Recent Longevity News for the week ending 3/4/20

Vitamin D Deficiency and Long-Term Cognitive Impairment Among Older Adult Emergency Department Patients - Medscape, 3/3/20 - "Vitamin D deficiency was associated with poorer six-month cognition in acutely ill older adult ED patients who were cognitively intact at baseline" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

How trillions of microbes affect every stage of our life—from birth to old - National Geographic, 3/3/20 - But every time I try to read it, it asks me to join.  My wife has an account with them.  I'll read it when I get a chance.

Printer toner linked to genetic changes, health risks in new study - Science Daily, 2/27/20 - "Guo and her colleagues placed rat models into the same chamber as a typical laser printer. The models stayed in the chamber for five hours a day, for 21 days, as the printer ran nonstop ... It's equivalent to an occupational setting ... A rat's life expectancy is about one or two years. In our life, that would be more like four or eight years of five-hour-a-day exposure ... a single day of toner-particle exposure was enough to disturb the activity of genes associated with metabolism, immune response and other essential biological processes in the rat models. Overall -- taking into account all 21 days of exposure and testing -- the researchers observed genomic changes linked to cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic disorders ... special ventilation and exposure controls should be installed in rooms where laser printers are in heavy-duty use, because the concentration of nanoparticles released in the air during the printing and copying process is strongly correlated with the printing activities"

How caloric restriction prevents negative effects of aging in cells - Science Daily, 2/27/20 - "compared rats who ate 30 percent fewer calories with rats on normal diets. The animals' diets were controlled from age 18 months through 27 months. (In humans, this would be roughly equivalent to someone following a calorie-restricted diet from age 50 through 70.) ... 57 percent of the age-related changes in cell composition seen in the tissues of rats on a normal diet were not present in the rats on the calorie restricted diet ... Some of the cells and genes most affected by the diet related to immunity, inflammation and lipid metabolism. The number of immune cells in nearly every tissue studied dramatically increased as control rats aged but was not affected by age in rats with restricted calories. In brown adipose tissue -- one type of fat tissue -- a calorie-restricted diet reverted the expression levels of many anti-inflammatory genes to those seen in young animals ... The primary discovery in the current study is that the increase in the inflammatory response during aging could be systematically repressed by caloric restriction"

Yes, women experience thinning hair, too. Here’s why, and possible treatments - Washington Post, 2/10/20 - "Hair supplements. They’re everywhere with catchy names (Hum, Moon Juice, SugarBearHair) and sometimes eye-popping  prices (Nutrafol and Viviscal at $88 and $50, respectively, for a month’s supply). Most include collagen and old-school vitamins and minerals. Nutrafol also contains saw palmetto (a botanical said to block production of a hormone that leads to hair loss) and ashwagandha (a medicinal herb believed to help reduce stress hormones and inflammation). Viviscal touts its patented deep-sea fish protein, and Lambdapil says an amino acid called taurine is among its key ingredients" - See Nutrafol at Amazon.com.

Cocoa a Novel Rx for Peripheral Artery Disease? - Medscape, 2/26/20 - "at the end of the study period, participants who drank the cocoa three times daily had significantly greater improvements in 6-minute walk distance compared with the group on placebo" - Yeah but three drinks of chocolate per day is a lot of calories.  My swim times significantly improve for days after I pig out on just about anything.  If the study isn't calorie neutral, it's useless.

Mediterranean diet ingredient may extend life - Science Daily, 2/21/20 - "a team of researchers who discovered that olive oil in the Mediterranean diet may hold the key to improving lifespan and mitigating aging-related diseases ... According to Mashek, merely consuming olive oil is not enough to elicit all of the health benefits. His team's studies suggest that when coupled with fasting, limiting caloric intake and exercising, the effects of consuming olive oil will be most pronounced ... the way this fat works is it first has to get stored in microscopic things called lipid droplets, which is how our cells store fat. And then, when the fat is broken down during exercising or fasting, for example, is when the signaling and beneficial effects are realized"

People who eat a big breakfast may burn twice as many calories - Science Daily, 2/19/20 - "diet-induced thermogenesis (DIT) ... The researchers conducted a three-day laboratory study of 16 men who consumed a low-calorie breakfast and high-calorie dinner, and vice versa in a second round. They found identical calorie consumption led to 2.5 times higher DIT in the morning than in the evening after high-calorie and low-calorie meals. The food-induced increase of blood sugar and insulin concentrations was diminished after breakfast compared with dinner. The results also show eating a low-calorie breakfast increased appetite, specifically for sweets ... "We recommend that patients with obesity as well as healthy people eat a large breakfast rather than a large dinner to reduce body weight and prevent metabolic diseases," Richter said" - Note: I'm not buying it. I tried it numerous times and it packed on the pounds. I'm sticking with the 16 hours of fasting. A high-calorie breakfast and making up for it with low calorie at night leaves you with hunger pains at 2 AM and hence insomnia and that lack of sleep is even worse for your health. I swim for 80 minutes per day. Maybe that doesn't happen to normal people. I remember in the old days reading a story about marathoner Frank Shorter getting up in the middle of the night and eating mayonnaise because he was so hungry.  Also, see two minutes into this video about fasting: Michio Kaku: How to Reverse Aging | Big Think

More Evidence Backs LDL Below 70 to Reduce Recurrent Stroke - Medscape, 2/21/20 - "Treating LDL to a mean of 66 mg/dL vs 96 mg/dL was associated with a 26% relative risk reduction for the composite endpoint of ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, new symptoms requiring urgent coronary or carotid revascularization, and vascular death in an adjusted analysis."

