Recent Longevity News for the week ending 3/7/18

Vitamin D reduces early mortality - Science Daily, 3/1/18 - "people who have suffered from cardiovascular disease, and have a normal intake of vitamin D, reduce their risk of morality as a consequence of the disease by 30 per cent ... The study showed that it is favourable to have blood values around 42 to 100 nmol/l. If you have higher or lower values, you are at greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease" -See vitamin D conversion (ng/nl vs. nmol/l) and vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Curcumin's Cognitive Benefits Look Convincing - Medscape, 3/1/18 - "The philosophy behind this new nanoparticle version of curcumin (Theracumin®) is that it will lead to better absorption. When this trial was performed, not only did the patients who were randomized to the active form of curcumin have improved memory function at 18 months, but they actually had less amyloid in specific parts of their brain that correlated with Alzheimer's disease." - See Theracumin® curcumin at Amazon.com.

Fish oil and probiotic supplements in pregnancy may reduce risk of childhood allergies - Science Daily, 2/28/18 - "when pregnant women took a daily fish oil capsule from 20 weeks pregnant, and during the first three to four months of breastfeeding, risk of egg allergy in the child was reduced by 30 per cent ... taking a daily probiotic supplement from 36-38 weeks pregnant, and during the first three to six months of breastfeeding, reduced the risk of a child developing eczema by 22 per cent" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Nut consumption may aid colon cancer survival - Science Daily, 2/28/18 - "The study followed 826 participants in a clinical trial for a median of 6.5 years after they were treated with surgery and chemotherapy. Those who regularly consumed at least two, one-ounce servings of nuts each week demonstrated a 42% improvement in disease-free survival and a 57% improvement in overall survival ... Further analysis of this cohort revealed that disease-free survival increased by 46% among the subgroup of nut consumers who ate tree nuts rather than peanuts ... Tree nuts include almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, cashews, and pecans, among others. In contrast, peanuts are actually in the legumes family of foods ... Many previous studies have reported that nuts, among other health benefits, may help to reduce insulin resistance, a condition in which the body has difficulty processing the insulin hormone. Insulin resistance leads to unhealthy levels of sugar in the blood and is often a predecessor to type 2 diabetes and related illnesses"

DASH Diet Linked to Lower Risk for Depression - Medscape, 2/28/18 - "Participants who most closely adhered to the low-sodium Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet were 11% less likely to become depressed over time than those least adherent to the diet, the study found ... The results suggest that the DASH diet may have the "dual benefit" of protecting against cardiovascular disease and helping to boost mood"

Low magnesium levels make vitamin D ineffective - Science Daily, 2/26/18 - "Vitamin D can't be metabolized without sufficient magnesium levels, meaning Vitamin D remains stored and inactive for as many as 50 percent of Americans ... consumption of Vitamin D supplements can increase a person's calcium and phosphate levels even if they remain Vitamin D deficient. The problem is people may suffer from vascular calcification if their magnesium levels aren't high enough to prevent the complication ... While the recommended daily allowance for magnesium is 420 mg for males and 320 mg for females, the standard diet in the United States contains only about 50 percent of that amount. As much as half of the total population is estimated to be consuming a magnesium-deficient diet" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.

Depression linked to reduced arginine levels - Science Daily, 2/21/18 - "Arginine is an amino acid which the body uses to produce, e.g., nitric oxide. Nitric oxide, in turn, is a nervous system and immune defence mediator, and it also plays a role in vascular regulation ... It is possible that depression-induced inflammatory responses lead to reduced arginine levels. This may result in insufficient production of nitric oxide for the needs of the nervous system and circulation. However, we don't know yet what exactly causes reduced arginine bioavailability in people with depression ... The concentrations of three amino acids, namely arginine, citrulline and ornithine, were analysed from their fasting glucose samples, and this data was used to calculate their GABRs ... Although our study shows that people with depression have reduced arginine bioavailability, this doesn't mean that taking an arginine supplement would protect against depression. That's an area for further research ... Arginine bioavailability was slightly higher in people who had recovered from depression than in people who remained depressed. However, a more extensive set of data and a longer follow-up period are necessary for estimating arginine's role in depression recovery" - See L-arginine products at Amazon.com.

Wine polyphenols could fend off bacteria that cause cavities and gum disease - Science Daily, 2/21/18 - "The researchers checked out the effect of two red wine polyphenols, as well as commercially available grape seed and red wine extracts, on bacteria that stick to teeth and gums and cause dental plaque, cavities and periodontal disease. Working with cells that model gum tissue, they found that the two wine polyphenols in isolation -- caffeic and p-coumaric acids -- were generally better than the total wine extracts at cutting back on the bacteria's ability to stick to the cells. When combined with the Streptococcus dentisani, which is believed to be an oral probiotic, the polyphenols were even better at fending off the pathogenic bacteria. The researchers also showed that metabolites formed when digestion of the polyphenols begins in the mouth might be responsible for some of these effects."

