Recent Longevity News for the week ending 4/3/19

Don’t throw away your vitamin D supplements yet - Washington Post, 4/2/19 - "Dan Newton, a molecular biologist and research scientist at the Medical University of South Carolina, says vitamin D is a regulator of inflammation and plays an important role in the immune system. “Numerous studies within the last 20 years have inked vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency to various types of cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, pregnancy complications and more,” he says ... So why has vitamin D gotten a bad rap? ... James C. Fleet, professor in the nutrition science department at Purdue University, says, “We are starting to see some studies show that vitamin D doesn’t have a benefit, even for bone health. However, these studies are in people who have generally good vitamin D blood levels. It’s not surprising that giving them more of a nutrient they already have enough of doesn’t lead to better health outcomes.” This is true of the Lancet study. Only 6 percent of the 81 trials included in the analysis were in people with vitamin D deficiency ... JoAnn E. Manson, the lead author of the VITAL study, says concluding that vitamin D supplements aren’t helpful is an oversimplification of the trial results" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Brain growth inhibited by heavy alcohol use - Science Daily, 4/1/19 - "heavy alcohol use reduced the rate of brain growth by 0.25 milliliters per year for every gram of alcohol consumed per kilogram of body weight. In human terms, that's the equivalent of four beers per day"

Trips to the toilet at night are a sign of high blood pressure - Science Daily, 3/30/19 - "Nocturia (one or more nocturia events per night) was significantly associated with hypertension after controlling for possible confounders (odds ratio 1.4; p<0.01). The risk of hypertension rose significantly as the number of nocturia events per night increased ... A healthy lifestyle is also advised, including salt restriction, alcohol moderation, healthy eating, regular exercise, weight control, and smoking cessation"

Preclinical and Clinical Studies of Hyaluronic Acid in Wound Care - Medscape, 4/1/19 - "The presented literature supports the contention that hyaluronic acid is a critical component in the complex cascade of wound healing and most likely is responsible for the clinical wound improvement in the case series presented." - See hyaluronic acid at Amazon.com.

Americans aren't getting enough sleep and it's killing us - The Hill, 3/30/19 - "those who usually slept six or fewer hours increased their risk of death by stroke or heart failure by nearly 10 percent over a 7.8-year period. On the positive side, the study found that among those who under slept, daytime naps may compensate and mitigate these risks"

Eating small amounts of red and processed meats may increase risk of early death - Science Daily, 2/27/19 - "Processed meat -- modified to improve flavor through curing, smoking, or salting (such as ham and salami) -- alone was not significantly associated with risk of mortality possibly due to a very small proportion of the population who consume such meat. However, the total intake of red and processed meat was associated with relatively higher risks of total and cardiovascular disease deaths"

Exercise adds up to big brain boosts - Science Daily, 3/25/19 - "Study participants underwent fMRI brain scans and working memory tests before and after single sessions of light and moderate intensity exercise and after a 12-week long training program. The researchers found that those who saw the biggest improvements in cognition and functional brain connectivity after single sessions of moderate intensity physical activity also showed the biggest long-term gains in cognition and connectivity"

Here's Everything You Need to Know About Gut Health - Time, 3/25/19 - "Everyone’s microbiome is unique, but there are a few generalities about what’s healthy and what’s not. “In healthy people, there is a diverse array of organisms,” says Dr. Gail Hecht, chair of the American Gastroenterological Association Center for Gut Microbiome Research & Education. (Most of those organisms are bacteria, but there are viruses, fungi and other microbes as well.) “In an unhealthy individual, there’s much less diversity, and there seems to be an increase of bacteria we associate with disease.”" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Cannabis-Linked ED Visits: Smoking vs Eating Matters - Medscape, 3/25/19 - "they found that 2567 (25.7%) of the visits were related to cannabis, with 238 of these (9.3%) linked to edible products ... The most common causes of cannabis-linked ED visits were gastrointestinal symptoms (30.7%), intoxication (29.7%), and psychiatric symptoms (24.7%)" - Yet people still think it's healthy!

DHS issues warning about Medtronic implantable defibrillator flaws - Engadget, 3/22/19 - "The vulnerabilities allow bad actors to change or inject data sent between a defib and its programming device. Medtronic's affected products don't use use formal authentication or authorization protections, which means attackers can alter the implant's settings and potentially harm the patient" - [NBC]

High-fructose corn syrup boosts intestinal tumor growth in mice - Science Daily, 3/12/19 - "consuming a daily modest amount of high-fructose corn syrup -- the equivalent of people drinking about 12 ounces of a sugar-sweetened beverage daily -- accelerates the growth of intestinal tumors in mouse models of the disease, independently of obesity"

Sugary Drinks Tied to Shorter Life Span - NYT, 3/21/19 - "Over about 30 years, there were 36,436 deaths. The more sugar-sweetened drinks people consumed, the higher their risk for death. After controlling for many health, behavioral and dietary characteristics, the researchers found that each additional daily 12-ounce serving of sugary drinks was associated with a 7 percent increased risk for death from any cause, a 5 percent increased risk for cancer death, and a 10 percent increased risk for death from cardiovascular disease ... The optimal intake of these drinks is zero"

