Recent Longevity News for the week ending 11/13/19

Potential vitamin and Alzheimer's drug produced in yeast - Science Daily, 11/11/19 - "Ergothioneine is a natural amino acid with antioxidative properties. It prevents cellular stress, which can lead to brain diseases, neurological damage and cancer. In rats and roundworms, research shows that ergothioneine has promising effects in preventing neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer's. Also, it has been reported that patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases have significantly lower blood levels of ergothioneine than others. These findings suggest that ergothioneine might have great potential as a vitamin to prevent or delay the onset of those diseases ... Currently, it is both complicated and expensive to produce ergothioneine with chemical synthesis. However, by engineering and optimising baker's yeast, scientists from The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability (DTU Biosustain) has for the first time exploited the potential of making ergothioneine in yeast in a bio-based fashion" - See ergothioneine at Amazon.com.

Drugs That Worsen Heart Failure Common in Hospitalized HF - Medscape, 11/11/19 - "At admission, the most common HF-exacerbating medications taken by patients were albuterol, diltiazem, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), all Level B agents, as well as metformin, a Level C agent ... Albuterol, diltiazem, and metformin remained the most common HF-exacerbating medications at discharge ... Albuterol showed the greatest increase in prevalence between admission and discharge (16% to 22%), while NSAIDs showed the greatest decreased in prevalence (9% to 3%)" - Note:  I'm not sure this is true regarding metformin:

• CVD Reduced With Metformin, Higher With Rosiglitazone - Medscape, 6/24/13 - "In 29 different studies, metformin was associated with a 10% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular events, with the drug associated with a 10% reduction in the risk of heart failure in seven studies and a 12% reduction in the risk of MI in nine studies. In contrast, rosiglitazone was associated with a 21% increased risk of cardiovascular events in 25 studies, a 27% increased risk of heart failure in 13 studies, and a 17% increased risk of MI in 21 studies"

Biomarker blood test could reveal high risk heart patients in need of treatment - Science Daily, 11/9/19 - "One of the proteins, high sensitivity troponin, measures injury to the heart muscle, and the other, called NT-proBNP, measures stress on the heart muscle," Dr. Pandey explained. "The presence of these proteins is indicative of subtle long-term cardiac injury, like wear and tear over time."

Are Low-Calorie Sweeteners Good or Bad for You? - WebMD, 11/8/19 - "But there is evidence to suggest that frequent use of the sweeteners, especially in diet sodas, raises the risk of several chronic diseases, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease ... A large long-term study published in October found that drinking at least an additional half-serving daily of artificially sweetened beverages was associated with a 16% higher risk of diabetes. Interestingly, when people replaced one daily serving of a sugary beverage with water, coffee, or tea, but not an artificially sweetened beverage, it was associated with a 2% to 10% lower diabetes risk ... Other studies have linked artificially sweetened beverages with stroke and heart disease. For example, after controlling for lifestyle factors, a February study found that women who drank two or more artificially sweetened beverages each day were 31% more likely to have a clot-based stroke, 29% more likely to have heart disease, and 16% more likely to die from any cause than women who drank diet beverages less than once a week or not at all"

Kratom May Cause Liver Damage: Study - WebMD, 11/8/19 - "Kratom is widely available in smoke shops and online. It's a botanical product made from Mitragyna speciosa, a tropical evergreen tree found in Southeast Asia. At low doses, it's a stimulant. At high doses, it has an opioid-like effect ... There were eight cases of reported liver injury associated with kratom products in the study. Eggleston said this may not seem like a lot, but they are enough to be concerning"

Statin Use Over 65 Years of Age and All-Cause Mortality - Medscape, 11/8/19 - "The analysis included 19 518 older adults followed during 10 years (median = 9.7 y). All-cause mortality rates were 34% lower among those who had adhered to statin treatment, compared with those who had not (hazard ratio [HR] = .66; 95% confidence interval [CI] = .56-.79). Adherence to statins was also associated with fewer atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events (HR = .80; 95% CI = .71-.81). The benefit of statin use did not diminish among beyond age 75 and was evident for both women and men"

Where does Parkinson's disease start? In the brain or gut? Or both? - Science Daily, 11/7/19 - "It may be possible to prevent the 'gut-first' type of PD through interventions targeting the gut, such as probiotics, fecal transplants, and anti-inflammatory treatments. However, these strategies might not work with respect to treating and preventing the brain-first type. Thus, a personalized treatment strategy will be required, and we need to be able to identify these subtypes of PD in the individual patient" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.

