Recent Longevity News for the week ending 1/11/17

High cholesterol intake and eggs do not increase risk of memory disorders - Science Daily, 1/9/17 - "a relatively high intake of dietary cholesterol, or eating one egg every day, are not associated with an elevated risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, no association was found in persons carrying the APOE4 gene variant that affects cholesterol metabolism and increases the risk of memory disorders. APOE4 is common in Finland ... a relatively high intake of dietary cholesterol, or eating one egg every day, are not associated with an elevated risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Furthermore, no association was found in persons carrying the APOE4 gene variant that affects cholesterol metabolism and increases the risk of memory disorders. APOE4 is common in Finland ... On the contrary, the consumption of eggs was associated with better results in certain tests measuring cognitive performance"

Hour Nap May Boost Older Adults' Brain Function - WebMD, 1/6/17 - "Nearly 60 percent of the people regularly napped after lunch. The duration of these naps ranged from about 30 minutes to more than 90 minutes. Most of the participants slept for about an hour ... The people who napped for an hour after lunch performed better on the brain function tests than those who didn't nap at all. Those who slept for an hour also outperformed the people who slept for less than an hour or more than an hour ... The study participants who didn't nap, took short naps or very long naps had declines in their mental abilities that were up to six times greater than those who slept for an hour in the afternoon"

Why high-dose vitamin C kills cancer cells - Science Daily, 1/9/17 - "Vitamin C has a patchy history as a cancer therapy, but researchers at the University of Iowa believe that is because it has often been used in a way that guarantees failure ... Most vitamin C therapies involve taking the substance orally. However, the UI scientists have shown that giving vitamin C intravenously -- and bypassing normal gut metabolism and excretion pathways -- creates blood levels that are 100 -- 500 times higher than levels seen with oral ingestion. It is this super-high concentration in the blood that is crucial to vitamin C's ability to attack cancer cells" - See American Health Products - Ester C W/Citrus Bioflavonoids, 1000 mg, 180 veg tablets at Amazon.com.

Jellyfish Memory Supplement Prevagen Is a Hoax, FTC Says - NBC, 1/9/17 - "The capsules, which sell for anywhere between $40 and $90 for a bottle, supposedly contain a protein called apoaequorin, which is made by some jellyfish that luminesce ... The company tried, but failed, to show it can help people, the FTC says ... The Madison Memory Study failed to show a statistically significant improvement in the treatment group over the placebo group on any of the nine computerized cognitive tasks ... Defendants, however, do not have studies showing that orally-administered apoaequorin can cross the human blood brain barrier and therefore do not have evidence that apoaequorin enters the human brain" -  Note:  See my memory page.  There's a lot of supplements with scientific backing.  I haven't read any studies on apoaequorin.

Vitamin D deficiency increases risk of chronic headache - Science Daily, 1/4/17 - "analysed the serum vitamin D levels and occurrence of headache in approximately 2,600 men aged between 42 and 60 years in 1984-1989. In 68% of these men, the serum vitamin D level was below 50 nmol/l, which is generally considered the threshold for vitamin D deficiency ... When the study population was divided into four groups based on their serum vitamin D levels, the group with the lowest levels had over a twofold risk of chronic headache in comparison to the group with the highest levels" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

High fiber diets may alleviate inflammation caused by gout - Science Daily, 1/4/17 - "diets high in fiber trigger microorganisms in the gut to produce short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), which induce neutrophil apoptosis and the resolution of inflammation. These findings have important implications for the treatment of gout, and possibly for the treatment of arthritis"

Abstracts from this week:

Effects of Resveratrol on Cognitive Performance, Mood and Cerebrovascular Function in Post-Menopausal Women; A 14-Week Randomised Placebo-Controlled Intervention Trial - Nutrients. 2017 Jan 3;9(1) - "cerebrovascular responsiveness (CVR) ... Compared to placebo, resveratrol elicited 17% increases in CVR to both hypercapnic (p = 0.010) and cognitive stimuli (p = 0.002). Significant improvements were observed in the performance of cognitive tasks in the domain of verbal memory (p = 0.041) and in overall cognitive performance (p = 0.020), which correlated with the increase in CVR (r = 0.327; p = 0.048). Mood tended to improve in multiple measures, although not significantly. These results indicate that regular consumption of a modest dose of resveratrol can enhance both cerebrovascular function and cognition in post-menopausal women, potentially reducing their heightened risk of accelerated cognitive decline and offering a promising therapeutic treatment for menopause-related cognitive decline" - See Reserveage Nutrition - Resveratrol with Pterostilbene 500mg, Cellular Age-Defying Formula, 60 veg capsules at Amazon.com.

