Recent Longevity News for the week ending 5/24/17

Can omega-3 help prevent Alzheimer's disease? Brain SPECT imaging shows possible link - Science Daily, 5/18/17 - "Overall, the study showed positive relationships between omega-3 EPA+DHA status, brain perfusion, and cognition ... This is very important research because it shows a correlation between lower omega-3 fatty acid levels and reduced brain blood flow to regions important for learning, memory, depression and dementia ... Although we have considerable evidence that omega-3 levels are associated with better cardiovascular health, the role of the 'fish oil' fatty acids in mental health and brain physiology is just beginning to be explored. This study opens the door to the possibility that relatively simple dietary changes could favorably impact cognitive function" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Studies link healthy brain aging to omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the blood - Science Daily, 5/18/17 - "The team found correlations between blood levels of three omega-3 fatty acids -- ALA, stearidonic acid and ecosatrienoic acid -- and fluid intelligence in these adults. Further analyses revealed that the size of the left frontoparietal cortex played a mediating role in this relationship. People with higher blood levels of these three nutrients tended to have larger left frontoparietal cortices, and the size of the frontoparietal cortex predicted the subjects' performance on tests of fluid intelligence ... A lot of research tells us that people need to be eating fish and fish oil to get neuroprotective effects from these particular fats, but this new finding suggests that even the fats that we get from nuts, seeds and oils can also make a difference in the brain ... These findings have important implications for the Western diet, which tends to be misbalanced with high amounts of omega-6 fatty acids and low amounts of omega-3 fatty acids" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

• Stearidonic acid - Wikipedia - "Stearidonic acid (SDA) is an ω-3 fatty acid, sometimes called moroctic acid. It is biosynthesized from alpha-linolenic acid by the enzyme delta-6-desaturase. Natural sources of this fatty acid are the seed oils of hemp, blackcurrant, corn gromwell[1] and echium (although the plant is a source of stearidonic acid, it is toxic for human consumption), and the cyanobacterium Spirulina"

β-alanine Efficacy for Sports Performance Improvement: From Science to Practice - Medscape, 5/17/17 - "β-alanine is a popular supplement among athletes with 61% of competitive team sport players recently surveyed reporting β-alanine use ... A ceiling on the supplement dosage amount stems from reported paraesthesia experienced in some individuals although slow release formulations are available that appear to alleviate this effect. Doses of 4–6 g/day, spread evenly over doses of 800 mg, for 4 weeks have elevated muscle carnosine levels by 64%[5] and extending the supplementation to 10 weeks has been shown to increase muscle carnosine by 80%" - See beta-alanine at Amazon.com.

Is It OK to Use Uber, Lyft to Get to the ER? - WebMD, 5/12/17 - "Another talked about getting a call to an affluent Washington neighborhood the day after a 2016 snowstorm: “When I got there, to my (then) dismay, I see him literally dragging himself towards my car, hand on his chest, stating he was having chest pains and was getting dizzy,” the driver wrote. “I offered to call 911, as the hospital he wanted to go to was over 15 minutes away but he insisted for me to take him. Fortunately, I was able to get him to the hospital and he was admitted, but it made me wonder why someone in that situation would prefer an Uber over an ambulance -- the only rationale I can come up with is money.” ... Ambulance runs can cost $1,200 to $1,500 ... That’s the goal of EMS. It’s not necessarily to get you to the ER faster, it’s to initiate care in the field, so the care has started before you get to the hospital" - Note:  It's cheaper and probably faster than an ambulance. Don't wait until you have chest pains to open an account. Here's my affiliate link good for 20 bucks off your first ride: https://get.uber.com/go/bernardh1396ue

Abstracts from this week:

Are Dietary Supplements and Nutraceuticals Effective for Musculoskeletal Health and Cognitive Function? A Scoping Review - J Nutr Health Aging. 2017;21(5):527-538 - "We showed that only 16 micronutrients resulted to have appropriate scientific evidences in terms of improving musculoskeletal health and/or cognitive function in older people: beta-alanine, calcium, creatine, fluorides, leucine, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, potassium, vitamin B6, vitamin B9, vitamin B12, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin K2, and zinc"

Effect of omega-3 supplementation on neuropathy in type 1 diabetes: A 12-month pilot trial - Neurology. 2017 May 17 - "To test the hypothesis that 12 months of seal oil omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFA) supplementation will stop the known progression of diabetic sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DSP) in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) ... 750 mg eicosapentaenoic acid, 560 mg docosapentaenoic acid, and 1,020 mg docosahexaenoic acid) for 1 year ... The primary outcome was the 1-year change in corneal nerve fiber length (CNFL) measured by in vivo corneal confocal microscopy, with sensory and nerve conduction measures as secondary outcomes ... Baseline CNFL was 8.3 we2.9 mm/mm2 and increased 29% to 10.1 an3.7 mm/mm2 (p = 0.002) after 12 months of supplementation" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Diet with a combination of high protein and high total antioxidant capacity is strongly associated with low prevalence of frailty among old Japanese women: a multicenter cross-sectional study - Nutr J. 2017 May 12;16(1):29 - "total antioxidant capacity (TAC) ... Multivariate adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for frailty in the highest compared to the lowest tertile were 0.66 (0.49, 0.87) for total protein intake (P for trend = 0.003) and 0.51 (0.37, 0.69) for dietary TAC (P for trend <0.0001) after adjustment for dietary TAC or total protein intake, respectively"

L-leucine dietary supplementation modulates muscle protein degradation and increases pro-inflammatory cytokines in tumour-bearing rats - Cytokine. 2017 May 8;96:253-260 - "the leucine-supplemented tumour-bearing groups showed improvements in muscle mass and protein content, and in this specific situation, the leucine-rich diet led to an increase on the day in cytokine profile and proteasome subunits mainly on the 14th day, which subsequently had a modulating effect on tumour growth on the 21st day. These results indicate that the presence of leucine in the diet may modulate important aspects of the proteasomal pathway in cancer cachexia and may prevent muscle wasting due to the decrease in the cachexia index" - See BulkSupplements Pure L-Leucine Powder (1 Kilogram) at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

The best car GPS - Engadget, 5/19/17 - "All of the devices we looked at performed very well during our testing, but none could match the Garmin Drive 51 LMT-S in its combination of features, value, and usability. It retains Garmin's great user interface and broad feature set, which together have kept the company's models among our picks and historically at the top of Consumer Reports ratings (subscription required). The Drive 51 LMT-S is the least expensive Garmin model we tested, but it has a clear 5-inch screen and all of the essential features we expect in a good GPS device, without the extras that many people can do without. It's effortless to use and instantaneous in its responsiveness." - See the Garmin Drive 51 LMT-S at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Homocysteine):