Recent Longevity News for the week ending 7/19/17

Artificial sweeteners linked to risk of weight gain, heart disease and other health issues - Science Daily, 7/17/17 - "Consumption of artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame, sucralose and stevia, is widespread and increasing. Emerging data indicate that artificial, or nonnutritive, sweeteners may have negative effects on metabolism, gut bacteria and appetite ... the longer observational studies showed a link between consumption of artificial sweeteners and relatively higher risks of weight gain and obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and other health issues"

The top ingredients for cognition, focus and mood - Nutra USA, 7/14/17 - "omega-3 ... Phosphatidylserine (PS) ... B-vitamins ... Vitamin E ... Lutein ... Citicoline ... Magnesium ... L-theanine ... Curcumin ... Resveratrol ... Blueberry anthocyanins ... Inositol-stabilized arginine silicate ... Spearmint extract ... Ashwaganda ... Bacopa ... Teacrine"

Diet rich in tomatoes cuts skin cancer in half in mice - Science Daily, 7/13/17 - "male mice fed a diet of 10 percent tomato powder daily for 35 weeks, then exposed to ultraviolet light, experienced, on average, a 50 percent decrease in skin cancer tumors compared to mice that ate no dehydrated tomato ... Lycopene, the primary carotenoid in tomatoes, has been shown to be the most effective antioxidant of these pigments"

Drinking coffee could lead to a longer life, scientist say - Science Daily, 7/10/17 - "Drinking coffee was associated with a lower risk of death due to heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and respiratory and kidney disease for African-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Latinos and whites ... People who consumed a cup of coffee a day were 12 percent less likely to die compared to those who didn't drink coffee. This association was even stronger for those who drank two to three cups a day -- 18 percent reduced chance of death"

Natural plant compound may reduce mental effects of aging, more evidence shows - Science Daily, 7/10/17 - "At 10 months, the differences between these two groups were striking ... Mice not treated with fisetin had difficulties with all the cognitive tests as well as elevated markers of stress and inflammation. Brain cells called astrocytes and microglia, which are normally anti-inflammatory, were now driving rampant inflammation. Mice treated with fisetin, on the other hand, were not noticeably different in behavior, cognitive ability or inflammatory markers at 10 months than a group of untreated 3-month-old mice with the same condition. Additionally, the team found no evidence of acute toxicity in the fisetin-treated mice, even at high doses of the compound" - See fisetin at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week:

Metformin effects on the heart and the cardiovascular system: A review of experimental and clinical data - Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2017 May 10 - "At the cellular level metformin's produces both AMP-activated kinase (AMPK) dependent and independent effects. At the systemic level, possibly also through other pathways, this drug improves endothelial function, protects from oxidative stress and inflammation, and from the negative effects of angiotensin II. On the myocardium it attenuates ischemia-reperfusion injury and prevents adverse remodeling induced by humoral and hemodynamic factors. The effects on myocardial cell metabolism and contractile function being not evident at rest or in more advanced stages of cardiac dysfunction, could be relevant during transient ischemia, during an acute increase in workload and in the early stages of diabetic/hypertensive cardiomyopathy as confirmed by few small clinical trials and some observational studies. The overall evidence emerging from both clinical trials and real world registry is in favor of a protective effect of metformin with respect to both coronary events and progression to heart failure" - See metformin at The Antiaging Store.

Dietary intake of antioxidant vitamins and risk of stroke: the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2017 Jul 12 - "When stratified by current smoking status, the inverse association between dietary vitamin C intake and incidence of total stroke observed among non-smokers but not smokers, with respective multivariable hazard ratios for the highest versus lowest quintiles of vitamin C of 0.81 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.68-0.96; P-trend=0.03) among non-smokers; and 1.03 (0.84-1.25; P-trend=0.55) among smokers" - See American Health Products - Ester C W/Citrus Bioflavonoids, 1000 mg, 180 veg tablets at Amazon.com. 

Health Focus (Macular Degeneration):