Study: Actually, potted plants don't improve indoor air quality - Science Daily, 11/6/19 - "The central finding is that the natural or ventilation air exchange rates in indoor environments, like homes and offices, dilutes concentrations of volatile organic compounds -- the air pollution that plants are allegedly cleaning -- much faster than plants can extract them from the air"

Why beta-blockers cause skin inflammation - Science Daily, 11/7/19 - "in some patients they can trigger or exacerbate psoriasis, an inflammatory skin disease ... Its fat solubility enables the active substance to cross biomembranes -- thin, fat-like membranes that enclose cells and some of their components. The second aspect however ensures that propranolol becomes positively charged in an acidic environment. In this state, the substance can no longer return through the membrane"

Vitamin D dials down the aggression in melanoma cells - Science Daily, 11/6/19 - "vitamin D influences the behaviour of a signalling pathway within melanoma cells, which slowed down their growth and stopped them spreading to the lungs in mice" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Rapamycin prevents age-related brain vascular deterioration in rats - Science Daily, 11/6/19 - "In the study, published Nov. 6 in the journal Aging Cell, researchers began rats on a diet including low-dose rapamycin at 19 months old (past middle age in rat years). Rapamycin treatment in daily food continued until the mice were of advanced age -- 34 months old -- almost double the age they were when they started treatment. "Essentially this is as old as these rats can get. These animals were very old but still, blood circulation in the brain was exactly the same as when they started treatment," said study senior author Veronica Galvan, Ph.D., professor of cellular and integrative physiology at UT Health San Antonio" - But it's expensive.  Here's one site I've found.

Vitamin D Key to Muscle Strength in Older Adults - WebMD, 11/5/19 - "Researchers looked at more than 4,100 people, aged 60 and older, in England. About 4 in 10 with vitamin D deficiency had muscle weakness -- twice the level found among those who had adequate vitamin D levels ... Impaired muscle performance was three times more common among those with vitamin D deficiency (25.2%) than those with adequate vitamin D (7.9%)." - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Fish Oil and CVD Prevention: Is Dose the Key? - Medscape, 11/6/19 - "In terms of the dose-response analyses, even without including REDUCE-IT, we saw evidence for a dose response, and with the inclusion of REDUCE-IT, the dose-response was approximately 8%-9% reduction in total CVD events per each 1-g increase in the dose of omega-3s (combination docosahexaenoic acid and EPA) or EPA alone ... The more moderate reductions that we saw, on an order of 8%-9% with the lower moderate doses of omega-3s, actually would translate into hundreds of thousands of CVD events averted in the United States, and many more worldwide, given the very high rates of these events. The much larger magnitude of risk reduction seen with REDUCE-IT obviously would translate into more events averted and would be expected to go beyond what would be projected with triglyceride-lowering effects alone." - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com.

FDA: Biotin Interference With Troponin, Lab Tests Still a Concern - Medscape, 11/5/19 - "The FDA first issued a safety alert on this issue 2 years ago, noting that the supplement may cause falsely high or falsely low results, depending on the test, leading to inappropriate patient management or misdiagnosis"

Gut microbiome of premature babies is associated with stunted growth - Science Daily, 11/4/19 - That's what Bill Gates was saying about a month ago:

• Probiotic pills could bring an end to malnutrition, says billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates - Telegraph, 10/7/19 - "He argues that better scientific understanding of the human microbiome – specifically the microorganisms which inhabit the gut – will enable the development of “smartly engineered” probiotic pills which will help us to retain more of the nutrients in the foods we eat"
• Why probiotics could hold the key to solving malnutrition – the world’s worst health problem - Bill Gates, 10/7/19 - "Saving these children isn’t as simple as making sure they have enough food to eat. Stunting can happen even if you’re getting enough calories ... there are a few less intuitive causes of stunting. A deeper understanding of one of those reasons – the microbiome of the human body – is why I believe we’re going to solve malnutrition within 20 years ... Another intervention could be what’s called “microbiota directed complementary foods.” Think of them as being like fertiliser for the microbiome. Eating them encourages healthy bacteria – the ones that help digest food and protect us from infection – to flourish." - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com and prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com.

