Recent Longevity News for the week ending 3/15/17

Hair Loss Drug Propecia Carries Risk of Losing Something Else - NBC News, 3/10/17 - "It's a low risk— overall, just 1.4 percent of men who took the drugs suffered long-term erectile dysfunction. But it lasted a very long time: more than 3 ½ years after they stopped taking the drugs ... The younger the men, the bigger the risk ... The drugs are sold under the brand names Propecia, Proscar and Avodart and are known generically as finasteride and dutasteride ... It was a hard problem to fix. Taking Viagra or other drugs did not seem to help ... "I have hundreds of these patients," he told NBC News. "They have low libido. They have flat emotions. They see a woman, they say intellectually, 'I know I am supposed to be interested in you. But I am actually not interested in you'. They have muted orgasms, reduced volume of ejaculate, reduced penile sensation.""

Low gluten diets may be associated with higher risk of type 2 diabetes - American Heart Association, 3/9/17 - "Gluten-free foods often have less dietary fiber and other micronutrients, making them less nutritious and they also tend to cost more ... individuals in the highest 20 percent of gluten consumption had a 13 percent lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes in comparison to those with the lowest daily gluten consumption (approximately fewer than 4 grams)"

Impotence Meds Might Give Men's Hearts a Boost - WebMD, 3/9/17 - "Men taking this type of ED drug had a 33 percent reduced risk of death within three years of their first heart attack, compared to men not taking the PDE5 inhibitor ... The men also experienced a 40 percent reduced risk of subsequent hospitalization for heart failure"

Marijuana use associated with increased risk of stroke, heart failure - Science Daily, 3/9/17 - "marijuana use was independently associated with a 26 percent increase in the risk of stroke and a 10 percent increase in the risk of developing heart failure"

Strawberries remain at top of pesticide list, report says - CNN, 3/8/17 - "strawberries remained at the top of the list of produce with the highest concentration of pesticides, while sweet corn and avocados were ranked as having the lowest concentration"

Sound waves boost older adults' memory, deep sleep - Science Daily, 3/8/17 - "Gentle sound stimulation -- such as the rush of a waterfall -- synchronized to the rhythm of brain waves significantly enhanced deep sleep in older adults and improved their ability to recall words ... Recall ability after the sham stimulation generally improved on the morning test by a few percent. However, the average improvement was three times larger after pink-noise stimulation ... After the sound stimulation, the older participants' slow waves increased during sleep" - See Adaptive Sound Technologies Sound+Sleep SE Special Edition Sleep Sound Machine, White Noise Machine at Amazon.com or the Sleep Pillow Sounds app at iTunes.  If you go with the app you'll probably need an external speaker.  See the Cambridge SoundWorks OontZ Angle 3 Next Generation Ultra Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker at Amazon.com.  The app might sounds like the less expensive route but they soak you $20 for the water sounds plus the price of an external speaker which is still cheaper but probably not the same sound quality.  This picture is the Sleep Pillow app.  It's got the full library (125 sounds) for $20 which they claimed was a special.  Plus it has a timer that maxes out at 45 minutes.  If you turn the timer off, it runs continuously.

High folic acid level in pregnancy may decrease high blood pressure in children - Science Daily, 3/8/17 - "A new article published in the American Journal of Hypertension finds that babies born to mothers with cardiometabolic risk factors were less likely to develop high blood pressure if their mothers had higher levels of folate during pregnancy"

Vitamin C effective in targeting cancer stem cells - Science Daily, 3/8/17 - "Focusing on energy-transfer, they measured the impact on cell lines in a laboratory of 7 substances, the clinically-approved drug stiripentol, 3 natural products -- caffeic acid phenyl ester (CAPE), silibinin and ascorbic acid -- and experimental pharmaceuticals, such as actinonin, FK866 and 2-DG ... While they found that natural antibiotic actinonin and the compound FK866 were the most potent, the natural products also inhibited CSC formation, with Vitamin C, outperforming 2-DG by tenfold in terms of potency" - See American Health Products - Ester C W/Citrus Bioflavonoids, 1000 mg, 180 veg tablets at Amazon.com.