Smoking strong pot daily raises psychosis risk, study finds - CBS, 3/20/19 - "people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times"

Fountain of youth for heart health may lie in the gut - Science Daily, 3/19/19 - "When you suppressed the microbiome of the old mice, their vascular health was restored to that of young mice," said senior author and professor Doug Seals, director of the Integrative Physiology of Aging Laboratory. "This suggests there is something about those microorganisms that is causing vascular dysfunction ... In general, in the old mice, we saw an increased prevalence of microbes that are pro-inflammatory and have been previously associated with diseases ... For instance, the old mice hosted significantly more Proteobacteria, a phyla that includes Salmonella and other pathogens, and pro-inflammatory Desulfovibrio ... Old mice had three times as much TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide), a metabolite shown in previous studies to be linked to increased risk of atherosclerosis ... We now suspect that, with age, the gut microbiota begins producing toxic molecules, including TMAO, which get into the blood stream, cause inflammation and oxidative stress and damage tissue ... they are absolutely not suggesting people use antibiotics as a cardiovascular fountain of youth ... But they do believe that diets high in probiotic-rich cultured food (yogurt, kefir, kimchi) and prebiotic fiber could play a role in preventing heart disease by promoting a healthy gut microbiome ... They're also studying a compound called dimethyl butanol, found in some olive oils, vinegars and red wines, which blocks the bacterial enzyme required to produce TMAO ... The fountain of youth may actually lie in the gut" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week:

The Effects of Lepidium Meyenii on Grip Strength, Fatigue, and Sexual Behavior -- J of Exec and Nutri, 3/19 - "Males in the treatment group showed significant improvements over the placebo group in fatigue (mean±SD: -3.3 ± 3.9 vs. 1.3 ± 6.2), handgrip (4.6 ± 7.5 vs. -0.4 ± 5.4), and sexual behavior (3.83 ± 4.3 vs. 0.7 ± 2.1). Conclusions: Maca supplementation may lessen fatigue, improve strength, and enhance sexual functioning in otherwise healthy men" - [Nutra USA] - See maca extract at Amazon.com.

The Phosphorylation of IRS1S307 and AktS473 Molecules in Insulin-Resistant C2C12 Cells Induced with Palmitate Is Influenced by Epigallocatechin Gallate from Green Tea - Lipids. 2019 Feb;54(2-3):141-148 - "it can be concluded that EGCG alone or in combination with rosiglitazone may show some therapeutic effects for the prevention or treatment of Type 2 diabetes owing to its substantial effect on increasing the phosphorylation of AktS473 and the subsequent glucose uptake into the cells" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.

Chlorogenic acid-enriched green coffee bean extract affects arterial stiffness assessed by the cardio-ankle vascular index in healthy men: a pilot study - Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2019 Mar 25:1-7 - "chlorogenic acid-enriched green coffee bean extract (cGCE) ... cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) ... Endothelium-dependent flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and sympathetic nervous activity (SNA) ... The CAVI change was significantly greater in the cGCE group than in the placebo group. In addition, FMD increased and SNA decreased in the cGCE group. These findings suggest that 2-week ingestion of cGCE may improve arterial stiffness as assessed by the CAVI" - See chlorogenic acid at Amazon.com.

Consumption of eggs and the 15-year incidence of age-related macular degeneration - Clin Nutr. 2019 Mar 16 - "Our findings suggest that moderate consumption of eggs significantly reduces the risk of developing incident late-stage AMD over 15 years"

Calcium Channel Blocker Use and the Risk for Prostate Cancer: A Population-Based Nested Case-Control Study - Pharmacotherapy. 2019 Mar 27 - "The results of this large population-based study indicate a modest but significant increase in the risk of PCa among CCB users, and the risk increases with duration of use"

Effect of Cell Concentration on the Persistence in the Human Intestine of Four Probiotic Strains Administered through a Multispecies Formulation - Nutrients 2019, 11(2), 285 - "The overall persistence of the probiotic strains was significantly higher for the 70 billion formulation than for the 7 billion formulation. Furthermore, probiotic strains were detected earlier and for longer for the 70 billion formulation compared to those for the 7 billion formulation. All probiotic strains were recovered alive from the 70 billion preparation, whereas recovery was not possible in a few fecal samples upon administration of the 7 billion preparation. In addition, the overall number of viable probiotic cells recovered on day 14 (i.e., the last day of consumption) was significantly higher for the 70 billion formulation than that for the 7 billion formulation. Finally, we found that the viability of the probiotic cells was stable over the course of the trial independent of volunteers’ handling, demonstrating good manufacturing of the product. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that strains belonging to different taxa may coexist in the human gastrointestinal tract upon ingestion of a multispecies probiotic formulation. Moreover, this study suggests that higher doses of bacterial cells in probiotic formulations may permit a higher, earlier, and longer recovery of the probiotics in the feces of healthy adults" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

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