Largest study of its kind finds alcohol use biggest risk factor for dementia - Science Daily, 2/20/18 - "The findings indicate that heavy drinking and alcohol use disorders are the most important risk factors for dementia, and especially important for those types of dementia which start before age 65, and which lead to premature deaths ... on average, alcohol use disorders shorten life expectancy by more than 20 years, and dementia is one of the leading causes of death for these people ... Screening for and reduction of problem drinking, and treatment for alcohol use disorders need to start much earlier in primary care"

Counting Calories Is Not the Key to Weight Loss, New Study Finds - NYT, 2/20/18 - "a new study, published Tuesday in JAMA, may turn that advice on its head. It found that people who cut back on added sugar, refined grains and highly processed foods while concentrating on eating plenty of vegetables and whole foods — without worrying about counting calories or limiting portion sizes — lost significant amounts of weight over the course of a year ... The strategy worked for people whether they followed diets that were mostly low in fat or mostly low in carbohydrates. And their success did not appear to be influenced by their genetics or their insulin-response to carbohydrates, a finding that casts doubt on the increasingly popular idea that different diets should be recommended to people based on their DNA makeup or on their tolerance for carbs or fat"

Acetaminophen Use Alters Sex Hormones, May Cause Birth Defects? - Medscape, 2/19/18 - "Acetaminophen (paracetamol) use has been linked with a depletion of sulfated sex hormones in a large metabolomic study, and the findings suggest that fetal exposure to the drug could even be linked with risk of male urogenital malformation at birth ... The surprising thing that we observed in people who were taking acetaminophen (paracetamol) was that all of them had a peculiar profile in hormone metabolites ... For example, the effect of taking acetaminophen on pregnen-diol disulfate was roughly equivalent to the effect of 35 years of aging, or the normal decrease in levels seen in menopause ... The study also sheds light on how acetaminophen may ease pain ... "Individuals who took acetaminophen," they note, "had very low levels of neurosteroids such as pregnenolone sulfate and DHEAS [dehydroepiandrosterone], a mechanism that could synergize with acetaminophen's known mode of action in the central nervous system that implicates the COX [cyclooxygenase], vanilloid, and endocannabinoid systems.""

Abstracts from this week:

The effect of vitamin B6 on dexamethasone-induced depression in mice model of despair - Nutr Neurosci. 2018 Feb 25:1-6 - "Glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) have an important role in mediating the effects of glucocorticoids (GCs) on brain plasticity and mood. GC drugs and elevated cortisol level can cause psychiatric disorders including depression ... Vitamin B6 prevented DEX-induced depression possibly by altering the GR function. Thus Vitamin B6 could be promising in patients suffering from GC-induced psychiatric adverse effects and probably controlling stress and preventing its affective disorder out comes"

• Brain atrophy in cognitively impaired elderly: the importance of long-chain ω-3 fatty acids and B vitamin status in a randomized controlled trial - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Apr 15 - "folic acid, 0.8 mg; vitamin B-6, 20 mg; vitamin B-12, 0.5 mg ... B vitamin treatment slowed the mean atrophy rate by 40.0% compared with placebo" - See Best Naturals Vitamin B-6 25 mg 250 Tablets at Amazon.com.

Effect of Resveratrol Dry Suspension on Immune Function of Piglets - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2018 Feb 1;2018:5952707 - "These results suggested that RDS could be considered as an adjuvant to enhance immune responses to vaccines, as well as dietary additives for animals to enhance humoral and cellular immunity" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.

The Effects of Green Tea Extract on Working Memory in Healthy Women - J Nutr Health Aging. 2018;22(3):446-450 - "Acute supplementation of decaffeinated green tea extract may enhance working memory capacity of women between 50 to 63 years of age. This study provides preliminary evidence that consumption of green tea extract may enhance the cognitive performance in older adults and thus provide potential chemopreventive benefits in this group" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.

An attempt to induce an immunomodulatory effect in rowers with spirulina extract - J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2018 Feb 20;15:9 - "The results of this study imply that supplementation with spirulina extract may protect athletes against a deficit in immune function (especially, anti-infectious function) associated with strenuous exercise, and may cause a beneficial shift in "overtraining threshold" preventing a radical deterioration of immunity" - See spirulina at Amazon.com.

Blueberry Supplementation Influences the Gut Microbiota, Inflammation, and Insulin Resistance in High-Fat-Diet-Fed Rats - J Nutr. 2018 Feb 1;148(2):209-219 - "In HF-diet-fed male rats, blueberry supplementation led to compositional changes in the gut microbiota associated with improvements in systemic inflammation and insulin signaling" - See blueberry extract at Amazon.com.

Urox containing concentrated extracts of Crataeva nurvala stem bark, Equisetum arvense stem and Lindera aggregata root, in the treatment of symptoms of overactive bladder and urinary incontinence: a phase 2, randomised, double-blind placebo controlled trial - BMC Complement Altern Med. 2018 Jan 31 - "Storage lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) including overactive bladder (OAB) and urinary incontinence (UI) affect millions of people worldwide, significantly impacting quality of life. Plant based medicines have been documented both empirically and in emerging scientific research to have varying benefits in reducing bladder symptoms. We assessed the efficacy of Urox®, a proprietary combination of phytomedicine extracts including, Cratevox™ (Crataeva nurvala) stem bark, Equisetem arvense stem and Lindera aggregata root, in reducing symptoms of OAB and UI ... The outcome of this study demonstrated both statistical significance and clinical relevance in reducing symptoms of OAB, urinary frequency and/or urgency and incontinence. The demonstrated viability of the herbal combination to serve as an effective treatment, with minimal side-effects, warrants further longer term research and consideration by clinicians" - See Urox® at Amazon.com.

Impact of Western and Mediterranean Diets and Vitamin D on Muscle Fibers of Sedentary Rats - Nutrients 2018, 10(2), 231 - "High-fat western diet could impair muscle metabolism and lay the ground for subsequent muscle damage. VitD associated with a Mediterranean diet showed trophic action on the muscle fibers" - [Nutra USA] 

Health Focus (Vitamin D):