Diabetes drug relieves nicotine withdrawal - Science Daily, 11/4/19 - "The diabetes drug, pioglitazone, targets a specific form of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors in the nucleus. This receptor, PPARγ, is found in areas of the brain involved in drug addiction"

High-intensity exercise improves memory in seniors - Science Daily, 10/31/19 - "Some performed high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) while a separate control group engaged in stretching only ... They found older adults in the HIIT group had a substantial increase in high-interference memory compared to the MICT or control groups. This form of memory allows us to distinguish one car from another of the same make or model, for example"

Gut bacteria is key factor in childhood obesity - Science Daily, 10/30/19 - "The medical community used to think that obesity was a result of consuming too many calories. However, a series of studies over the past decade has confirmed that the microbes living in our gut are not only associated with obesity but also are one of the causes" - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week:

Effects of Zinc Supplementation on Nutritional Status in Children with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Randomized Trial - Nutrients. 2019 Nov 5 - "Zinc supplementation may be beneficial for nutritional status in children and adolescents with CKD" -  See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.

Association of low serum magnesium with diabetes and hypertension: findings from Qatar Biobank Study - Diabetes Res Clin Pract. 2019 Oct 31 - "magnesium related dietary pattern (MRDP) ... Prediabetes was defined as HbA1c between 5.7% and 6.4%. Subclinical magnesium deficiency was defined as serum magnesium <0.85 mmol/L ... The prevalence of diabetes, prediabetes and subclinical magnesium deficiency was 18.9%, 11.5% and 59.5%, respectively. Across the quartiles of serum magnesium from high to low, the prevalence ratios (PR 95%CI) for diabetes were 1.00, 1.35, 1.88, and 2.70 (95%CI 2.38-3.05), respectively (p for trend <0.001). The presence of hypertension significantly increased the probability of diabetes along a wide range of low serum magnesium. A low intake of MRDP was also positively associated with diabetes and high HbA1c ... Subclinical magnesium deficiency is common in Qatar and associates with diabetes, prediabetes and hypertension in Qatari adults" - See magnesium supplements at Amazon.com.

Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids status and cognitive function in young women - Lipids Health Dis. 2019 Nov 6 - "Cognitive function in the attention domain was lower in women with lower O3I, but still within normal range" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com.

Increased Levels of Glycated Hemoglobin A1c and Iron Deficiency Anemia: A Review - Med Sci Monit. 2019 Nov 7;25:8371-8378 - "Studies have shown that iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is associated with increased levels of glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), but the mechanism remains unclear. Hematological changes, iron metabolism, study methodology, and other factors could affect the results of diagnostic investigations, leading to false results. Red blood cell turnover in the bone marrow and the quality and heterogeneity of erythrocytes may influence the rate of hemoglobin glycation. By changing the structure of hemoglobin and inducing peroxidation, iron deficiency accelerates glycation" - See iron supplements at Amazon.com.

Red Blood Cell Omega-3 Fatty Acid Composition and Psychotropic Drug Use in Older Adults: Results from the MAPT Study - J Nutr Health Aging. 2019;23(9):805-812 - "1594 participants had baseline DHA-EPA concentration available (mean age=75.5±4.5 years, 65% females). At baseline, participants with DHA-EPA ≤4.82% (lowest quartile) reported higher prevalence of use of overall psychotropic drugs (34.0% vs 24.4%; aOR=1.33, 95%CI=[1.03-1.72]), anxiolytic/hypnotic drugs (25.0% vs 18.2%; aOR=1.42, 95%CI=[1.07-1.89]), and antidepressants (18.3% vs 13.5%; aOR=1.25, 95%CI=[0.93-1.72]) than participants with higher DHA-EPA. Participants who experienced an increase in DHA-EPA from baseline were less likely to use a psychotropic drug at 12 months than participants with no change or a decrease (aOR=0.72, 95%CI=[0.55-0.96])" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com and Docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com.

