Recent Longevity News for the week ending 6/8/16

Fountain of youth? Dietary supplement may prevent and reverse severe damage to aging brain, research suggests - Science Daily, 6/2/16 - "contains common ingredients such as vitamins B, C and D, folic acid, green tea extract, cod liver oil and other nutraceuticals ... The mice used in this study had widespread loss of more than half of their brain cells, severely impacting multiple regions of the brain by one year of age, the human equivalent of severe Alzheimer's disease ... they also discovered that the mice on the supplements experienced enhancement in vision and most remarkably in the sense of smell -- the loss of which is often associated with neurological disease -- improved balance and motor activity" - See Garden of Life Vitamin Code 50 & Wiser Men's Multi, 240 Capsules and Garden of Life Vitamin Code 50 & Wiser Women's Multi, 240 Capsules.

Dietary fiber intake tied to successful aging, research reveals - Science Daily, 6/1/16 - "those who had the highest intake of fiber or total fiber actually had an almost 80 percent greater likelihood of living a long and healthy life over a 10-year follow-up. That is, they were less likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dementia, depression, and functional disability"

Abstracts from this week:

Effects of potassium citrate or potassium chloride in patients with combined glucose intolerance: A placebo-controlled pilot study - J Diabetes Complications. 2016 Mar 17 - "11 subjects (7 male, 4 female, ages 47-63 years), 90 meqs of oral KCl or Kcitrate per day for 2 weeks ... only Kcitrate attenuated insulin resistance as assessed by HOMA-IR (insulin resistance, Kcitrate=2.8 (2.5-3.1), placebo=3.2 (2.9-3.5), p<0.03) and only Kcitrate increased quantitative insulin sensitivity check index ... Kcitrate significantly decreased systolic and diastolic 24-hour ambulatory blood pressures (-4.0 (-3 to -5) and -2.7 (-1.9 to -3.5), respectively as compared to placebo, p<0.02) while KCl was without a significant effect" - Note: 90 meqs of potassium citrate is 3510 mg.  See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.

Effect of oral γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) administration on sleep and its absorption in humans - Food Science and Biotechnology, Apr 2016 - "GABA significantly shortened sleep latency and increased the total non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep time" - [Nutra USA] - Note:  GABA has been part of my sleep cocktail for a long time along with melatonin, theanine, Valerian Nighttime, l-tryptophan and phosphatidyl serine.  See GABA at Amazon.com.

Does dehydroepiandrosterone improve pregnancy rate in women undergoing IVF/ICSI with expected poor ovarian response according to the Bologna criteria? A randomized controlled trial - Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2016 May;200:11-5 - "The study group received DHEA 25mg three times daily for 12 weeks before the IVF/ICSI cycles and the control group did not receive DHEA ... Controlled ovarian stimulation (COH) ... The DHEA group had significantly higher clinical pregnancy rate (32.8% vs 15.7%, p=0.029), ongoing pregnancy rate (28.5% vs 12.8%) ... DHEA was well tolerated by the patients and was associated with less COH days and gonadotropins doses" - See Pure Encapsulations 7-keto DHEA.

Nicotinamide Riboside Opposes Type 2 Diabetes and Neuropathy in Mice - Sci Rep. 2016 May 27;6:26933 - "NR improved glucose tolerance, reduced weight gain, liver damage and the development of hepatic steatosis in prediabetic mice while protecting against sensory neuropathy. In T2D mice, NR greatly reduced non-fasting and fasting blood glucose, weight gain and hepatic steatosis while protecting against diabetic neuropathy. The neuroprotective effect of NR could not be explained by glycemic control alone ... Quantitative metabolomics established that hepatic NADP(+) and NADPH levels were significantly degraded in prediabetes and T2D but were largely protected when mice were supplemented with NR" - [Nutra USA] - See nicotinamide riboside at Amazon.com.

The flavonoid baicalein rescues synaptic plasticity and memory deficits in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease - Behav Brain Res. 2016 May 24 - "Baicalein prevented Aβ-induced impairments in hippocampal LTP through activation of serine threonine Kinase (Akt) phosphorylation. Long-term oral administration of baicalein inhibited 12/15LO and GSK3β activity, reduced β-secretase enzyme (BACE1), decreased the concentration of total Aβ, and prevented phosphorylation of tau in APP/PS1 mice. Meanwhile, baicalein restored spine number, synaptic plasticity, and memory deficits. Our results strengthen the potential of the flavonoid baicalein as a novel and promising oral bioactive therapeutic agent that prevents memory deficits in AD" - See flavonoids at Amazon.com.

Cranberry (poly)phenol metabolites correlate with improvements in vascular function: A double-blind, randomized, controlled, dose-response, crossover study - Mol Nutr Food Res. 2016 May 31 - "(Poly)phenols in cranberry juice can improve vascular function in healthy males and this is linked to the presence of specific newly identified plasma metabolites" - See cranberry extract at Amazon.com.

Zinc supplementation for improving glucose handling in pre-diabetes: A double blind randomized placebo controlled pilot study - Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2016 May;115:39-46 - "fasting blood glucose levels, (FBG) ... received either 30mg zinc sulphate dispersible tablet or placebo, once daily for six months ... After six months, the intervention group significantly improved their FBG concentration compared to the placebo group (5.37±0.20mmol/L vs 5.69±0.26, p<0.001) as well as compared to their own baseline (5.37±0.20mmol/L vs 5.8±0.09, p<0.001). Beta cell function, insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance all showed a statistically significant improvement as well" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (Interleukin 6 (IL-6)):