Recent Longevity News for the week ending 1/18/17

Remission of Pre-Diabetes to Normal Glucose Tolerance in Obese Adults With High Protein Versus High Carbohydrate Diet - Medscape, 1/14/17 - "After 6 months on the HP diet, 100% of the subjects had remission of their pre-diabetes to normal glucose tolerance, whereas only 33.3% of subjects on the HC diet had remission of their pre-diabetes. The HP diet group exhibited significant improvement in (1) insulin sensitivity (p=0.001), (2) cardiovascular risk factors (p=0.04), (3) inflammatory cytokines (p=0.001), (4) oxidative stress (p=0.001), (5) increased percent lean body mass (p=0.001) compared with the HC diet at 6 months"

High dietary red meat intake linked to common bowel condition diverticulitis - Science Daily, 1/11/17 - "New cases of the condition are on the rise, particularly among younger people. And around 4% of those affected will develop severe or long term complications, such as perforations in the gut wall, abscesses, and fistula (abnormal connections between two hollow spaces) ... Compared with the lowest levels of consumption, the highest level of red meat intake was associated with a 58% heightened risk of developing diverticulitis, with each daily serving associated with an 18% increased risk ... The association was strongest for unprocessed red meat, and substituting one daily portion of this with fish or poultry was associated with a 20% lowered risk"

High-sugar diet programs a short lifespan in flies - Science Daily, 1/11/17 - "Flies with a history of eating a high sugar diet live shorter lives, even after their diet improves. This is because the unhealthy diet drives long-term reprogramming of gene expression ... The FOXO gene is important for longevity in a wide variety of species, including yeast, flies, worms and humans, so the team say the findings may have broad implications"

Normal ranges for testosterone levels defined - Science Daily, 1/10/17 - "The harmonized normal range for testosterone in a non-obese population of European and American Men, 19-39 years, is 264-916 ng/dL"

People with forms of early-onset Parkinson's disease may benefit from boosting niacin in diet, research suggests - Science Daily, 1/10/17 - "With this extra source of NAD, the flies had far fewer faulty mitochondria than their mutant peers on a regular diet ... The vitamin also prevented the flies from losing neurons ... The results suggest that in familial Parkinson's, available NAD is critical for keeping mitochondria in shape and the disease at bay. Drugs that block NAD-consuming DNA repair already exist to treat cancer. Loading up on niacin probably can't hurt either ... This study strengthens the therapeutic potential for Vitamin B3/niacin-based dietary interventions and PARP inhibition in the treatment of Parkinson's disease" - See Life Extension Vitamin B3 Niacin 500 Mg 100 capsules at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week:

Metformin inhibits castration-induced EMT in prostate cancer by repressing COX2/PGE2/STAT3 axis - Cancer Lett. 2016 Dec 30;389:23-32 - "We propose that metformin represses prostate cancer EMT and metastasis through targeting the COX2/PGE2/STAT3 axis. These findings suggest that metformin by itself or in combination with other anticancer drugs could be used as an anti-metastasis therapy" - See metformin at The Antiaging Store.

Effects of pomegranate juice on blood pressure: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trial - Pharmacol Res. 2017 Jan;115:149-161 - "Pomegranate juice reduced SBP regardless of the duration (>12 wks: WMD=-4.36mmHg, 95% CI: -7.89 to -0.82, p=0.016) and <12 wks: WMD=-5.83 mmHg, 95% CI: -10.05 to -1.61, p=0.007) and dose consumed (>240cc: WMD=-3.62mmHg, 95% CI: -6.62 to -0.63, p=0.018) and <240cc: WMD=-11.01mmHg, 95% CI: -17.38 to -4.65, p=0.001, pomegranate juice per day) whereas doses >240cc provided a borderline significant effect in reducing DBP" - [Nutra USA] - See pomegranate extract at Amazon.com.  A lot of people say you should get it from the foods and that's true but if you read most of the studies and eat the amount of bananas to get the optimum potassium, the amount of orange juice to the the optimum vitamin C, the amount of milk to get the optimum vitamin D, the amount of wine to get the optimum resveratrol, the amount of fish to get the optimum omega-3, the amount of tomatoes to get the optimum lycopene, the amount of onions to get the optimum flavonoids, the amount of carrots to get the optimum beta-carotene, the amount of blueberries to get the optimum polyphenols, the amount of broccoli to get the optimum sulforaphane, the amount of liver to get the optimum coenzyme Q10, the amount of cheese to get the optimum leucine, the amount of this to get the optimum of that, etc. you'd weigh 600 pounds in a heartbeat.  The people who push the food sources aren't doing the math for the calories.  That's just my personal view.

A double- blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled clinical trial with omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (OPFA ɷ-3) for the prevention of migraine in chronic migraine patients using amitriptyline - Nutr Neurosci. 2017 Jan 5:1-5 - "Polyunsaturated omega 3 fatty acids (OPFAϖ-3) are useful for prophylaxis of migraine attacks" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Association between carbohydrate nutrition and prevalence of depressive symptoms in older adults - Br J Nutr. 2017 Jan 9:1-6 - "Participants in the highest v. lowest tertile of dietary GI intake had increased odds of depressive symptoms (assessed by the MHI scale), multivariable-adjusted OR 1.55 (95 % CI 1.12, 2.14). Participants in the highest compared with lowest tertile of fruit consumption had reduced odds of prevalent depressive symptoms, multivariable-adjusted OR 0.66 (95 % CI 0.46, 0.95). Total fibre, vegetable fibre and breads/cereal fibre intakes were all inversely associated with the prevalence of depressive symptoms, with global P values of 0.03, 0.01 and 0.03, respectively. Participants in the second v. first tertile of vegetable consumption had 41 % reduced odds of prevalent depressive symptoms, multivariable-adjusted OR 0.59"

Montmorency Tart cherries (Prunus cerasus L.) modulate vascular function acutely, in the absence of improvement in cognitive performance - Br J Nutr. 2016 Dec;116(11):1935-194 - "Participants received either a 60 ml dose of Montmorency tart cherry concentrate (MC), which contained 68.0 (sd 0.26) mg cyanidin-3-glucoside/l, 160.75 (sd 0.55) mean gallic acid equivalent/l and 0.59 (sd 0.02) mean Trolox equivalent/l, respectively, or a placebo ... There were significant differences in concentrations of total Hb and oxygenated Hb during the task period 1 h after MC consumption (P≤0.05). Furthermore, MC consumption significantly lowered systolic blood pressure (P≤0.05) over a period of 3 h, with peak reductions of 6±2 mmHg at 1 h after MC consumption relative to the placebo" - [Nutra USA] - See cherry juice extract at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (First line medications for hypertension):