Recent Longevity News for the week ending 8/31/16

NACIAM: N-Acetylcysteine Reduces Infarct Size - Medscape, 8/28/16 - "Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging performed within 1 week and again 3 months post-MI showed that patients who received NAC had reductions in infarct size of 33% and 50%, respectively, compared with placebo ... Over 2 years of follow-up, the combination of cardiac readmissions and deaths was less frequent in NAC-treated (three vs 16 patients" - [Science Daily] - See n-acetyl cysteine at Amazon.com.

Scientists Prove Stoned Rats Really Don’t Care About Much - Daily Caller, 8/24/16 - "Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that giving THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, to rats made them “cognitively lazy,”"

Western diet increases Alzheimer's risk - Science Daily, 8/25/16 - "Dietary supply of meat or animal products (minus milk) 5 years before Alzheimer's disease prevalence had the highest correlations with Alzheimer's disease prevalence in this study ... Residents of the United States seem to be at particular risk, with each person in the U.S. having about a 4% chance of developing Alzheimer's disease, likely due in part to the Western dietary pattern, which tends to include a large amount of meat consumption ... Reducing meat consumption could significantly reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease as well as of several cancers, diabetes mellitus type 2, stroke, and, likely, chronic kidney disease ... Although the traditional Mediterranean diet is associated with about half the risk for Alzheimer's disease of the Western diet, the traditional diets of countries such as India, Japan, and Nigeria, with very low meat consumption, are associated with an additional 50% reduction in risk of Alzheimer's disease"

Standing desks lower BMI, research shows - Science Daily, 8/23/16 - "the students who had the stand-biased desks for both years averaged a three percent drop in BMI while those in traditional desks showed the two percent increase typically associated with getting older"

2% Testosterone Ups Sex Drive, Energy for Men With Low T - Medscape, 8/24/16 - "Participants in both groups had similar baseline characteristics — to qualify for the trial, they had to be 18 years or older and have had two total testosterone levels < 300 ng/dL measured 1 week or more apart and at least one symptom of testosterone deficiency (low energy or low sex drive)"

Abstracts from this week:

Robuvit® and endurance in triathlon: improvements in training performance, recovery and oxidative stress - Minerva Cardioangiol. 2015 Oct;63(5):403-9 - "The improvement was greater with Robuvit® (P<0.05) for the swim and biking (P<0.05); the running time decreased by 12.32% in subjects using Robuvit® (3.6% in controls; P<0.05). The improvement the total triathlon time was -10.56% with Robuvit® in comparison to -3.41% in controls ... no side effects or tolerance problems were reported" - [Nutra USA] - See Robuvit® at Amazon.com (read the reviews).

Cordyceps militaris Improves Tolerance to High-Intensity Exercise After Acute and Chronic Supplementation - J Diet Suppl. 2016 Jul 13 - "time to exhaustion (TTE) ... ventilatory threshold (VT) ... Relative peak power output (RPP) ... average power output (AvgP) ... Subjects consumed 4 g·d-1 mushroom blend (MR) or maltodextrin (PL) for 1 week. Ten volunteers supplemented for an additional 2 weeks ... One week of supplementation elicited no significant time × treatment interaction for VO2max (p = 0.364), VT (p = 0.514), TTE (p = 0.540), RPP (p = 0.134), AvgP (p = 0.398), or %drop (p = 0.823). After 3 weeks, VO2max significantly improved (p = 0.042) in MR (+4.8 ml·kg-1·min-1), but not PL (+0.9 ml·kg-1·min-1). Analysis of 95% confidence intervals revealed significant improvements in TTE after 1- (+28.1 s) and 3 weeks (+69.8 s) in MR, but not PL, with additional improvements in VO2max (+4.8 ml·kg-1·min-1) and VT (+0.7 l·min-1) after 3 weeks" - [Nutra USA] - See cordyceps at Amazon.com.

Effect of Oral Silymarin Administration on Prevention of Radiotherapy Induced Mucositis: A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial - Phytother Res. 2016 Aug 23 - "Mucositis is a frequent severe complication of radiation therapy in patient with head and neck cancer ... oral silymarin 420 mg daily in three divided doses starting at the first day of radiotherapy for 6 weeks, on oral mucositis occurrence was assessed ... The median World Health Organization and National Cancer Institute Common Terminology Criteria scores were significantly lower in silymarin group at the end of the first to sixth week (p < 0.05). The scores increased significantly in both placebo and silymarin groups during radiotherapy, but there was a delay for mucositis development and progression in silymarin group. Prophylactic administration of conventional form of silymarin tablets could significantly reduce the severity of radiotherapy induced mucositis and delay its occurrence in patients with head and neck cancer" - See silymarin at Amazon.com.

Theobroma cacao extract attenuates the development of Dermatophagoides farinae-induced atopic dermatitis-like symptoms in NC/Nga mice - Food Chemistry, 1 Feb 17 - "cacao extract (CE) ... atopic dermatitis (AD) ... CE, a natural phytochemical-rich food, has potential therapeutic efficacy for the treatment of AD" - [Nutra USA] - See Ghirardelli Chocolate Intense Dark Squares, Midnight Reverie, 4.12 oz., 86% Cacao (Pack of 4) at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (OLED) review: A 2-in-1 with just about everything, including an amazing OLED screen - CNET, 8/27/16 - "The new OLED display looks stunning, and this professional-level Yoga has a great keyboard, active stylus, and rugged body" - [Engadget] - See Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Alpha Lipoic Acid):