Here's How Effective the CDC Says the Flu Vaccine Has Been for Kids This Season - Time, 2/20/20 - "The vaccine has been more than 50% effective in preventing flu illness severe enough to send a child to the doctor’s office ... Vaccines against many infectious diseases aren’t considered successful unless they are at least 90% effective. But flu is particularly challenging, partly because the virus can so quickly change. Overall, flu vaccine averages around 40% ... This season, the vaccine has been 45% effective against both types of flu across all ages."

High-Protein Diet Is Bad for Kidney Health - Medscape, 2/19/20 - "Given these and other data, it is time to unleash the taboo and make it loud and clear that a high-protein diet is not as safe as claimed, as it may compromise kidney health and result in a more rapid kidney function decline in individuals or populations at high risk of CKD. While more studies are needed to shed greater light, and while we expect that discussion will continue on this and other taboo topics,[17] it is prudent to avoid recommending high-protein intake for weight loss in obese or diabetic patients or those with prior cardiovascular events or a solitary kidney if kidney health cannot be adequately protected."

Think all BPA-free products are safe? Not so fast, scientists warn - Science Daily, 2/18/20 - "As these adverse health effects have become more widely known, companies have turned to using alternative chemicals to develop plastic products -- namely water bottles and food containers -- and often labeling them "BPA-free." However, MU scientist Cheryl Rosenfeld warns these chemical alternatives, such as bisphenol S (BPS), still aren't safe for people to use ... Synthetic chemicals like BPS can penetrate through the maternal placenta, so whatever is circulating in the mother's blood can easily be transferred to the developing child ... The placenta responds to both natural chemicals as well as synthetic chemicals that the body misinterprets as natural chemicals, but the body doesn't have the ability to mitigate the detrimental effects of such industrial-made chemicals ... More importantly, these chemicals have the ability to lower the placenta's serotonin production. Lower levels of serotonin can compromise fetal brain development because during this critical time in development the brain relies on the placenta to produce serotonin. Thus, developmental exposure to BPA or even its substitute, BPS, can lead to longstanding health consequences"

Abstracts from this week:

Acute effects of Nitrosigine® and citrulline maleate on vasodilation - J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2020 Feb 24 - "Sports supplements such as pre-workouts tout this benefit; however, many have not been tested under laboratory conditions to examine the effects of commonly used supplements on vasodilation. Two popular supplements are Nitrosigine® and citrulline malate (CM) ... Baseline FMD measurement was obtained for each visit, followed by consumption of one clinical dose CM (8 g), Nitrosigine (1.5 g), or dextrose placebo (8 g). Following a 60-min digestion period, FMD was repeated. Supplementation order was randomized controlling for potential order effects ... Nitrosigine and CM increased FMD by 31 and 34%, respectively, compared to a decrease of 2% during the placebo trial ... Both Nitrisigine and CM increased endothelial-dependent vasodilation as measured by a change in FMD. Increased vasodilation leads to an increase in skeletal muscle blood flow resulting in potential improvements in exercise performance" - [Nutra USA] - See Nitrosigine at Amazon.com.

Ultrasonographic Measurements of the Skin, Fat and Muscle in Vitamin D Deficiency - Int J Clin Pract. 2020 Feb 26 - "We imply that skin thicknesses (anterior forearm and tibia) and subcutaneous fat (trochanteric region) increase in subjects with low vitamin D levels" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Tannase-Converted Green Tea Extract with High (-)-Epicatechin Inhibits Skeletal Muscle Mass in Aged Mice - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Jan 29 - "tannase-converted green tea extract prevents muscle loss and regulates the quantity and quality of muscle by the levels of antioxidant stress-related enzymes and muscle differentiation factors to a greater extent than the administration of epicatechin and middle dose green tea extract" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.

