18/16 - "Overall, students with minimal or no marijuana use during the first six years of the study had significantly better health outcomes by their late 20s than those who used marijuana chronically or increased their use in the latter part of the study's first six years. Even students who reported low marijuana use had worse health outcomes than those who never used marijuana"

Potatoes Tied to High Blood Pressure Risk - NYT, 3/17/16 - "After controlling for body mass index, physical activity, smoking and other factors, they found that compared to eating potatoes only once a month, having one potato — baked, boiled or mashed — four to six times a week increased the risk for hypertension by 11 percent. Eating four or more four-ounce servings of French fries a week increased the risk by 17 percent. Adjusting for salt and saturated fat intake did not change the results ... The researchers suggest that potatoes cause a rapid rise in blood glucose levels, which is associated with blood vessel problems and inflammation"

Abstracts from this week:

Enriching a protein drink with leucine augments muscle protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young and older men - Clin Nutr. 2016 Apr 30 - "Maximizing anabolic responses to feeding and exercise is crucial for muscle maintenance and adaptation to exercise training. We hypothesized that enriching a protein drink with leucine would improve anabolic responses to resistance exercise ... We conclude that addition of Leucine to a sub-maximal PRO bolus improves anabolic responses to RE in young and older men" - See See BulkSupplements Pure L-Leucine Powder (1 Kilogram).

Preventive effects of citrulline on Western diet-induced non-alcoholic fatty liver disease - Br J Nutr. 2016 May 20:1-13 - "Cit improves Western diet-induced liver injuries via decreased lipid deposition, increased insulin sensitivity, lower inflammatory process and preserved antioxidant status. This may be related in part to its protective effects at the gut level" - See BulkSupplements Pure L-Citrulline Powder.

Protein Intake and Muscle Health in Old Age: From Biological Plausibility to Clinical Evidence - Nutrients. 2016 May 14;8(5) - "Older persons, in particular, are at high risk of insufficient protein ingestion. Furthermore, the current recommended dietary allowance for protein (0.8 g/kg/day) might be inadequate for maintaining muscle health in older adults, probably as a consequence of "anabolic resistance" in aged muscle. Older individuals therefore need to ingest a greater quantity of protein to maintain muscle function. The quality of protein ingested is also essential to promoting muscle health. Given the role of leucine as the master dietary regulator of muscle protein turnover, the ingestion of protein sources enriched with this essential amino acid, or its metabolite β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate, is thought to offer the greatest benefit in terms of preservation of muscle mass and function in old age" - Note:  Search my website for leucine.  I've been recommending leucine for sarcopenia for a long time.  See BulkSupplements Pure L-Leucine Powder (1 Kilogram).

Anti-Proliferation Effects of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) on the Progression of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia - Phytother Res. 2016 May 18 - "Garlic administration decreased relative prostate weight ratio, suppressed mRNA expression level of AR, DHT serum levels, and the growth of prostatic tissue in BPH-induced rats. Moreover, garlic administration decreased the levels of inflammatory proteins, iNOS, and COX-2 in prostatic tissue. Further investigation showed that garlic induced accumulation of death-inducing signal complex and activation of AMPK and decreased the levels of anti-apoptotic proteins, such as Bcl-2, Bcl-xL, and survivin. These results suggest that garlic may have suppressing effects on BPH and it has great potential to be developed as treatment for BPH" - See garlic supplements at Amazon.com.

Resveratrol Interferes with IL1-β-Induced Pro-Inflammatory Paracrine Interaction between Primary Chondrocytes and Macrophages - Nutrients. 2016 May 11;8(5) - "Resveratrol showed a strong inhibitory effect on the pro-inflammatory marker secretion. The decrease of IL-6 secretion is dependent on the NFκB inhibition in the chondrocytes. Such reduction of the IL-6 level can limit STAT3 activation in the macrophages, leading to the interruption of the inflammatory amplification loop" - See Reserveage Nutrition - Resveratrol with Pterostilbene 500mg, Cellular Age-Defying Formula, 60 veg capsules at Amazon.com.

Inositol Hexaphosphate and Inositol Inhibit Colorectal Cancer Metastasis to the Liver in BALB/c Mice - Nutrients. 2016 May 12;8(5) - "Inositol hexaphosphate (IP6) and inositol (Ins), naturally occurring carbohydrates present in most mammals and plants, inhibit the growth of numerous cancers both in vitro and in vivo ... the tumor weights of liver metastases and the tumor inhibition rates were reduced in the experimental groups compared to the control group and that treatment with the combination of IP6 and Ins resulted in greater inhibition of tumor growth than treatment with either compound alone" - See IP-6 products at Amazon.com.

Efficacy of Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera [L.] Dunal) in improving cardiorespiratory endurance in healthy athletic adults - Ayu. 2015 Jan-Mar;36(1):63-8 - "There was a greater increase from baseline (P < 0.0001) in the mean VO2 max with KSM-66 Ashwagandha (n = 24) compared to placebo (n = 25) at 8 weeks (4.91 and 1.42, respectively) and at 12 weeks (5.67 and 1.86 respectively). The QOL scores for all subdomains significantly improved to a greater extent in the Ashwagandha group at 12 weeks compared to placebo" - [Nutra USA] - See Ashwagandha at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

The best coffee maker - Engadget.com, 5/17/16 - "The sleek steel-and-black OXO On 9-Cup Coffee Maker proves that good coffee and good features don't have to be mutually exclusive ... The OXO also produces the second-best-tasting coffee we found, and it's a better machine than its competition in every other respect ... The Bonavita 1900TS brews coffee faster than any other machine with pre-infusion—it made a full batch in a little over five minutes—and consistently makes some of the best-tasting automatically dripped drink you can find" - See the OXO On 9-Cup Coffee Maker at Amazon.com.  I'm always looking for the best tasting though.  See the Bonavita 1900TS at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Tinnitus):