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Recent Longevity News for the week ending 10/26/22

You’re probably not cleaning these 11 very germy spots - Washington Post, 10/24/22 - "Toothbrush holder ... The disposal flange ... Sponges and dish towels ... Coffee reservoir ... Knobs and buttons on kitchen appliances ... Soft-sided lunchboxes ... Pet bowls ... Purses, wallets and keys"

Vitamin D Deficiency Causes Death, New Study Finds - Medscape, 10/24/22 - "The risk for mortality was a significant 36% higher for participants with 25-(OH)D 25 nmol/L compared with 50 nmol/L." - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure: Novel Insights Into the Chicken and Egg Dilemma - Medscape, 10/24/22 - "In summary, clinical trials and our experimental investigations have shown that normofrequent AF per se has distinct detrimental effects on the human LV via adverse remodelling of cardiomyocyte excitation–contraction coupling causing LVSD. These findings could contribute to our understanding of the favourable effects of rhythm control via catheter ablation in patients with AF and concomitant heart failure. Our novel data may represent, however, only a first glimpse into this AF-induced condition, which exceeds the atria and may affect the whole heart as well as other organs"

For healthier salted nuts, use Morton Lite Salt:

• How to Salt Unsalted Nuts - pantryandlarder.com - "Boil some water in a pan ... Put your nuts in a strainer and place them over the boiling water for around 30 seconds. The steam will coat the nuts with a layer of sticky water. Stir the nuts to make sure they’re all exposed to the steam ... Immediately sprinkle the nuts with the desired amount of salt and toss ... Leave the nuts to air dry for a few minutes before serving"

Running rarely wrecks your knees, and often strengthens them - Washington Post, 10/19/22 - "“A lot of people think that running is bad” for knees and other joints, said Jean-Francois Esculier, a clinical professor of physical therapy at the University of British Columbia in Kelowna, who studies running ... But accumulating research, including studies from Esculier and others, generally shows the reverse. In these studies, distance running does not wreck most runners’ knees and, instead, fortifies them, leaving joints sturdier and less damaged than if someone had never taken up the sport."

Confirmed: ECT Tops Ketamine for Major Depression - Medscape, 10/19/22 - "The overall pooled SMD for ECT, when compared with ketamine, was -0.69 (95% CI, -0.89 to -0.48), indicating that ECT was more efficacious than ketamine"

Abstracts from this week:

Jerusalem artichoke inulin supplementation ameliorates hepatic lipid metabolism in type 2 diabetes mellitus mice by modulating the gut microbiota and fecal metabolome - Food Funct 2022 Oct 24 - "Overall, Jerusalem artichoke inulin has a remarkable capacity to ameliorate abnormal hepatic lipid metabolism and gut microbiota dysfunction linked to T2DM" - See inulin at Amazon.com.

Advanced glycation end products induce senescence of atrial myocytes and increase susceptibility of atrial fibrillation in diabetic mice - Aging Cell 2022 Oct 24 - "Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a common chronic metabolic disease caused by significant accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiovascular complication of DM. Here, we aim to clarify the role and mechanism of atrial myocyte senescence in the susceptibility of AF in diabetes ... In conclusion, AGEs accelerated atrial electrical remodeling and cellular senescence, contributing to increased AF susceptibility by activating the p16/Rb pathway. Inhibition of RAGE or the p16/Rb pathway may be a potential therapeutic target for AF in diabetes"

Effect of dapagliflozin on cardiac function and metabolic and hormonal responses to exercise - J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2022 Oct 24 - "During the exercise protocol glucose and lactate were lower (p < 0.0001, p < 0.05 respectively) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BOBH) and growth hormone (GH) were higher (p < 0.0005, p = 0.01) following dapagliflozin treatment compared to placebo. There was a trend for lower insulin with dapagliflozin. Adrenalin, noradrenalin and glucagon were not different. Following dapagliflozin participants demonstrated an increased mean peak diastolic mitral annular velocity (e') in comparison to placebo (p = 0.03). The indexed left atrial volume and right ventricular e' were reduced following dapagliflozin compared with placebo (p = 0.045, p = 0.042 respectively). Arterial stiffness was not different between treatments (dapagliflozin 9.35 ± 0.60m/s; placebo 9.07 ± 0.72 m/s)" - See dapagliflozin at reliablerxpharmacy.com.

