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Recent Longevity News for the week ending 2/8/23

Herbal Combination Tames Active Ulcerative Colitis: Study - Medscape, 2/2/23 - "Among 42 patients randomized on a 2:1 basis to receive either an enteric-coated pill containing 3 g of curcumin and qing-dai (CurQD) or placebo for 8 weeks, 43% of those assigned to receive the combination met the co-primary endpoint of a significant reduction in disease activity and objective evidence of response, compared with 8% of those assigned to placebo" - See curcumin at Amazon.com and qing-dai at Amazon.com.

Vitamin D Linked to Lower Risk of Suicide Attempts, Self-Harm - WebMD, 2/1/23 - "About 490,885 veterans who received vitamin D3 and 169,241 veterans who received vitamin D2 were compared to veterans of similar demographics and medical histories who didn’t receive supplements ... Overall, vitamin D3 use was linked to a 45% lower risk of suicide attempts and self-harm, and vitamin D2 was linked to a 48% lower risk" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Ozempic: Dieters Who Use Scarce Diabetes Drug Could Face Side Effects - WebMD, 2/1/23 - "was pleasantly surprised to find herself soon shedding pounds ... Then the side effects started — most worryingly, a racing and palpitating heartbeat ... I could be laying down in bed and my heart rate, like resting heart rate, would be 120 beats per minute ... It was really having an effect on my heart rate, and that was really terrifying" - Note: This is the drug that been on the news as a godsend to lose weight. The weight loss version is under a different name and has a slightly higher dose. Be careful. Go with the old fashioned way to lose weight.

Ultra-processed foods may increase ovarian, other cancer risks, study says - Washington Post, 2/1/23 - "Many foods go through a moderate amount of processing — such as cheese, salted peanut butter, pasta sauce — but ultra-processed foods have more additives, artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners and preservatives. Typically they are subjected to processing methods to transform their taste, texture and appearance and can include hot dogs, doughnuts, boxed macaroni & cheese, muffins and flavored yogurts ... higher consumption of ultra-processed foods is associated with a greater risk of overall cancer and specifically ovarian and brain cancer ... For every 10 percent increase in ultra-processed food in a person’s diet, there was an increased incidence of 2 percent for cancer overall, and a 19 percent increase for ovarian cancer specifically ... Other studies have shown a link between ultra-processed foods and higher rates of obesity, hypertension, type 2 diabetes and colon cancer"

Eating Potatoes Is Healthy - Medscape, 2/1/23 - "Contrary to common belief, potatoes do not have a negative effect on blood glucose levels and can actually help people lose weight"

Abstracts from this week:

Association Between Proton Pump Inhibitor Exposure and Acute Kidney Injury After Cardiac Surgery - Mayo Clin Proc 2023 Feb - "Discontinuation of PPI prior to operation was associated with a lower odds of AKI development in both cohorts"

The effects of oral ferrous bisglycinate supplementation on hemoglobin and ferritin concentrations in adults and children: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials - Nutr Rev 2023 Feb 2 - "Iron deficiency and anemia have serious consequences, especially for children and pregnant women. Iron salts are commonly provided as oral supplements to prevent and treat iron deficiency, despite poor bioavailability and frequently reported adverse side effects. Ferrous bisglycinate is a novel amino acid iron chelate that is thought to be more bioavailable and associated with fewer gastrointestinal (GI) adverse events as compared with iron salts ... Compared with other iron supplements, supplementation with ferrous bisglycinate for 4-20 weeks resulted in higher hemoglobin concentrations in pregnant women (SMD, 0.54 g/dL; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.15-0.94; P < 0.01) and fewer reported GI adverse events (IRR, 0.36; 95%CI, 0.17-0.76; P < 0.01). We observed a non-significant trend for higher ferritin concentrations in pregnant women supplemented with ferrous bisglycinate. No significant differences in hemoglobin or ferritin concentrations were detected among children" - See ferrous bisglycinatate Amazon.com.

Administration of spermidine attenuates concanavalin A-induced liver injury - Biochem Biophys Res Commun 2023 Jan 23 - "A previous study revealed that treatment with the anticoagulant heparin attenuated concanavalin A (ConA)-induced liver injury. The administration of spermidine (SPD) increased urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) levels in the serum. uPA is clinically used for the treatment of some thrombotic diseases such as cerebral infarction. Therefore, SPD may attenuate ConA-induced liver injury that is exacerbated by blood coagulation ... These results indicated that SPD treatment increased anticoagulant ability by increasing of uPA and attenuated ConA-induced liver injury" - See spermidine at Amazon.com.

Kaempferol prevents acetaminophen-induced liver injury by suppressing hepatocyte ferroptosis via Nrf2 pathway activation - Food Funct 2023 Jan 26 - "Acetaminophen (APAP)-induced liver injury (AILI) has become a growing public health problem. Ferroptosis, an iron-dependent form of cell death associated with lipid peroxide accumulation, has been recently implicated in AILI. The activation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway is a potential therapy for AILI. Kaempferol (KA), a flavonoid widely existing in edible plants, has been reported to exert profound anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities ... KA reversed the APAP-induced decrease in cell viability and GSH levels and inhibited the accumulation of intracellular ROS. Furthermore, KA activated the Nrf2 pathway and upregulated Gpx4 in mouse livers and L02 cells to inhibit ferroptosis induced by APAP. Finally, molecular docking indicated the potential interaction of KA with Keap1. Taken together, KA ameliorated oxidative stress and ferroptosis-mediated AILI by activating Nrf2 signaling" - See Kaempferia parviflora at Amazon.com.