Benefits of a Food Supplement Containing Boswellia serrata and Bromelain for Improving the Quality of Life in Patients with Osteoarthritis: A Pilot Study - J Altern Complement Med. 2019 Nov 1 - "From this pilot study, it emerges that the use of the gastroresistant formulation containing the combination of Boswellia and bromelain supplements can represent a valuable nonpharmacological tool for improving the QoL of patients suffering from different forms of OA" - See Boswellia at Amazon.com and bromelain at Amazon.com.

Association between dietary calcium intake and the risk of cardiovascular disease among Korean adults - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2019 Nov 4 - "In the fully adjusted model, HRs of CVD across increasing quintiles of dietary calcium intake were 1.0 (reference), 0.85 (95% CI: 0.66-1.10), 0.77 (95% CI: 0.58-1.02), 0.59 (95% CI: 0.42-0.83), and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.48-1.08); a significant linear trend was detected (p for trend = 0.04). However, this association varied according to the obesity status. High dietary calcium intake was associated with a reduced CVD risk among nonobese participants (body mass index [BMI] < 25 kg/m2; p for trend = 0.02), whereas this was not significant among obese participants (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2; p for trend = 0.88)"

Effect of oral administration of nicotinamide mononucleotide on clinical parameters and nicotinamide metabolite levels in healthy Japanese men - Endocr J. 2019 Nov 2 - "the oral administration of NMN was found to be feasible, implicating a potential therapeutic strategy to mitigate aging-related disorders in humans" - See nicotinamide mononucleotide at Amazon.com.

Whole Grain Consumption and Its Effects on Hepatic Steatosis and Liver Enzymes in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial - Br J Nutr. 2019 Nov 5 - "Over the 12 weeks of this open-label, randomized controlled clinical trial, 112 patients [mean age: 43± 8.7 y; body mass index (BMI) (kg/m2): 32.2 ± 4.3] were randomly assigned to two groups to receive dietary advice; either to obtain at least half of their cereal servings each day from whole-grain foods or from usual cereals. By the end of the study, the grades of NAFLD showed a significant decrease in the intervention group (P < 0.001). In addition, a significant reduction in serum concentration of alanine aminotransferase (P < 0.001), aspartate aminotransferase (P < 0.001), γ-glutamyltransferase (P = 0.009), systolic blood pressure (P = 0.004) and diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.008) were observed in the intervention group compared to the control group. After adjusting, however, no significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of lipid profile, glycemic status, and anthropometric measurements. Overall, our study demonstrated that consumption of whole grains for 12 weeks had beneficial effects on hepatic steatosis and liver enzymes concentrations in patients with"

Preventive Effects of Grape Extract on Ischemia/Reperfusion-Induced Acute Kidney Injury in Mice  - Biol Pharm Bull. 2019;42(11):1883-1890 - "Although renal functional parameters in AKI mice significantly increased 48 h after reperfusion, the administration of GE (0.1 and 1 mg/kg, intravenous (i.v.)) 5 min before ischemia dose-dependently improved post-ischemic renal dysfunction in wild-type mice. Renal histopathological studies on AKI mice revealed tubular necrosis, proteinaceous casts in tubuli, and medullary congestion. The administration of GE ameliorated this damage in wild-type mice, but not in eNOS-/- mice. Furthermore, GE significantly restored decreases in the renal nitric oxide metabolite content due to ischemia in wild-type mice, but not in eNOS-/- mice. Thus, eNOS is closely involved in the renoprotective effects of GE, strongly suggesting that GE supplements are useful as a prophylactic treatment for the development of ischemic AKI." - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.