The Pharmacological Mechanism of Curcumin against Drug Resistance in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Findings of Network Pharmacology and Bioinformatics Analysis - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022 Oct 14 - "Curcumin in combination with immunotherapy, chemotherapy, or targeted drugs has the potential to be effective for drug-resistant NSCLC" - See curcumin at Amazon.com.

Treatment of Gout with TCM Using Turmeric and Corn Silk: A Concise Review Article and Pharmacology Network Analysis - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022 Oct 14 - "This work aimed to study the compounds, targets, and pathways of turmeric and corn silk for gout and to explore the mechanism of "the same disease with different treatments" based on network pharmacology and molecular docking ... Turmeric and corn silk can treat the same disease, gout, through different pathways and targets. The scientific connotation of "same disease with different treatments" can be preliminarily clarified by analyzing targets and pathways" - See curcumin at Amazon.com and corn silk extract at Amazon.com.

Astaxanthin ameliorates lipopolysaccharide-induced acute lung injury via inhibition of inflammatory reactions and modulation of the SOCS3/JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathways in mice - Food Funct 2022 Oct 24 - "Acute lung injury (ALI) is a systemic inflammatory process. A large number of studies have shown that astaxanthin (ASTA) has strong anti-inflammatory effects and almost non-toxic side effects. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of ASTA on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced ALI in mice and its underlying mechanism. The result showed that compared with the LPS group, the expression levels of the respiratory resistance (Re), inspiratory resistance (Ri), dynamic lung compliance (Cdyn), wet/dry weight (W/D) ratio, albumin (BA/SA) ratio and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in the ASTA pretreatment group were significantly reduced, and total cell, neutrophil and macrophage counts were significantly decreased ... The results showed that ASTA had a protective effect on LPS-induced acute lung injury in mice, and its protective mechanism was through activating the SOCS3/JAK2/STAT3 signaling pathway, promoting Treg cell differentiation and reducing inflammatory reactions and Th17 cell differentiation, which provided a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of ALI" - See astaxanthin at Amazon.com.

Simvastatin Inhibits Endometrial Cancer Malignant Behaviors by Suppressing RAS/Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK) Pathway-Mediated Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and Ferroptosis - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022 Oct 14 - "All in all, simvastatin reduces the RAS/MAPK signaling pathway to inhibit Ishikawa cell proliferation, colony formation, and invasion, and promote cell oxidation and ferroptosis. This paper demonstrates the potential of simvastatin as a new anticancer drug for EC"

Influence of Ginsenoside Rh2 on Cardiomyocyte Pyroptosis in Rats with Acute Myocardial Infarction - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022 Oct 12 - "This paper intends to verify through in vivo experiments whether ginsenoside Rh2 (G-Rh2) can play an anti-inflammatory role by modulating cardiomyocyte (CM) pyroptosis in rats with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), thereby alleviating myocardial injury ... G-Rh2 can inhibit the pathological development of AMI by relieving the focal death of CM and inhibiting the release of proinflammatory factors in the body, and the effect is significantly related to the dosage, which is expected to become a new treatment option for AMI in the future" -  See ginseng at Amazon.com.

