Recent Longevity News for the week ending 12/24/14:

iPads, tablets, smartphones disrupt good sleep, study finds - The Washington Post, 12/22/14 - "During a two-week inpatient experiment involving a dozen adults, some participants were asked to read on an iPad for four hours each night before bedtime, for five consecutive nights. Others read printed books in dim light. After a week, the groups switched ... participants using iPads displayed reduced levels of melatonin, a hormone that typically increases in the evening and helps induce sleepiness. They took longer to fall asleep, and spent less time in restorative REM, or rapid-eye movement, sleep ... the iPad readers reported being sleepier and less alert the following morning, even after eight hours of sleep. They also displayed delayed circadian rhythms ... although the study used only iPads, the effect isn't unique to that device. Other products produce similar blue-light emissions, including tablets, e-readers, smartphones, laptops and LED monitors" - See melatonin at Amazon.com.

Are you crazy for working out while sick? - CNN.com, 12/22/14 - "If you don't have a fever, a runny nose is no reason to skip a workout ... If you are mildly sick, [staying] active will promote your immune function, and help you sleep better ... When you have a cold, you're typically contagious for about five full days, and your germs spread most easily during your two to three most symptomatic days ... Working out with a fever can make your health way worse ... Angarone recommends resting until your fever has been gone for a full 24 hours, without the help of any fever-reducing medications like ibuprofen"

Ask Well: Wild Fish vs. Farmed Fish - NYTimes.com, 12/18/13 - "One farmed variety you will encounter often is salmon. While some commercial fish farms follow unhealthy practices that are environmentally unfriendly and not sustainable, Mr. Fitzgerald said, there are some merchants that set high standards for the farmed salmon they sell, including the supermarket chains Wegmans and Whole Foods, and the producer Verlasso"

Ibuprofen Extends Life In Lab Species, Study Finds (Humans, Too?) - NBC News.com, 12/18/14 - "The ibuprofen administered to test subjects was comparable to recommended amounts for humans ... The treatments gave the organisms roughly 15 percent more life — equal to about 12 human years" - [Abstract] - See ibuprofen at Amazon.com.

To T3 or Not: Combo Therapy in Hypothyroidism - Medscape, 12/18/14 - "One theory as to why some patients may indeed continue to experience hypothyroid symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, and "brain fog" despite achieving normal TSH levels with L-T4 monotherapy was recently proposed with the discovery of common variations in the deiodinase 2 (DIO2) gene ... The latter was found to be associated with reduced ability to convert T4 to T3, potentially leading to a lack of response to monotherapy with T4 ... I suggest Armour to patients because it's economical and it's simple ... One problem with combination therapy [with synthetic T4 and T3] is that people find it to be very hard to take three pills a day, and you only have to take one Armour ... Furthermore, the synthetic T3 is very expensive, so I'm really looking at it from a more practical point of view ... After a minimum of 4 weeks on Armour, 78% expressed a preference for Armour compared with L-T4, with no serious adverse events noted, even with 30 of the subjects aged 65 years or older ... The [different] study involved 70 patients, aged 18 to 65, who were treated for 16 weeks with either desiccated-thyroid extract or L-T4 and then crossed over for the same duration ... Patients treated with desiccated thyroid had an average weight loss of 3 lb, and there was no difference in thyroid-function blood tests between the two groups after treatment ... Regarding the theory that it could be dangerous — where are the case reports of people getting sick? You will not find a single scientific paper stating any real danger from desiccated thyroid, and as far as I'm concerned, the [medical societies] are scaring people away from this" - See thyroid hormones at International Anti-aging Systems (check with your doctor first).  Click here for the conversion chart.

Potassium Intake and Stroke Mortality Risks - Medscape, 12/18/14 - "Comparing highest to lowest quartile of potassium intake with multivariate analyses yielded a hazard ratio of 0.90 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.85-0.95) for all-cause mortality, 0.88 (95% CI, 0.79-0.98) for all stroke, and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.74-0.96) for ischemic stroke" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.

Extra vitamin E protected older mice from getting common type of pneumonia - Science Daily, 12/16/14 - "The older mice fed a diet containing extra amounts of vitamin E, the equivalent to about 200 IU/day consumed by humans -- about 10 times the Recommended Daily Allowance but well below the upper limit -- were far more resistant to the bacteria than the older mice that had a normal amount of vitamin E in their diet ... Compared to the mice that had normal amounts of vitamin E in their diet, the mice fed extra vitamin E had ... 1,000 times fewer bacteria in their lungs ... Two times fewer the number of white blood cells (neutrophils) ... The reduced numbers of bacteria and white blood cells resulted in less lung damage in the older mice who received extra vitamin" - See Jarrow FamilE (contains all eight members of the vitamin E family, includes Tocomin) at Amazon.com.