Polyphenols From Grape and Blueberry Improve Episodic Memory in Healthy Elderly with Lower Level of Memory Performance: A Bicentric Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Clinical Study - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2019 Jun 18 - "This study evaluated the effect of a polyphenol-rich extract from grape and blueberry (PEGB) on memory of healthy elderly subjects (60-70 years-old). A bicentric, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted with 215 volunteers receiving 600 mg/day of PEGB (containing 258 mg flavonoids) or a placebo for 6 months ... Our study demonstrates that PEGB improves age-related episodic memory decline in individuals with the highest cognitive impairments" - [Nutra USA] - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com and blueberry extract at Amazon.com.

Lower circulating zinc and selenium levels are associated with an increased risk of asthma: evidence from a meta-analysis - Public Health Nutr. 2019 Nov 5:1-8 - "A total of twenty-six studies for Zn and forty studies for Se were included in the meta-analysis. The overall analyses identified that asthma patients had lower Zn (SMD = -0.40; 95 % CI -0.77, -0.03; I2 = 94.1 %) and Se (SMD = -0.32; 95 % CI -0.48, -0.17; I2 = 90.9 %) levels in serum or plasma compared with healthy controls. After removing the studies that contributed to the heterogeneity, the pooled SMD were -0.26 (95 % CI -0.40, -0.13; I2 = 37.42 %) for Zn and -0.06 (95 % CI -0.13, 0.02; I2 = 43.54 %) for Se ... Lower circulating Zn and Se levels might be associated with an increased risk of asthma" - See Se-methyl l-selenocysteine at Amazon.com.

Effect of Chlorogenic Acids on Cognitive Function in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Randomized Controlled Crossover Trial - J Alzheimers Dis. 2019 Oct 29 - "The main polyphenol contained in coffee beans, chlorogenic acid (CGA), improves attention in healthy individuals ... Trail Making Test (TMT-A, TMT-B) testing attention ... In the TMT-B test, participants had a significantly reduced number of errors while ingesting the CGA beverage as compared with the placebo beverage (p < 0.05), although there was no difference in test completion time" - See chlorogenic acid at Amazon.com.

Effects of Spirulina supplementation on obesity: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials - Complementary Therapies in Medicine, Dec 2019 - "Results of 5 studies (7 treatment arms) showed a significant reduction in weight (MD: -1.56 Kg, 95% CI: -1.98 to -1.14) after Spirulina supplementation. Subgroup analysis based on health status revealed that weight change in obese subjects (MD: -2.06 Kg, 95% CI: -2.45 to -1.68) was greater than overweight participants (MD: -1.28 Kg, 95% CI: -1.62 to -0.93) following Spirulina supplementation. Also, pooled analysis showed that Spirulina supplementation led to a significant reduction in body fat percent (MD: -1.02, 95% CI: -1.49 to -0.54) and waist circumference (MD: -1.40, 95% CI: -1.40 to -1.39), but not in body mass index and waist to hip ratio" - [Nutra USA] - See spirulina at Amazon.com.

Association of Zinc, Iron, Copper, and Selenium Intakes with Low Cognitive Performance in Older Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) - J Alzheimers Dis. 2019 Oct 29 - "A total of 2,332 adults aged 60 years or older were included. The association between zinc, iron, copper, and selenium intake and low cognitive performance was significant in different test. Compared with the lowest quartile of total copper intake, the weighted multivariate adjusted ORs (95% CI) of the highest quartile were 0.34 (0.16-0.75) for low cognitive performance in DSST. L-shaped associations between total copper or selenium and low cognitive performance in DSST and animal fluency were found ... Dietary and total zinc, copper, and selenium intakes might be inversely associated with the prevalence of low cognitive performance" - See Jarrow Zinc Balance at Amazon.com.

Arginine therapy in mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2019 Nov 5 - "We would like to inform clinicians that the systematic administration of oral and intravenous L-arginine is therapeutically beneficial and clinically useful for patients with mitochondrial myopathy, encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS), when they maintain plasma arginine concentration at least 168 μmol/l ... L-arginine is known to be an important precursor of NO to normalize the endothelial function in MELAS. In our clinical trial followed by 7 years follow-up study, the systematic administration of L-arginine to patients with MELAS significantly improved the survival curve of patients compared with natural history. Maintaining plasma arginine concentration at least 168 μmol/l may prevent the ictuses through the putative pathophysiologic mechanism and optimal normalization of endothelial dysfunction" - See L-arginine products at Amazon.com.