Ginsenoside Rg1 Reduces Oxidative Stress Via Nrf2 Activation to Regulate Age-Related Mesenchymal Stem Cells Fate Switch Between Osteoblasts and Adipocytes - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2022 Oct 11 - "An important feature of aging cells is the gradual loss of physiological integrity. As aging progresses, MSCs change preferring to differentiate toward adipocytes rather than osteoblasts. Oxidative stress accumulation is an important factor in age-related bone loss. Many experiments have demonstrated the good therapeutic effect of Ginsenoside (Rg1) on oxidative stress injury. In this study, we investigated the effect of Rg1 on the osteogenic-adipogenic differentiation balance of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSC) ... We have uncovered a novel function for Rg1 that involves attenuating bone loss via Nrf2 antioxidant signaling, which in turn may potentially be utilized as a therapeutic agent for improving osteogenic differentiation in aging BMMSCs" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.

Dose-response effect of L-theanine on psychomotor speed, sustained attention, and inhibitory control: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study - Nutr Neurosci 2022 Oct 20 - "L-theanine is a non-protein-forming amino acid found in tea. Previous research shows high doses (100-400 mg) of L-theanine enhances attention, mainly by reducing mind wandering and distracter processing. We hypothesized that these indirect mechanisms could significantly improve the performance of low-level attentional tasks, whereas the relative contribution could be less in complex attentional tasks that require active, higher-order processing of target stimuli ... conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled, counterbalanced, four-way crossover study in 32 healthy young adults, where we compared the effects of three doses of L-theanine (100, 200 and 400 mg) with a placebo (distilled water), administered before and 50 min after dosing, on three attentional tasks from the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery [viz. Reaction Time (RTI)-visuomotor speed, Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVP)-sustained attention, and Stop Signal Task (SST)-inhibitory control]. Results were analyzed in dose × time repeated measures ANOVA models, with subsequent pairwise comparisons ... Active doses significantly improved reaction times in the RTI (100-200 mg) and RVP (200-400 mg) tasks from baseline (p < 0.05), but once controlled for the change-from-baseline caused by placebo, only the RTI simple reaction times showed significant improvements, following 100 mg (Δ = 16.3 ms, p = 0.009) and 200 mg (Δ = 16.9 ms, p = 0.009) of L-theanine" - See L-theanine at Amazon.com.

Zinc supplement reverses short-term memory deficit in sodium benzoate-induced neurotoxicity in male Wistar rats by enhancing anti-oxidative capacity via Nrf 2 up-regulation - Behav Brain Res 2022 Oct 17 - "Sodium benzoate (SB) is a commonly-used food preservative, with a controversial report to its neurological benefit and toxicity. Zinc (Zn) is a trace element that plays a crucial role in memory, inflammation and oxidative stress. This study was to investigate the effect of SB on rat cognition and memory and the possible modulatory effect of Zn supplement ... Conclusively, Zinc improves memory deficit, has anxiolytic, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties" - See zinc supplements at Amazon.com.

Emerging Evidence on the Use of Probiotics and Prebiotics to Improve the Gut Microbiota of Older Adults with Frailty Syndrome: A Narrative Review - J Nutr Health Aging 2022 - "The gut microbiota can impact older adults' health, especially in patients with frailty syndrome. Understanding the association between the gut microbiota and frailty syndrome will help to explain the etiology of age-related diseases. Low-grade systemic inflammation is a factor leading to geriatric disorders, which is known as "inflammaging". Intestinal dysbiosis has a direct relationship with low-grade systemic inflammation because when the natural gut barrier is altered by age or other factors, some microorganisms or their metabolites can cross this barrier and reach the systemic circulation ... The gut microbiota participates in many metabolic processes that have an impact on the brain, muscles, and other organs. These processes integrate feedback mechanisms, comprising their respective axis with the intestine and the gut microbiota. Alterations in these associations can lead to frailty. We report a few interventions that demonstrate that prebiotics and probiotics could modulate the gut microbiota in humans" - See prebiotic supplements at Amazon.com and probiotic supplements at Amazon.com.