Maternal Vitamin D Status Tied to Long-term Outcomes in Kids - Medscape, 12/16/14 - "children born to mothers with serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25-OH-D) levels less than 50 nmol/L at 18 weeks' gestation were at increased risk for impaired lung development at 6 years, neurocognitive problems at 10 years, eating disorders during adolescence, and lower peak bone mass at 20 years" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Cancer Rates Higher in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes - WebMD, 12/16/14 - "It's not likely that insulin is the driving force behind the cancers ... Instead, they suggest that high blood sugar, which doctors call hyperglycemia, may be a contributing factor" - Note:  I wouldn't take that as written in stone.  It's like what came first, the chicken or the egg (high blood sugar or high insulin in the form of insulin resistance)?

Cannabis-Related ED Visits Rise in States With Legalized Use - Medscape, 12/16/14 - "emergency department (ED) visits with International Classification of Diseases, 9th Edition (ICD-9) coding for cannabis use grew 50.4% between 2007 and 2012 in Colorado ― one of the first two states to legalize both medical and recreational use of marijuana"

Abstracts from this week:

Fiber intake and risk of subsequent prostate cancer in Japanese men - Am J Clin Nutr. 2015 Jan;101(1):118-25 - "Dietary fiber is inversely associated with advanced prostate cancer detected by subjective symptoms even among populations with relatively low intake, such as Japanese. These results suggest that a very low intake of dietary fiber is associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer"

Effects of swimming activity on the copulatory behavior of sexually active male rats - Int J Impot Res. 2014 Dec 18 - "Swimming significantly improved the sexual performance of highly active rats, as indicated by increased intromission frequency and intromission ratio, compared with the sedentary controls. Swimming improved both sexual desire and performance, as indicated by reduced mount latency and increased intromission ratio, respectively, in swimming moderately active rats compared with the sedentary moderately active controls. Therefore, swimming activity improves the copulatory behavior of both highly active and moderately active male rats"

Gender Differences in the Relationship between Vitamin C and Abdominal Obesity - Int J Vitam Nutr Res. 2013;83(6):377-84 - "Compared with the lowest quintile (Q1) of vitamin C intake, the adjusted odds ratios of Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q5 for abdominal adiposity were 0.92, 0.86, 0.81, and 0.70, respectively, in women (p for trend = 0.0007). This association was maintained after adjusting for the confounding factors; however, we observed no association between intake of vitamin C and abdominal obesity in men" - See American Health Products - Ester C W/Citrus Bioflavonoids, 1000 mg, 180 veg tablets at Amazon.com.

Association between intake of B vitamins and cognitive function in elderly Koreans with cognitive impairment - Nutr J. 2014 Dec 17 - "These results suggested that total B vitamins intake is associated with cognitive function in cognitively impaired AD and MCI elderly, and the association is stronger in AD patients"

Hesperidin ameliorates behavioural impairments and neuropathology of transgenic APP/PS1 mice - Behav Brain Res. 2014 Dec 12 - "Our findings suggest that hesperidin might be a potential candidate for the treatment of AD or even other neurodegenerative diseases" - See hesperidin at Amazon.com.

Uncaria tomentosa (Cat's Claw) Improves Quality of Life in Patients with Advanced Solid Tumors - J Altern Complement Med. 2014 Dec 11 - "Use of cat's claw might be beneficial in patients with advanced cancer by improving their quality of life and reducing fatigue. The mechanism of action does not seem to be related to the anti-inflammatory properties of this plant" - See cat's claw extract at Amazon.com.

Coffee intake and the risk of colorectal adenoma: The colorectal adenoma study in Tokyo - Int J Cancer. 2014 Dec 10 - "colorectal adenoma (CRA) ... High coffee consumption was associated with a reduced risk of CRA, with a multivariate-adjusted OR for the highest versus lowest quartile of coffee intake of 0.67"

Selenium Supplementation and Prostate Cancer Mortality - J Natl Cancer Inst. 2014 Dec 12 - "Crude rates per 1000 person-years for prostate cancer death were 5.6 among selenium nonusers and 10.5 among men who consumed 140 or more μg/day. Crude rates per 1000 person-years were 28.2 vs 23.5 for all-cause mortality and 28.4 vs 29.3 for biochemical recurrence, for nonuse vs highest-dose categories, respectively. In multivariable analyses, men who consumed 1 to 24 μg/day, 25 to 139 μg/day, and 140 or more μg/day of supplemental selenium had a 1.18"

Vasectomy and risk of aggressive prostate cancer: a 24-year follow-up study - J Clin Oncol. 2014 Sep 20 - "Vasectomy was associated with a small increased risk of prostate cancer overall (RR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.17). Risk was elevated for high-grade (Gleason score 8 to 10; RR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.45) and lethal disease (death or distant metastasis; RR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.00 to 1.43). Among a subcohort of men receiving regular prostate-specific antigen screening, the association with lethal cancer was stronger (RR, 1.56; 95% CI, 1.03 to 2.36) ... The results do not appear to be due to detection bias, and confounding by infections or cancer treatment is unlikely"

ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and brain aging - Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2014 Dec 11 - "The purpose of this review is to analyze the developments in the area during the last 2 years ... Human brain MRI studies have confirmed previous findings that ω-3 PUFA can protect the brain during aging; two intervention studies obtained clear evidence" - See fish oil supplements at Amazon.com.

