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Recent Longevity News for the week ending 12/28/22

MSG and its unsavory reputation - CBS Sunday Morning - See my MSG page. I want it back in my Chinese fast food.

Can Metformin Reduce Need for Total Joint Replacement in Diabetes? - Medscape, 12/20/22 - "Compared with nonusers, metformin users had had a 30% lower risk of total knee or hip replacement (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.70). The incidence of total knee replacement among metformin nonusers and users was 4.15 per 10,000 person-months and 2.96 per 10,000 person-months, respectively. The incidence of total hip replacement was 0.83 per 10,000 person-months in nonusers and 0.44 per 10,000 person-months in users ... By joint type, the adjusted HR was 0.71 for total knee replacement and 0.61 for total hip replacement among metformin users ... The effect was observed at daily doses of less than 1 g, as well as daily doses of 1 g or more. "This suggests that metformin at a lower dosage could have effects on osteoarthritis,"" - See metformin at ReliableRX.

Statin use may reduce risk of brain-bleed strokes up to 38 percent - Washington Post, 12/20/22 - "The study found that longer use of statins was linked to a lower risk for experiencing an intracerebral hemorrhage, ranging from a 16 percent lower risk for shorter-term use to a 38 percent lower risk for those who had taken statins for five years or more. The researchers also found that the location of the bleeding in the brain did not affect the risk reductions."

Can a Common Artificial Sweetener Fuel Anxiety? - Medscape, 12/20/22 - "mice that drank water containing aspartame exhibited pronounced anxiety-like behaviors in a variety of maze tests ... This behavior occurred at aspartame doses equivalent to less than 15% of the maximum daily human intake recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ... "It was such a robust anxiety-like trait that I don't think any of us were anticipating we would see. It was completely unexpected. Usually you see subtle changes ... When consumed, aspartame becomes aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol ― all of which can have potent effects on the central nervous system ... Exposing the mice to aspartame also produced changes in the expression of genes regulating excitation-inhibition balance in the amygdala, a brain region that regulates anxiety and fear"

Abstracts from this week:

The effects of saffron supplementation on cardiovascular risk factors in adults: A systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis - Front Nutr 2022 Dec 8 - "That seems saffron could effectively improve TG, TC, LDL, FBG, HbA1c, HOMA-IR, SBP, CRP, TNF-α, WC, MDA, TAC, and ALT" - See saffron supplements at Amazon.com.

Dapagliflozin improves pancreatic islet function by attenuating microvascular endothelial dysfunction in type 2 diabetes - Diabetes Metab Res Rev 2022 Dec 24 - "Sodium-glucose co-transporter type 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, including dapagliflozin, improve β cell function in type 2 diabetic individuals. Whether dapagliflozin can protect islet microvascular endothelial cells (IMECs) and thus contribute to the improvement of β cell function remains unknown ... Dapagliflozin restores islet vascularization and attenuates the inflammation of IMECs in type 2 diabetic mice. The dapagliflozin-induced improvement of β cell function is at least partially accounted for by its beneficial effects on IMECs in a PI3K/Akt-mTOR-dependent manner" - See dapagliflozin at reliablerxpharmacy.com.

Tocovid Attenuated Oxidative Stress and Cognitive Decline by Inhibiting Amyloid-β-Induced NOX2 Activation in Alzheimer's Disease Mice - J Alzheimers Dis 2022 Dec 22 - "NADPH oxidase 2 (NOX2) is an important source of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Activated NOX2 may contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our previous studies showed that a novel vitamin E mixture, Tocovid, had potential neuroprotective effects in a stroke mice model and an AD cell model ... These findings suggest that NOX2 is a potential target in AD pathology. Long-term administration of Tocovid may be a promising candidate for AD treatment" - See Tocovid at Amazon.com.

Evaluation the cognition-improvement effects of N-acetyl cysteine in experimental temporal lobe epilepsy in rat - Behav Brain Res 2022 Dec 20 - "Memory impairment is a critical issue in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Neuronal loss within the hippocampus and recurrent seizures may cause cognitive impairment in TLE. N -acetyl cysteine (NAC) is a sulfur-containing amino acid cysteine that is currently being investigated due to its protective effects on neurodegenerative disorders ... These results suggest that NAC improved memory impairment via anticonvulsant and neuroprotective activity and, in all probability, by lowering the level of mTOR." - See n-acetyl cysteine at Amazon.com.