The effect of grape products on liver enzymes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - Phytother Res 2022 Oct 20 - "Pooling data from 11 trials showed that grape products intake significantly reduced ALP (p = .010), without any significant changes in ALT (p = .234) and AST (p = .300). In subgroup analysis, we found a significant reduction in ALP, ALT, and AST when the duration of intervention was ≥12 weeks, and when grape seed extract (GSE) was administered. The variable duration and dosage of intervention was one of the sources of bias in our meta-analysis. Additionally, participants involved in included studies had different physiological status and various age groups. Grape products administration may significantly improve ALT, AST, and ALP in adults in long-term interventions and/or when GSE is administered. It should be noted that the favorable effects of grape consumption were small and may not reach clinical importance." - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.

Grape seed extract supplementation modulates hepatic lipid metabolism in rats. Implication of PPARβ/δ - Food Funct 2022 Oct 19 - "In mammals, the liver is involved in nutrient metabolism and in the regulation of lipid and glucose homeostasis. Multiple studies have described improvements in liver disorders after regular consumption of grape seed extract (GSE). GSE prevents or ameliorates hepatic metabolic dysfunction through AMPK activation, which reduces hepatic lipogenesis while enhancing hepatic lipid oxidation ... Our data suggest that PPARβ/δ activation is involved in the metabolic reprogramming effects of chronic GSE consumption in young rats, by modulating, at least, part of the transcriptional programs that maintain hepatic and systemic fuel homeostasis" - See grape seed extract at Amazon.com.

Cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamine, and opiates increase the risk of incident atrial fibrillation - Eur Heart J 2022 Oct 18 - "Methamphetamine, cocaine, opiate, and cannabis uses were each associated with increased risk of developing incident AF. Efforts to mitigate the use of these substances may represent a novel approach to AF prevention"

Elevated serum phosphatidylcholine (16:1/22:6) levels promoted by fish oil and vitamin D3 are highly correlated with biomarkers of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Chinese subjects - Food Funct 2022 Oct 24 - "The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between the changes of serum lipid metabolites and the risk factors of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) after fish oil (FO) or fish oil plus vitamin D (FO + D) intervention in Chinese NAFLD subjects. Seventy-four NAFLD subjects, aged 55.2 ± 15.9 years, were randomized to consume FO + D (n = 23), FO (n = 27) or corn oil (CO, n = 24) capsules for a 3-month intervention ... The differential metabolites were screened and identified with variable importance in projection (VIP) scores based on orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis models. Serum phosphatidylcholine (PC) (16:1/22:6) levels had the highest and second highest VIP scores following FO + D and FO interventions, respectively. Serum PC (16:1/22:6) levels were negatively correlated with circulating alanine transaminase (ALT) (r = -0.268, p = 0.021), triacylglycerol (TAG) (r = -0.236, p = 0.042), interleukin (IL)-1β (r = -0.401, p < 0.001) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α (r = -0.322, p = 0.005) concentrations, and were positively correlated with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (r = 0.272, p = 0.019) concentrations. The present study was the first to report that serum PC (16:1/22:6) levels were highly correlated with ALT, TAG, HDL-C, IL-1β and TNF-α concentrations, indicating that PC (16:1/22:6) might ameliorate lipid metabolism and inflammation in NAFLD subjects" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com and vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Associations of erythrocyte omega-3 fatty acids with cognition, brain imaging and biomarkers in the Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative: cross-sectional and longitudinal retrospective analyses - Am J Clin Nutr 2022 Oct 17 - "Cognitive tests [composite score, AD Assessment Scale Cognitive (ADAS-Cog), Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS), Trail Making Test, Category Fluency, Mini-Mental State Examination, Montreal Cognitive Assessment] and brain variables [hippocampal volume, white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), positron emission tomography (PET) amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau] were considered as outcomes in regression models ... Longitudinally, low ω-3 index was associated with greater Aβ accumulation and WMS cognitive decline but unexpectedly with lower total ADAS-Cog cognitive decline. Although no associations were cross-sectionally found in the whole population, low ω-3 index was associated with lower WMS cognition and higher tau accumulation among ApoE ε4 carriers" - See omega-3 supplements at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

Saw this advertised on Facebook. See the video.

Health Focus (Melatonin):