Recent Longevity News for the week ending 7/12/17

Vitamin D may improve sunburn, according to new clinical trial - Science Daily, 7/6/17 - "Participants who consumed the highest doses of vitamin D had long-lasting benefits -- including less skin inflammation 48 hours after the burn. Participants with the highest blood levels of vitamin D also had less skin redness and a jump in gene activity related to skin barrier repair ... What we did not expect was that at a certain dose, vitamin D not only was capable of suppressing inflammation, it was also activating skin repair genes" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Vegetable coloring agent lutein may suppress inflammation - Science Daily, 7/5/17 - "Inflammation is a key factor in many types of coronary artery disease, such as myocardial infarction and angina ... Our study confirms that one particular carotenoid, lutein, can suppress long-term inflammation in patients with coronary artery disease ... they measured the level of inflammation in the blood using the inflammatory marker interleukin-6, IL-6. Lutein was the only carotenoid whose level was correlated with IL-6. The higher the level of lutein in the blood, the lower the level of IL-6 ... They found that the inflammatory activity of the cells became significantly lower when they were treated with lutein" - See lutein at Amazon.com.

Marijuana and vulnerability to psychosis - Science Daily, 7/5/17 - "Going from an occasional user of marijuana to a weekly or daily user increases an adolescent's risk of having recurrent psychotic-like experiences by 159%" - Note:  I keep pointing out that for every study that claims marijuana might help a condition there's about 10 studies that it's harmful.

PPIs Linked to Higher Risk for Death - Medscape, 7/3/17 - "numerous studies have linked the drugs with increased risks, including stroke and inpatient death ... Compared with H2-blocker use (n = 73,335), PPI use (n = 275,977) was associated with a 25% increased risk for death from all causes (hazard ratio, 1.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.23 - 1.28), and the risk increased the longer the PPI was taken ... The consistency of study findings in our report and the growing body of evidence in the literature showing a host of adverse events associated with PPI use are compelling ... Patients ideally should not take a PPI indefinitely"

Abstracts from this week:

Oral Consumption of Vitamin K2 for 8 Weeks Associated With Increased Maximal Cardiac Output During Exercise - Altern Ther Health Med. 2017 Jul;23(4):26-32 - "Vitamin K1 and K2 are not typically common in a Western diet because they are found in a variety of fermented foods. Vitamin K2 in particular has been demonstrated to restore mitochondrial function and has a key role in production of mitochondrial adenosine triphosphate. Thus, it is reasonable to speculate that dietary supplementation with vitamin K2 could increase the function of muscle with high mitochondrial content (ie, skeletal and cardiac muscle) ... Vitamin K2 supplementation was associated with a 12% increase in maximal cardiac output, with P = .031, with a trend toward an increase in heart-rate AUC, with P = .070" - [Nutra USA] - See vitamin K at Amazon.com.

Higher adherence to the 'vegetable-rich' dietary pattern is related to longer telomere length in women - Clin Nutr. 2017 May 11 - "After adjustment for potential confounders, only the 'vegetable-rich' pattern characterized by higher intake of fruits, whole grains, various vegetable groups, dairy products, nuts, eggs and tea, was positively related to TL in women ... Chinese women with higher adherence to 'vegetable-rich' dietary pattern have a longer TL. This relation was partially explained by CRP but not by body fat"

The effect of a natural, standardized bilberry extract (Mirtoselect®) in dry eye: a randomized, double blinded, placebo-controlled trial - Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2017 May;21(10):2518-2525 - "Schirmer's test values indicating the volume of tear secretion were significantly improved in the bilberry extract group (p=0.019), whereas no significant changes were observed in the placebo group. A subset analysis revealed that Mirtoselect® could be more effective in subjects with higher tendency of dry eye" - [Nutra USA] - See Mirtoselect® at Amazon.com.

Effects of an amylopectin and chromium complex on the anabolic response to a suboptimal dose of whey protein - J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2017 Feb 8 - "muscle protein synthesis (FSR) ... amylopectin/chromium (ACr) complex ... consumed 6 g whey protein + 2 g of the amylopectin-chromium complex (WPACr) or 6 g whey protein (WP) after an overnight fast ... These data indicate that the addition of ACr to a 6 g dose of whey protein (WPACr) increases the FSR response beyond what is seen with a suboptimal dose of whey protein alone" - [Nutra USA] - See NOW Sports Waxy Maize Powder, 5.5-Pound at Amazon.com and chromium supplements at Amazon.com.

Association of Protein Intake with Bone Mineral Density and Bone Mineral Content among Elderly Women: The OSTPRE Fracture Prevention Study - J Nutr Health Aging. 2017;21(6):622-630 - "bone mineral content (BMC) .. bone mineral density (BMD) ... total protein (TP), animal protein (AP) and plant protein (PP) ... TP (P≤0·029) and AP (P≤0·045) but not PP (g/d) were negatively associated with femoral neck (FN) BMD and BMC ... TP (g/kg/BW) was inversely associated with LS BMD and LS BMC ... This study suggests detrimental associations between protein intake and bone health"

Effects of Aged Garlic Extract on Cholinergic, Glutamatergic and GABAergic Systems with Regard to Cognitive Impairment in Aβ-Induced Rats - Nutrients. 2017 Jul 1;9(7)- "AGE significantly improved the working memory and tended to improve the reference memory in cognitively-impaired rats. In addition, AGE significantly ameliorated the loss of cholinergic neurons and increased the VGLUT1 and GAD levels in the hippocampus of rat brains with Aβ-induced toxicity ... We concluded that AGE was able to attenuate the impairment of working memory via the modification of cholinergic neurons, VGLUT1, and GAD in the hippocampus of Aβ-induced rats" - See aged garlic at Amazon.com.

Oxidative stress-induced cognitive impairment in obesity can be reversed by vitamin D administration in rats - Nutr Neurosci. 2017 Jul 6:1-9 - "Vitamin D improved hippocampus oxidative stress and inflammatory markers in HFD-induced obese rats and improved cognitive performance" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (Rhodiola rosea):