Associations of dietary flavonoids and subclasses with total and cardiovascular mortality among 369,827 older people: The NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study - Atherosclerosis 2022 Dec 17 - "high intakes of flavonoids were linked to lower total and CVD mortality among older people. Our results extended the current evidence that frequent consumption of flavonoids could be a practical approach to improving cardiovascular health during aging" - See flavonoids at Amazon.com.

Ginsenoside CK improves skeletal muscle insulin resistance by activating DRP1/PINK1-mediated mitophagy - Food Funct 2022 Dec 23 - "Skeletal muscle insulin resistance is the main cause of type 2 diabetes, and mitochondria play a key role. Ginsenoside CK is the main active compound of ginseng with a variety of therapeutic effects, but few studies have reported on its mechanism towards skeletal muscle insulin resistance. Here, we found that CK significantly increased skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity, thereby alleviating hyperglycemia and insulin resistance. Furthermore, the effects of CK on skeletal muscle were associated with an improved mitochondrial fusion/fission dynamics balance and fatty acid oxidation. In fatty acid (FA)-induced C2C12 cells, CK promoted the translocation of GLUT4 to the cell membrane to improve glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis and also enhanced the mitochondrial quality. CK ameliorated the damaged mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm), which was based on mitophagy activation. After the knockdown of mitophagy-related receptors, we found that DRP1/PINK1 was the key pathway of CK-induced mitophagy. These findings indicated that ginsenoside CK is a promising lead compound against diabetes" - See ginseng at Amazon.com.

Low T3 syndrome upon admission and response to nutritional support in malnourished medical inpatients - J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2022 Dec 22 - "We had complete data including fT3 concentration of 801/2028 (39.5%) patients from the initial trial. Of these 492 (61.4%) had low T3 syndrome (fT3 < 3.2 pmol/l). Low T3 syndrome was associated with higher mortality over 30 days (adjusted hazard ratio 1.97 [95%CI 1.17 to 3.31], p 0.011) and other adverse clinical outcomes" - Note: Yet with all the studies supporting T4/T3 combinations, if you ask and old time/good ole boy, endocrinologist for the T4/T3 combo, they react like your asking for a prescription for cocaine. They seem to have an attitude that they're god and that they don't need to read no studies. Their ignorance costs lives but taking them to court and proving it is next to impossible. Sometimes I think they own the legal system.

Effect of an Intermittent Calorie-restricted Diet on Type 2 Diabetes Remission: A Randomized Controlled Trial - J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2022 Dec 14 - "Participants between ages 38 and 72 years with a duration of T2D of 1 to 11 years, a body mass index (BMI) of 19.1 to 30.4, 66.7% male, and antidiabetic agent use and/or insulin injection were randomly allocated at a ratio of 1:1 to the Chinese Medical Nutrition Therapy (CMNT) or control group. The primary outcome was diabetes remission, defined as a stable glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level of less than 48 mmol/mol (< 6.5%) for at least 3 months after discontinuing all antidiabetic medications ... On completing the 3-month intervention plus 3-month follow-up, 47.2% (17/36) of participants achieved diabetes remission in the CMNT group, whereas only 2.8% (1/36) of individuals achieved remission in the control group (odds ratio 31.32; 95% CI, 2.39-121.07; P < 0.0001). The mean body weight of participants in the CMNT group was reduced by 5.93 kg (SD 2.47) compared to 0.27 kg (1.43) in the control group. After the 12-month follow-up, 44.4% (16/36) of the participants achieved sustained remission, with an HbA1c level of 6.33% (SD 0.87). The medication costs of the CMNT group were 77.22% lower than those of the control group (60.4/month vs 265.1/month)"

Sulforaphane Suppresses MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells Growth via miR-19/PTEN Axis to Antagonize the Effect of Butyl Benzyl Phthalate - Nutr Cancer 2022 Dec 21 - "Collectively, these results demonstrated, for the first time, that SFN regulates the miR-19/PTEN axis to exert protective effects against BBP-mediated breast cancer promotion, suggesting a new potential role for SFN (or SFN-rich foods) in phthalate antagonism" - See sulforaphane at Amazon.com.

Association between pre-diagnostic dietary antioxidant vitamin consumption and ovarian cancer survival: a prospective cohort study - Food Funct 2022 Dec 20 - "Our findings indicate that pre-diagnostic higher vitamin C and β-carotene intake was associated with improved OC survival" - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com.