Advanced Glycation End Product Accumulation is Associated with Lower Cognitive Performance in an Older General Population: The Nagahama Study - J Alzheimers Dis. 2020 Feb 20 - "We investigated the association between skin autofluorescence of AGEs and global cognitive function in a Japanese older (≥60 years) population (n = 4,041). The AGEs quartiles were inversely associated with the Revised Hasegawa's Dementia Scale score (Q1: reference, Q2: β= -0.011, p = 0.537, Q3: β= -0.043, p = 0.016, Q4: β= -0.064, p < 0.001) independent of major risk factors. Accumulation of AGEs was associated with lower cognitive performance in older adults" 

Taurine treatment of retinal degeneration and cardiomyopathy in a consanguineous family with SLC6A6 taurine transporter deficiency - Hum Mol Genet. 2019 Dec 31 - "In a consanguineous Pakistani family with two affected individuals, a homozygous variant Gly399Val in the eighth transmembrane domain of the taurine transporter SLC6A6 was identified resulting in a hypomorph transporting capacity of ~15% compared with normal. Three-dimensional modeling of this variant has indicated that it likely causes displacement of the Tyr138 (TM3) side chain, important for transport of taurine. The affected individuals presented with rapidly progressive childhood retinal degeneration, cardiomyopathy and almost undetectable plasma taurine levels. Oral taurine supplementation of 100 mg/kg/day resulted in maintenance of normal blood taurine levels. Following approval by the ethics committee, a long-term supplementation treatment was introduced. Remarkably, after 24-months, the cardiomyopathy was corrected in both affected siblings, and in the 6-years-old, the retinal degeneration was arrested, and the vision was clinically improved. Similar therapeutic approaches could be employed in Mendelian phenotypes caused by the dysfunction of the hundreds of other molecular transporters" - [Nutra USA] - See taurine at Amazon.com.

Short-term NAD+ supplementation prevents hearing loss in mouse models of Cockayne syndrome - NPJ Aging Mech Dis. 2020 Jan 7;6:1 - "In this study, we report that NAD+ levels are reduced in the cochlea of CSB m/m mice and that short-term treatment (10 days) with the NAD+ precursor nicotinamide riboside (NR), prevents hearing loss, restores outer hair cell loss, and improves cochlear health in CSB m/m mice. Similar, but more modest effects were observed in CSA -/- mice. Remarkably, we observed a reduction in synaptic ribbon counts in the presynaptic zones of inner hair cells in both CSA -/- and CSB m/m mice, pointing to a converging mechanism for cochlear defects in CS. Ribbon synapses facilitate rapid and sustained synaptic transmission over long periods of time. Ribeye, a core protein of synaptic ribbons, possesses an NAD(H) binding pocket which regulates its activity. Intriguingly, NAD+ supplementation rescues reduced synaptic ribbon formation in both CSA -/- and CSB m/m mutant cochleae. These findings provide valuable insight into the mechanism of CS- and ARHL-associated hearing loss, and suggest a possible intervention" - [Nutra USA] - See nicotinomide riboside at Amazon.com.

Effects of 12-Week Ingestion of Yogurt Containing Lactobacillus plantarum OLL2712 on Glucose Metabolism and Chronic Inflammation in Prediabetic Adults: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial - Nutrients. 2020 Jan 31 - "The ingestion of Lactobacillus plantarum OLL2712 (OLL2712) cells improved glucose metabolism by suppressing chronic inflammation in mouse models and in a preliminary clinical study. We aimed to clarify the effect of OLL2712 on glucose metabolism and chronic inflammation for healthy adults. Prediabetic adults (n = 130, age range: 20-64 years) were randomly assigned to either the placebo or OLL2712 groups (n = 65 each) and were administered conventional yogurt or yogurt containing more than 5 × 109 heat-treated OLL2712 cells, respectively, daily for 12 weeks. Reduced HbA1c levels after 12 weeks of treatment were observed in both groups compared to those at baseline; however, the 12-week reduction of HbA1c levels was significantly greater in the OLL2712 group than in the placebo group. Increased chronic inflammation marker levels and insulin-resistant index (HOMA-IR) occurred in the placebo group but not in the OLL2712 group. Fasting blood glucose (FBG) levels did not change significantly in both groups; however, in subgroup analyses including participants with higher FBG levels, FBG levels were significantly reduced only in the OLL2712 group compared to baseline. These results suggest that OLL2712 cell ingestion can reduce HbA1c levels and can prevent the aggravation of chronic inflammation and insulin resistance" - [Nutra USA]

Effects of Saffron on Sleep Quality in Healthy Adults With Self-Reported Poor Sleep: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial - J Clin Sleep Med. 2020 Feb 14 - "Sixty-three healthy adults aged 18 to 70 with self-reported sleep problems were recruited and randomised to receive either saffron extract (affron, 14mg twice daily) or a placebo ... Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) (primary outcome measure) ... Restorative Sleep Questionnaire (RSQ) and Pittsburgh Sleep Diary (PSD) ... saffron was associated with greater improvements in ISI total score (p=.017), RSQ total score (p=.029), and PSD sleep quality ratings (p=.014) than the placebo. Saffron intake was well-tolerated with no reported adverse effects" - [Nutra USA] - See saffron supplements at Amazon.com.

Health Focus (Telomeres):