Recent Longevity News for the week ending 12/7/16

Can You Regain Muscle Mass After Age 60? - NYT, 12/2/16 - "But in practical terms, who cares? Older muscles will become larger and stronger if you work them, Dr. Bamman says ... The key, he continues, is regular and progressive weight training. If you don’t belong to a gym, consider joining one, and then plan on tiring yourself. In order to initiate the biochemical processes that lead to larger, stronger fibers, Dr. Bamman says, you should push your muscles until they are exhausted"

Aerobic exercise preserves brain volume and improves cognitive function - Science Daily, 11/30/16 - "adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who exercised four times a week over a six-month period experienced an increase in brain volume in specific, or local, areas of the brain, but adults who participated in aerobic exercise experienced greater gains than those who just stretched ... Compared to the stretching group, the aerobic activity group had greater preservation of total brain volume, increased local gray matter volume and increased directional stretch of brain tissue"

Abstracts from this week:

L-Carnitine/Simvastatin Reduces Lipoprotein (a) Levels Compared with Simvastatin Monotherapy: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study - Lipids. 2016 Dec 2 - "Subjects were randomly allocated to receive L-carnitine 2 g/day plus simvastatin 20 mg /day (N = 29) or placebo plus simvastatin 20 mg/day (N = 29) for a total of 12 weeks. Lp(a) was significantly reduced in the L-carnitine/simvastatin group [-19.4%, from 52 (20-171) to 42 (15-102) mg/dL; p = 0.01], but not in the placebo/simvastatin group [-6.7%, from 56 (26-108) to 52 (27-93) mg/dL, p = NS versus baseline and p = 0.016 for the comparison between groups]. Similar significant reductions in total cholesterol, LDL-C, apolipoprotein (apo) B and TAG were observed in both groups" - See L-carnitine at Amazon.com.

Dietary supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) improves seminal antioxidant status and decreases sperm DNA fragmentation - Syst Biol Reprod Med. 2016 Dec;62(6):387-395 - "The placebo group received 1,500 mg/day of sunflower oil and the DHA group 1,500 mg/day of DHA-enriched oil ... No differences were found in traditional sperm parameters or lipid composition of the sperm membrane after treatment. However, an increase in DHA and Omega-3 fatty acid content in seminal plasma, an improvement in antioxidant status, and a reduction in the percentage of spermatozoa with deoxyribonucleic acid damage were observed in the DHA group after 10 weeks of treatment" - [Nutra USA] - See Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.

The effects of coenzyme Q10 administration on glucose homeostasis parameters, lipid profiles, biomarkers of inflammation and oxidative stress in patients with metabolic syndrome - Eur J Nutr. 2016 Dec;55(8):2357-236 - "performed among 60 overweight or obese and type 2 diabetes mellitus patients with coronary heart disease aged 40-85 years old. Participants were randomly allocated into two groups. Group A (n = 30) received 100 mg CoQ10 supplements and group B (n = 30) received placebo for 8 weeks ... Compared with the placebo, CoQ10 supplementation resulted in a significant reduction in serum insulin levels (-2.1 ± 7.1 vs. +4.1 ± 7.8 µIU/mL, P = 0.002) and homeostasis model of assessment-insulin resistance (-0.7 ± 2.1 vs. +1.0 ± 2.0, P = 0.002) and homeostatic model assessment-beta cell function (-5.9 ± 22.2 vs. +15.9 ± 34.0, P = 0.005). In addition, patients who received CoQ10 supplements had a significant increase in plasma total antioxidant capacity (TAC) concentrations (+26.0 ± 105.0 vs. -162.2 ± 361.8 mmol/L, P = 0.008) compared with the placebo group. However, after adjustment for the baseline levels, age and baseline BMI, the effect on TAC levels (P = 0.08) disappeared. Additionally, compared with the placebo group, a significant positive trends in plasma glutathione (P = 0.06) and a significant reduction in malondialdehyde (P = 0.08) were seen among patients who received CoQ10 supplement" - [Nutra USA] - See ubiquinol products at Amazon.com.

A prospective study of water intake and subsequent risk of all-cause mortality in a national cohort - Am J Clin Nutr. 2016 Nov 30 - "Over a median of 11.4 y of follow-up, 3504 men and 3032 women died of any cause in this cohort. In men, neither total water intake nor each of the individual water source variables (plain water, water in beverages, and water in foods) was independently related with risk of all-cause mortality. In women, risk of mortality increased slightly in the highest quartile of total or plain water intake but did not approach the Bonferroni-corrected level of significance of P < 0.002"

Health Focus (Apple Cider Vinegar):