Impact of mulberry consumption on cardiometabolic risk factors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized-controlled trials - J Clin Pharm Ther 2022 Dec 12 - "The quantitative meta-analysis of 12 eligible RCTs demonstrated a significant reducing effect of mulberry consumption on haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) (weighted mean difference [WMD]: -0. 55, 95% CI: -1.08, -0.02, p = 0.044), serum total cholesterol (TC) (WMD: -13.13 mg/dl, 95% CI: -19.06, -7.20, p < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein levels (LDL-C) (WMD: -8.84 mg/dl, 95% CI: -13.26, -4.42, p < 0.001), triglycerides (TG) (WMD: -19.67 mg/dl, 95% CI: -30.13, -9.22, p < 0.001) and C-reactive protein (CRP) (WMD: -1.60, mg/L, 95% CI: -3.07, -0.12, p = 0.034). Also, >300 mg daily intake of mulberry exhibited a favourable effect on serum high-density lipoprotein levels (HDL-C) ... The current systematic review and meta-analysis revealed that incorporating mulberry into the diet may favourably affect several cardiometabolic risk factors" - See mulberry leaf extract at Amazon.com.

Curcumol inhibits breast cancer growth via NCL/ERα36 and the PI3K/AKT pathway - Food Funct 2022 Dec 20 - "Breast cancer (BC) is the most common malignancy worldwide. ERα36 (ERα66 variant) is expressed in many breast cancer cells, especially highly expressed in tamoxifen (TAM)-resistant cell lines and triple-negative breast cancer, and our previous work revealed that nucleolin (NCL) is a protein target of curcumol ... Curcumol reduced the proliferation of breast cancer cells by targeting NCL/ERα36 and inactivating the PI3K/AKT pathway" - See curcumin at Amazon.com.

Galactooligosaccharides ameliorate dietary advanced glycation end product-induced intestinal barrier damage in C57BL/6 mice by modulation of the intestinal microbiome - Food Funct 2022 Dec 20 - "Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are increasingly recognized as potentially pathogenic components of processed foods, and long-term consumption of dietary AGEs triggers disruption of the intestinal barrier integrity and increases the risk of chronic diseases. Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) as prebiotics can modulate the intestinal microbiota and improve the intestinal barrier integrity ... Collectively, GOS ameliorated dietary AGE-induced intestinal barrier damage by reversing the dysregulated state of the intestinal microbiota. Our study lays the foundation for further research on dietary guidelines for populations with high AGE diets" - See galactooligosaccharide at Amazon.com.

Combined use of dasatinib and quercetin alleviates overtraining-induced deficits in learning and memory through eliminating senescent cells and reducing apoptotic cells in rat hippocampus - Behav Brain Res 2022 Dec 16 - "Excessive physical exercise (overtraining, OT) charactered by long-term and excessive training results in the damage of multiple vital tissues including hippocampus which plays a critical role in learning and memory. A combination of dasatinib (D) plus quercetin (Q) (D+Q) belongs to senolytic drugs which selectively kill senescent cells in vitro and vivo ... These results indicated that D+Q alleviates overtraining-induced deficits in learning and memory through elimination of senescent cells and reduction of apoptotic cell number" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

I can't believe the following this jerk has. He's the Alex Jones  of healthcare. Always finding ways to demonize vaccines while pushing snake oil. He even looks dishonest. Vaccines save lives. I'm living proof. I've said it for a long time, the big money is in feeding on people's ignorance. Look at Tucker Carlson or Dr. Eric Berg. Dr. Campbell is Dr. Evil in my book.

Low scam awareness in old age may be an early sign of impending cognitive decline and dementia - Science Daily, 4/15/19 - "Older adults frequently are targeted by con-artists and are highly vulnerable to scams and fraud, particularly those that are financial in nature. However, little is known about whether scam awareness predicts transitions from normality to mild cognitive impairment and dementia ... low scam awareness was a harbinger of adverse cognitive outcomes. Low scam awareness was also associated with Alzheimer disease pathology in the brain. According to the researchers, these findings suggest that low scam awareness is an early sign of impending mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Further, they conclude that evaluation of behaviors such as scam awareness may help to identify individuals at risk for dementia before cognitive symptoms manifest."

Why older adults become fraud victims more often - Science Daily, 12/3/12 - "an important clue may lie in a particular region of the brain that influences the ability to discern who is honest and who is trying to deceive us ... Older people, more than younger adults, may fail to interpret an untrustworthy face as potentially dishonest ... a brain region called the anterior insula, which is linked to disgust and is important for discerning untrustworthy faces, is less active in older adults"

Health Focus (White Blood Cells):