Sulforaphane, a phytochemical in broccoli sprouts, ameliorates obesity - Science Daily, 3/7/17 - "the mice fed with sulforaphane exhibited the weight gain rate 15% lower than that of the mice fed without sulforaphane, 20% visceral fat reduction, and reduction of augmentation of their hepatic steatosis and blood glucose level" - See Jarrow Formulas BroccoMax at Amazon.com.

Resveratrol preserves neuromuscular synapses, muscle fibers in aging mice - Science Daily, 3/7/17 - "resveratrol, a compound in the skin of red grapes and red wine, and metformin, a drug often prescribed to fight type 2 diabetes, have many of the neuroprotective benefits of a low-calorie diet and exercise ... resveratrol preserves muscle fibers as we age and helps protect connections between neurons called synapses from the negative effects of aging ... the diabetes drug metformin slowed the rate of muscle fiber aging, but it did not significantly affect aging of neuromuscular junctions. However, the drug may possibly protect synapses in different dosage amounts ... Metformin is an FDA-approved drug to treat diabetes, but our study hints it may also serve the purpose of slowing the motor dysfunction that occurs with aging ... In wine, resveratrol is in such small amounts you could not drink enough of it in your life to have the benefits we found in mice given resveratrol" - See Reserveage Nutrition - Resveratrol with Pterostilbene 500mg, Cellular Age-Defying Formula, 60 veg capsules at Amazon.com and metformin at The Antiaging Store.

Eating in social settings may be greatest temptation for dieters - American Heart Association, 3/7/17 - "the chance of diet lapse was about 60 percent when eating with others ... participants lapse in diet almost half the time when alone"

Lack of fruits and vegetables increases global heart disease burden - American Heart Association, 3/7/17 - "disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) ... Low intake of fruits accounted for 57.3 million DALYs; ... Low intake of vegetables accounted for 44.6 million DALYs; ... Countries with the highest level of socio-economic development had the lowest burden of heart disease attributed to low fruit and vegetable consumption"

PTSD risk can be predicted by hormone levels prior to deployment, study says - Science Daily, 3/7/17 - "Seminal research in the 1980s connected abnormal cortisol levels to an increased risk for PTSD, but three decades of subsequent research produced a mixed bag of findings, dampening enthusiasm for the role of cortisol as a primary cause of PTSD ... However, new findings published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology point to cortisol's critical role in the emergence of PTSD, but only when levels of testosterone -- one of most important of the male sex hormones -- are suppressed ... Prior attempts to link PTSD to cortisol may have failed because the powerful effect that testosterone has on the hormonal regulation of stress was not taken into account ... Before deployment, soldiers' stress responses were tested in a stressful CO2 inhalation challenge. "Healthy stress responses showed a strong cortisol increase in response to the stressor, whereas abnormal stress responses showed a blunted, nonresponsive change in cortisol ... soldiers who had an abnormal cortisol response to the CO2 inhalation challenge were more likely to develop PTSD from war-zone stress. However, soldiers who had an elevated testosterone response to the CO2 inhalation challenge were not likely to develop PTSD, regardless of the soldiers' cortisol response" - Interesting theory. I’ve always felt PTSD was a con to receive disability. That said both my testosterone and cortisol were high for years after the military.  This implies that's a good thing. The military's medical system was always way behind the research on it. Asking to have your cortisol checks was like asking for a cocaine prescription.

