Recent Longevity News for the week ending 6/15/16

Metformin Linked to Lower Neurodegenerative Disease Risk - Medscape, 6/11/16 - "The mechanism is unclear, but metformin is known to cross the blood-brain barrier ... The adjusted incidence of developing one or more neurodegenerative diseases per 100 person-years was 2.08 for those who never used metformin, 2.47 for those using metformin less than 1 year, 1.61 for less than 2 years, 1.30 for 2 to 4 years, and 0.49 for 4 or more years ... Compared with no metformin, the hazard ratios for 2 to 4 years of metformin therapy for all neurodegenerative diseases combined was 0.623 and for 4 or more years 0.216 ... The findings were also significant for dementia specifically (0.567 at 2–4 years and 0.252 for 4+ years) and for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases only beyond 4 years (0.038 and 0.229, respectively)" - See metformin at The Antiaging Store.

Research Points to 'Smoking Gun' for PPI Risks - WebMD, 6/8/16 - "What’s been less clear, though, is how these meds might be contributing to so many kinds of ills ... Now researchers working out of Stanford University and Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas think they may have found an important piece of the puzzle: The drugs don’t just turn off acid pumps in the stomach. Instead, the researchers say, PPIs also block the production of acid in every cell in our bodies, an effect that hampers the body’s ability to rid itself of damaged proteins -- the “garbage” that builds up as we age"

How altered gut microbes cause obesity - Science Daily, 6/8/16 - "Taken together these experiments demonstrate a causal link between alterations in the gut microbiota in response to changes in the diet and increased acetate production ... The increased acetate in turn leads to increased food intake, setting off a positive feedback loop that drives obesity and insulin resistance ... Alterations in the gut microbiota are associated with obesity and the metabolic syndrome in both humans and rodents" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Creatine Increased Muscle Mass, Not Strength, in Patients With RA - Medscape, 6/8/16 - "Despite the increase in muscle mass, creatine supplementation did not differ from placebo in effect on isometric knee extensor strength, handgrip strength, or objectively assessed physical function" - Note:  If they ever do a study on it I'm betting they find the same problem with growth hormone.

A Comparison of the Gut Microbiome Between Long-term Users and Non-users of Proton Pump Inhibitors - Medscape, 6/7/16 - "Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) use is associated with an increased risk of Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) ... Long-term PPIs use has an effect on the gut microbiome. The alteration in the ratio of Firmicutes to Bacteroidetes may pre-dispose to the development of CDI"

Copper is key in burning fat - Science Daily, 6/7/16 - "copper has been gaining increasing attention over the past decade for its role in certain biological functions. It has been known that copper is needed to form red blood cells, absorb iron, develop connective tissue and support the immune system ... We find that copper is essential for breaking down fat cells so that they can be used for energy ... It acts as a regulator. The more copper there is, the more the fat is broken down. We think it would be worthwhile to study whether a deficiency in this nutrient could be linked to obesity and obesity-related diseases ... an adult's estimated average dietary requirement for copper is about 700 micrograms per day. The Food and Nutrition Board also found that only 25 percent of the U.S. population gets enough copper daily ... Too much copper can lead to imbalances with other essential minerals, including zinc ... Of the copper in human bodies, there are particularly high concentrations found in the brain ... copper helps brain cells communicate with each other by acting as a brake when it is time for neural signals to stop" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.

Immunotherapy improves survival, quality of life in rapidly progressing head and neck cancer - Science Daily, 6/6/16 - "The new trial was considered so successful that it was stopped early to allow patients in the comparison group to receive the new drug ... The new drug, nivolumab, which belongs to a class of drugs known as immunotherapeutics, enables the body's immune system to destroy cancer cells. It currently is approved to treat certain types of cancers, including melanoma and lung cancer"

Abstracts from this week:

Coffee intake and the incident risk of cognitive disorders: A dose-response meta-analysis of nine prospective cohort studies - Clin Nutr. 2016 May 30 - "A "J-shaped" association was presented between coffee intake and incident cognitive disorders, with the lowest risk of incident cognitive disorders at a daily consumption level of 1-2 cups of coffee"

Coffee Consumption Is Positively Associated with Longer Leukocyte Telomere Length in the Nurses' Health Study - J Nutr. 2016 Jun 8 - "Higher total coffee consumption was significantly associated with longer telomeres after potential confounding adjustment. Compared with non-coffee drinkers, multivariable ORs for those drinking 2 to <3 and ≥3 cups of coffee/d were, respectively, 1.29 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.68) and 1.36"

Probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 improves glucose tolerance and reduces body weight gain in rats by stimulating energy expenditure - Br J Nutr. 2016 Jun 8:1-8 - "Probiotic Lactobacillus gasseri SBT2055 (LG2055) reduces postprandial TAG absorption and exerts anti-obesity effects in rats and humans; however, the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood ... Rats fed the LG2055-containing diet demonstrated significantly higher carbohydrate oxidation in the dark cycle (active phase for rats) compared with the control group, which resulted in a significant increase in energy expenditure. LG2055 significantly reduced cumulative blood glucose levels (AUC) compared with the control diet after 3 weeks and increased the molar ratio of butyrate:total SCFA in the caecum after 4 weeks. Furthermore, the LG2055-supplemented diet significantly reduced the levels of serum amyloid P component - an indicator of the inflammatory process" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Effect of Immune-Enhancing Enteral Nutrition Enriched with or without Beta-Glucan on Immunomodulation in Critically Ill Patients - Nutrients. 2016 Jun 2;8(6). pii: E336 - "immune-modulating nutrients (IMHP) ... 30 patients consumed one of three types of enteral nutrition: a control or IMHP with and without β-glucan. The IMHP with β-glucan group showed increases in natural killer (NK) cell activities relative to the baseline, and greater increases were observed in NK cell activities relative to the control group after adjusting for age and gender" - See beta glucan at Amazon.com.

Treatment of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease with Curcumin: A Randomized Placebo-controlled Trial - Phytother Res. 2016 Jun 8 - "patients with ultrasonographic evidence of NAFLD were randomly assigned to receive an amorphous dispersion curcumin formulation (500 mg/day equivalent to 70-mg curcumin) or matched placebo for a period of 8 weeks ... Compared with placebo, curcumin was associated with a significant reduction in liver fat content (78.9% improvement in the curcumin vs 27.5% improvement in the placebo group). There were also significant reductions in body mass index and serum levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, glucose, and glycated hemoglobin compared with the placebo group. Curcumin was safe and well tolerated during the course of trial" - See curcumin products at Amazon.com.

The effects of phosphatidic acid supplementation on strength, body composition, muscular endurance, power, agility, and vertical jump in resistance trained men - J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2016 Jun 2;13:24 - "Phosphatidic acid (PA) is a lipid messenger that has been shown to increase muscle protein synthesis via signaling stimulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR). MaxxTOR® (MT) is a supplement that contains PA as the main active ingredient but also contains other synergistic mTOR signaling substances including L-Leucine, Beta-Hydroxy-Beta-Methylbutyrate (HMB), and Vitamin D3 ... participants were tested on one repetition maximum (1RM) leg press strength (LP), 1RM bench press strength (BP), push-ups to failure (PU), vertical jump (VJ), pro-agility shuttle time (AG), peak power output (P), lean body mass (LBM), fat mass (FM), and thigh muscle mass (TMM) ... There was a significant main effect (F(1,16) = 33.30, p < 0.001) for LBM where MT significantly increased LBM when compared to the PLA group (p < 0.001). Additionally, there was a significant main effect for LP (F(1,16) = 666.74, p < 0.001) and BP (F(1,16) = 126.36, p < 0.001) where both increased significantly more in MT than PLA group (p < 0.001). No significant differences between MT and PLA were noted for FM, TMM, VJ, AG, P, or PU" - [Nutra USA] - Note:  Seems like you might have gotten the same results with l-leucine (one of the ingredients in MaxxTOR®) alone.  See phosphatidic acid at Amazon.com, HMB at Amazon.com and leucine products at Amazon.com.

Inhibition of TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL-1β by Pretreatment of Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages with Menaquinone-7 and Cell Activation with TLR Agonists In Vitro - J Med Food. 2016 May 20 - "Circulatory markers of low-grade inflammation such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1 alpha (IL-1α), and interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) positively correlate with endothelial damage, atheroma formation, cardiovascular disease, and aging ... MK-7 is able to modulate immune and inflammatory reactions in the dose-response inhibition of TNF-α, IL-1α, and IL-1β gene expression and protein production by the healthy hMDMs in vitro" - [Nutra USA] - See MK-7 at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

Withings' latest scale can gauge your cardiovascular health - Engadget, 6/8/16 - "you can see -- and track over time -- your weight, BMI, body composition (including fat, muscle, water and bone mass), and standing heart rate. The key new measurement, however, is the "pulse wave velocity" (PVW), or speed at which blood circulates in your body ... Carreel says the PVW is a better gauge of heart health. "This blood velocity measurement normally requires an expensive device [called a sphygmometer) that only cardiologists usually have, and now it's available to anyone as a household device." Withings says the BodyCardio scale measurements provide a "good correlation" with medical-grade sphygmometers based on testing at two French hospitals ... The Body Cardio is now available at Apple and Withings stores in black and white for $180, and will arrive to other retailers by July 7th" - See the video.  See Withings at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Depression):