Docosahexaenoic Acid Supplementation Promotes Erythrocyte Antioxidant Defense and Reduces Protein Nitrosative Damage in Male Athletes - Lipids. 2014 Dec 16 - "DHA supplementation increased the catalytic activity of superoxide dismutase from 1.48 ± 0.40 to 10.5 ± 0.35 pkat/109 erythrocytes, and brought about a reduction in peroxidative damage induced by training or exercise ... dietary supplementation with DHA changed the erythrocyte membrane composition, provided antioxidant defense and reduced protein peroxidative damage in the red blood cells of professional athletes after an 8-week training season and acute exercise" - See docosahexaenoic acid at Amazon.com.

Fructose Containing Sugars Do Not Raise Blood Pressure or Uric Acid at Normal Levels of Human Consumption - J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2014 Dec 15 - " total of 267 weight-stable participants drank sugar-sweetened milk every day for 10 weeks as part of their usual, mixed-nutrient diet. Groups 1 and 2 had 9% estimated caloric intake from fructose or glucose, respectively, added to milk. Groups 3 and 4 had 18% of estimated caloric intake from high fructose corn syrup or sucrose, respectively, added to the milk ... There was no effect of sugar type on either blood pressure or uric acid (interaction P>.05), and a significant time effect for blood pressure was noted (P<.05). The authors conclude that 10 weeks of consumption of fructose at the 50th percentile level, whether consumed as pure fructose or with fructose-glucose-containing sugars, does not promote hyperuricemia or increase blood pressure"

Effects of Spirulina platensis supplementation on lipid profile in HIV-infected antiretroviral naive patients in Yaounde - Cameroon: a randomized trial study - Lipids Health Dis. 2014 Dec 13;13(1):191 - "Patients were randomized and received either Spirulina supplementation combined with local diet (n = 82) or local diet only (n = 87) ... there is a significant increase in HDL-cholesterol and a significant decrease in total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol and triglycerides in the group of patients who consumed Spirulina platensis" - See spirulina at Amazon.com.

Metabolic response to selenium supplementation in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial - Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2014 Dec 16 - "After 8 weeks of intervention, subjects who received selenium supplements had significantly decreased serum insulin levels (-29.83±47.29 vs. +9.07±77.12 pmol/L, P=0.013), homeostasis model of assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (-1.15±1.81 vs. +0.42±3.09, P=0.011), homeostatic model assessment-Beta cell function (HOMA-B) (-19.06±30.95 vs. +4.55±47.99, P=0.017) and increased quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI) (+0.03±0.04 vs. +0.0009±0.05, P=0.032) compared with placebo. In addition, supplementation with selenium resulted in a significant reduction in serum triglycerides (-0.14±0.55 vs. +0.11±0.30 mmol/L, P=0.025) and VLDL-C concentrations (-0.03±0.11 vs. +0.02±0.06 mmol/L, P=0.025) compared with placebo" - See se-methyl l-selenocysteine at Amazon.com.

Association of Dietary Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load with Endometrial Cancer Risk Among Chinese Women - Nutr Cancer. 2014 Dec 12:1-9 - "Multivariable-adjusted odds ratios (ORs) for increasing quartiles of intake were 1.0, 1.3, 1.4, and 2.2 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.2-4.0] for dietary GL (Ptrend = 0.02) and 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.4 (95% CI: 1.0-2.0) for dietary GI (Ptrend = 0.02). High intake of staples, especially rice, was positively associated with endometrial cancer"

Quercetin Inhibits Proliferation and Drug Resistance in KB/VCR Oral Cancer Cells and Enhances Its Sensitivity to Vincristine - Nutr Cancer. 2014 Dec 16:1-11 - "This study provided evidence that quercetin induced apoptosis and reversed drug resistance in oral tumor cells and may be a potential candidate for other tumors treatment" - See quercetin at Amazon.com.

The Protective Effects Of Selenium-enriched Probiotics On Carbon Tetrachloride-induced Liver Fibrosis In Rats - J Agric Food Chem. 2014 Dec 16 - "Se-enriched probiotics (SP) ... SP significantly decreased serum alanine aminotransferase (48.2%), aspartate aminotransferase (26.8%), hepatic hydroxyproline (29.3%) and malondialdehyde (30.1%) levels" - See se-methyl l-selenocysteine at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

Get a LuguLake portable Bluetooth speaker for $19.99 - CNET, 12/23/14 - "For a limited time, and while supplies last, you can get the LuguLake portable Bluetooth speaker for $19.99 shipped when you apply coupon code MCELHHAT at checkout" - See LuguLake Portable Wireless Bluetooth Speaker with Great Sound, Size, Look and The Battery Lasts Very Long, Built-in 3.5mm Aux Port, Coffee and enter MCELHHAT at checkout.

Health Focus (Mediterranean Diet).