Cognitive enhancing drugs can improve chess play, scientists show - Science Daily, 3/6/17 - "a new double-blind randomised controlled trial by scientists from German and Swedish universities has shown that the cognitive enhancing drugs, modafinil, methylphenidate, and caffeine can improve chess play. Previous research had shown that the drugs could improve cognitive performance when a subject was tired or was performing below his or her optimal performance, but this is the first work to show improvement of cognitive performance even if the subject is performing at a very high level ... all three substances tested caused the players to increase the time needed to decide on a move, meaning that more games were lost as the players ran out of time. However, when the analysis was corrected to take out games lost on time, the team found that both modafinil and methylphenidate significantly increased the players' scores, whereas caffeine showed a more modest, but not statistically significant improvement ... We were surprised to see that players on the drugs played more slowly than normal, indicating that their thought processes seemed to be deeper ... If we correct for the slowest players, then the effect would be the equivalent of moving a player from say, number 5000 in the world ranking, to number 3500 in the world ranking. In a single game, the effect is the equivalent of having the white pieces, every time, which give around a 5% better chance of winning"

Abstracts from this week:

Low Serum DHEAS Predicts Increased Fracture Risk in Older Men - the MrOS Sweden Study - J Bone Miner Res. 2017 Mar 9 - "DHEAS levels were inversely associated with the risk of any fracture (hazard ratio (HR) per SD decrease 1.14, 95% CI 1.05-1.24), non-vertebral major osteoporotic fractures (HR 1.31, 95% CI 1.16-1.48) and hip fractures (HR 1.18, 95% CI 1.02-1.37) but not clinical vertebral fractures (HR 1.09, 95% CI 0.95-1.26) in Cox regression models adjusted for age, BMI and prevalent fractures ... low serum DHEAS levels are a risk marker of mainly non-vertebral fractures in older men, of whom those with DHEAS levels below 0.60 µg/ml are at highest risk" - See Pure Encapsulations 7-KETO DHEA at Amazon.com.

N-Acetylcysteine accelerates amputation stump healing in the setting of diabetes - FASEB J. 2017 Mar 9 - "Compared with controls, mice treated with daily NAC demonstrated improved postamputation stump healing, perfusion, adductor muscle neovascularization, and decreased muscle fiber damage" - Note:  That doesn’t pertain to very many people but it brings up the likelihood that it might benefit other types of surgery.  See n-acetyl cysteine at Amazon.com.

A Polyphenol-rich Pomegranate Fruit Extract Suppresses NF-κB and IL-6 Expression by Blocking the Activation of IKKβ and NIK in Primary Human Chondrocytes - Phytother Res. 2017 Mar 9 - "Taken together, these data suggest that PE exerts the chondroprotective effect(s) by suppressing the production of IL-6 and ROS levels" - See pomegranate extract at Amazon.com.

• Chondroprotection - Wikipedia - "A chondroprotective compound is a specific compound or chemical that delays progressive joint space narrowing characteristic of arthritis and improves the biomechanics of articular joints by protecting chondrocytes"

Association of Serum Manganese Levels with  Alzheimer's Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment:  A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis - Nutrients. 2017 Mar 3;9(3) - "Manganese (Mn) is one of the most studied environmental heavy metals linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD) ... health controls (HC). Random-effects meta-analysis showed that patients with AD had significantly reduced serum Mn levels compared with HC subjects ... Mn deficiency may be a risk factor for AD" - See manganese at Amazon.com.

Effects of twelve weeks of capsaicinoid supplementation on body composition, appetite and self-reported caloric intake in overweight individuals - Appetite. 2017 Feb 21 - "These data suggest that H-CAP supplementation reduces self-reported energy intake after 12 weeks of supplementation, and L-CAP supplementation also reduces waist: hip ratio" - [Nutra USA] - See Capsimax® at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

This is why solar pays off. My solar generated on average 907.8333333 per month in 2016. If you do the math, that would cost $281.86 if I bought it from SDG&E. I pay $216 for my lease to own in 20 years. $281.86 minus $216 equals $65.86 savings per month or $790.32 saving per years. Math: 361 *.19= $68.59. 907.8333 – 361 = 546.833 kwh in the second tier. 546.833 * .39 = $213.26 . $68.59 + $213.26 = $281.85. $281.85 - $216 = $65.85. The Google Solar Calculator claims I'll save 10,000 on a 20 year lease. I calculate $15,806. I think the secret is to go with the largest most effective system you can fit on your roof: I've got a 6k system, Google recommends 3K. See the Google Solar Calculator: https://www.google.com/get/sunroof#p=0

Health Focus (Memory Loss):