Preventative effects of metformin on glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis in rats - J Bone Miner Metab. 2019 Sep - "These findings suggest that metformin prevents GC-induced bone loss by suppressing bone resorption and stimulating bone formation in trabecular bone. The action mode of metformin was different from alendronate, which only suppressed bone resorption"

Real-world efficacy and safety of nebivolol in Korean patients with hypertension from the BENEFIT KOREA study - J Hypertens. 2019 Nov 5 - "heart rate (HR) ... Nebivolol significantly decreased mean SBP and DBP at 12 and 24 weeks compared with baseline (P < 0.0001). A significant reduction in HR was also observed at 12 and 24 weeks (P < 0.0001). The reductions of SBP and DBP were notably greater when nebivolol was used as monotherapy in de novo patients (P < 0.0001) and as add-on therapy to existing antihypertensives (angiotensin II receptor blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and calcium channel blockers; P < 0.0001). Majority of the reported adverse events were mild; the most common adverse events were dizziness (1.3%), headache (1.0%) and dyspnea (0.9%)"

Effects of macular xanthophyll supplementation on brain-derived neurotrophic factor, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and cognitive performance - Physiol Behav. 2019 Nov 1;211:11265 - "Based on their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity, we investigated the effect of the dietary carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin, along with the zeaxanthin isomer meso-zeaxanthin (collectively the "macular xanthophylls" [MXans]) on systemic brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and anti-oxidant capacity (AOC), and the pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6, and IL-1β ... macular pigment optical density [MPOD] ... antioxidant capacity (AOC) ... Six months of daily supplementation with at least 13 mg of MXans significantly reduces serum IL-1β, significantly increases serum MXans, BDNF, MPOD, and AOC, and improves several parameters of cognitive performance" - See lutein at Amazon.com and astaxanthin at Amazon.com.

• Brain-derived neurotrophic factor - wikipedia.com - "BDNF acts on certain neurons of the central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system, helping to support the survival of existing neurons, and encourage the growth and differentiation of new neurons and synapses.[9][10] In the brain, it is active in the hippocampus, cortex, and basal forebrain—areas vital to learning, memory, and higher thinking.[11] BDNF is also expressed in the retina, kidney, saliva, prostate, motor neurons and skeletal muscle.[12][13] ... BDNF itself is important for long-term memory"

Curcuminoids plus piperine improve nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: A clinical trial - J Cell Biochem. 2019 Sep;120(9):15989-15996 - "Supplementation with curcuminoids plus piperine significantly reduced the hematocrit (P = 0.027), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (P = 0.048) and the serum concentrations of alanine aminotransferase (P = 0.035), aspartate aminotransferase (P = 0.042), alkaline phosphatase (P = 0.004), cholesterol (P < 0.016), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (P < 0.017), Iron (P = 0.026), and Hemoglobin (P = 0.025) and increased total iron-binding capacity (P = 0.003). However, except albumin, changes in other parameters were not statistically different between groups. In addition, administration of curcuminoids plus piperine significantly improved NAFLD severity (P < 0.001), which was statistically different compared with the placebo group" - [Nutra USA] - See curcumin at Amazon.com and piperine extract at Amazon.com.

Probiotic treatment using a mix of three Lactobacillus strains for lumbar spine bone loss in postmenopausal women: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial - Lancet Nov 2019 - "Lactobacillus treatment reduced the LS-BMD loss compared with placebo (mean difference 0·71%, 95% CI 0·06 to 1·35). The LS-BMD loss was significant in the placebo group (–0·72%, −1·22 to −0·22), whereas no bone loss was observed in the Lactobacillus-treated group (–0·01%, −0·50 to 0·48). The adverse events were similar between the two groups" - [Nutra USA] - See probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

So sad.  Ever since the FTC required that commissioned links be identified, it's totally killed the less than a dollar a day I was making.  I don't know why people have a problem with me making a small commission.  It doesn't cost them anything extra.

Health Focus (Glycemic Index/Glycemic Load):