Neuroprotective Effects of Aged Garlic Extract on Cognitive Dysfunction and Neuroinflammation Induced by β-Amyloid in Rats - Nutrients. 2017 Jan 3;9(1) - "Neuroinflammation is pathological evidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) that likely starts as a host defense response to the damaging effects of the β-amyloid (Aβ) deposits in the brain ... Aged garlic extract (AGE) has been reported to have multiple biological activities, including anti-inflammatory effects ... Adult male Wistar rats were given AGE (125, 250, and 500 mg/kg BW, body weight), orally administered, daily for 56 days. They were then injected with 1 μL of aggregated Aβ (1-42) into the lateral ventricles; bilaterally. Seven days later, their recognition memory was evaluated using a novel object recognition (NOR) test. Then the rats were sacrificed to investigate the alteration of microglia cells, IL-1β and TNFα in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. The results indicated that AGE at doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg BW significantly improved short-term recognition memory in cognitively impaired rats. In addition, AGE significantly minimized the inflammatory response by reducing the activation of microglia and IL-1β to the levels found in the control, which is similar to the results found in Celebrex-treated rats" - See Now Foods Garlic 5000 Tablets, 90 Count at Amazon.com.

The Root Extract of Pueraria lobata and Its Main Compound, Puerarin, Prevent Obesity by Increasing the Energy Metabolism in Skeletal Muscle - Nutrients. 2017 Jan 4;9(1) - "Radix Pueraria lobata (RP) has been reported to prevent obesity and improve glucose metabolism ... The present study demonstrates that RP can prevent diet-induced obesity, glucose tolerance, and skeletal muscle atrophy in mouse models of obesity. The mechanism responsible for the effect of RP appears to be related to the upregulation of energy metabolism in skeletal muscle, which at the molecular level may be associated with PGC-1α and AMPK activation" - See Pueraria lobata at Amazon.com.

On-Treatment Blood Pressure and Cardiovascular Outcomes in Older Adults With Isolated Systolic Hypertension - Hypertension. 2017 Jan 3 - "On-treatment diastolic BP yielded no relationships with CVD or all-cause mortality risk. In conclusion, among Japanese older adults with isolated systolic hypertension, SBP in the range between 130 and 144 mm Hg was associated with minimal adverse outcomes and a reduction in CVD and all-cause mortality"

Inactive Matrix Gla-Protein and Arterial Stiffness in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus - Am J Hypertens. 2016 Dec 7 - "Large artery stiffness is increased in diabetes mellitus and causes an excessive pulsatile load to the heart and to the microvasculature. The identification of pathways related to arterial stiffness may provide novel therapeutic targets to ameliorate arterial stiffness in diabetes. Matrix Gla-Protein (MGP) is an inhibitor of vascular calcification. Activation of MGP is vitamin K dependent. We hypothesized that levels of inactive MGP (dephospho-uncarboxylated MGP; dp-ucMGP) are related to arterial stiffness in type 2 diabetes ... In our cross-sectional analysis, circulating dp-ucMGP was independently associated with CF-PWV in type 2 diabetes. This suggests that deficient vitamin K-dependent activation of MGP may lead to large artery stiffening and could be targeted with vitamin K supplementation in the patients with diabetes" - [Nutra USA] - See MK7 at Amazon.com.  Other article mentioned in the Nutra USA article:

• Correlations of Plasma Desphosphorylated Uncarboxylated Matrix Gla Protein with Vascular Calcification and Vascular Stiffness in Chronic Kidney Disease - Nephron. 2016 Dec 13 - "Matrix Gla protein (MGP) is a potent inhibitor of vascular calcification and needs vitamin K-dependent carboxylation for its activity. High levels of desphosphorylated uncarboxylated MGP (dp-ucMGP) were significantly associated with vitamin K deficiency and vascular calcification ... Plasma dp-ucMGP levels increase according to the severity of CKD. Plasma dp-ucMGP was positively associated with vascular calcification and might be utilized as an early marker for vascular calcification in CKD patients"

Curcumin and Viscum album Extract Decrease Proliferation and Cell Viability of Soft-Tissue Sarcoma Cells: An In Vitro Analysis of Eight Cell Lines Using Real-Time Monitoring and Colorimetric Assays - Nutr Cancer. 2017 Jan 3:1-12 - "Viscum album extract (VAE) ... soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) cells ... Curcumin and VAE can inhibit the proliferation and viability of STS cells"  - See Curcumin products at Amazon.com and Viscum album extract at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (Potassium):