Kaempferol has potential anti-coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) targets based on bioinformatics analyses and pharmacological effects on endotoxin-induced cytokine storm - Phytother Res 2023 Feb 1 - "COVID-19 has infected 272 million patients and caused 5.33 million deaths around the world, and it remains the main global threat. Previous studies revealed that Chinese traditional medicine is an effective treatment for COVID-19 infection. This study aims to reveal the pharmacological effects of kaempferol, which is the active component of Radix Bupleuri and Tripterygii Radix, and potential mechanisms for the treatment of COVID-19 ... In summary, our current work indicates that kaempferol has anti-COVID-19 potential through the reduction of COVID-19-induced body dysfunction and molecule-protein interaction, and bioinformatics results clarify that some of these key target genes might serve as potential molecular markers for detecting COVID-19" - See Kaempferia parviflora at Amazon.com.

Quercetin modulates the liver metabolic profile in a chronic unpredictable mild stress rat model based on metabolomics technology - Food Funct 2023 Jan 26 - "This study aims to explore the protective effect of quercetin against chronic unpredictable mild stress (CUMS)-induced metabolic changes and the corresponding mechanisms in the rat liver based on untargeted metabolomics technology. In this study, 96 male rats were divided into six groups: control, different doses of quercetin (10 mg per kg bw or 50 mg per kg bw), CUMS, and CUMS + different doses of quercetin. After 8 weeks of CUMS modeling, the liver samples were collected for metabolomics analysis ... Abnormal changes in hepatic bile acids may provide stronger evidence for depression pathogenesis involving the microbiota-gut-brain axis, suggesting that the liver is involved in depression development and may be a treatment target. The quercetin treatment alleviated the CUMS-induced liver metabolism disorder, suggesting that quercetin may protect against depression by regulating liver metabolism" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.

An update of the effects of vitamins D and C in critical illness - Front Med (Lausanne) 2023 Jan 11 - "Many critically ill patients are vitamin D and vitamin C deficient and the current international guidelines state that hypovitaminoses should be compensated. However, uncertainty about optimal dosage, timing and indication exists in clinical routine, mainly due to the conflicting evidence ... The supplementations of vitamin D and C represent cost-effective and simple interventions with excellent safety profiles. Regarding vitamin D, critically ill individuals require a loading dose to improve 25(OH)D levels within a few days, followed by a daily or weekly maintenance dose, usually higher doses than healthy individuals are needed. For vitamin C, dosages of 100-200 mg/d are recommended for patients receiving parenteral nutrition, but needs may be as high as 2-3 g/d in acutely ill patients." - See vitamin C products at Amazon.com and vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Curcumin-piperine co-supplementation and human health: A comprehensive review of preclinical and clinical studies - Phytother Res 2023 Jan 31 - "The findings of this comprehensive review show the beneficial effects of curcumin-piperine in improving glycemic indices, lipid profile and antioxidant status in diabetes, improving the inflammatory status caused by obesity and metabolic syndrome, reducing oxidative stress and depression in chronic stress and neurological disorders, also improving chronic respiratory diseases, asthma and COVID-19" - See curcumin at Amazon.com and piperine extract at Amazon.com.

Antiinflammatory Activities of Curcumin and Spirulina: Focus on Their Role against COVID-19 - J Diet Suppl 2023 Feb 2 - "over the past two years, researchers have focused on analyzing the possible role of nutraceuticals in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection or mitigating the symptoms of COVID-19. Among nutraceuticals, turmeric, extracted from the rhizome of the Curcuma Longa plant, and spirulina, commercial name of the cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis, have assumed considerable importance in recent years ... The demonstrated antiviral properties of spirulina and the fact that these cyanobacteria may modulate or modify some mechanisms also involved in the onset of COVID-19, lead us to think that it may have the same importance as curcumin in fighting this disease and to speculate on the possible combined use of these two substances to obtain a synergistic effect" - See curcumin at Amazon.com and spirulina at Amazon.com.

Garlic supplementation improves intestinal transit time, lipid accumulation product and cardiometabolic indices in subjects with metabolic syndrome: A randomized controlled trial - Phytother Res 2023 Jan 31 - "Subjects with metabolic syndrome (MetS) are at increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Altered gut microbiota is involved in the pathogenesis of MetS. It has been hypothesized that garlic can improve intestinal transit time and cardiovascular risks ... lipid accumulation product (LAP) ... Garlic supplementation can improve intestinal transit time, LAP, and cardiometabolic indices" - See garlic supplements at Amazon.com.

Increased Morbidity in Males Diagnosed with Gynecomastia: A nationwide register-based cohort study - J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2023 Jan 31 - "A total of 16,253 (69.4%) males in the cohort were identified with idiopathic gynecomastia. These males had a statistically significant higher risk of future disease across all included disease chapters (HR range: 1.19 to 1.89), with endocrine diseases representing the greatest disease risk (HR 1.89, 95% CI: 1.76 to 2.03). The highest sub-chapter disease risk was observed for disorders of endocrine glands (OR 7.27, 95% CI: 6.19 to 8.54). Similarly, the odds ratios of comorbidities were higher across all included disease chapters (OR range 1.05 to 1.51), except for psychiatric disease (OR 0.72, 95% CI: 0.68 to 0.78), with the highest association with musculoskeletal/connective tissue (OR 1.51, 95% CI: 1.46 to 1.57) and circulatory (OR 1.36, 95% CI: 1.29 to 1.43) diseases" - Note: High SHBG is a cause of gynecomastia and also has about the same mortality rate. Connection?

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

Recommended by "the Deal Guy" on YouTube. We used something similar when I flew S-3s in the navy. I usually don't have that problem but after and couple cups of coffee and a Pepsi, they could come in handy in San Diego or Los Angeles traffic. Also, with things like being an Amazon delivery driver.

Health Focus (SAM-e):