Recent Longevity News for the week ending 10/18/17

Widely-Used Medicine for Heartburn, Indigestion, Acid Reflux Can Cause Liver Damage: Researchers - NBC San Diego, 10/11/17 - "new research confirms these medications --also known as proton pump inhibitors -- can worsen liver damage in patients with existing liver disease ... the absence of gastric acid promotes the growth of a certain bacteria in the stomach. That bacteria moves to the liver, where it worsens the inflammation associated with a chronic liver disease" - Note:  This was on the local news in San Diego but the national news wires never picked up on it.  I couldn't find the video which got more into the damage to the gut's bacteria caused by PPI's.  The solution might be what I put out a couple of weeks ago.  Here's a couple cut and pastes:

• Treating Reflux With Diet - NYT, 9/7/17 - "85 patients with an average age of 60 treated with the P.P.I.s Nexium and Dexilant, and 99 treated with alkaline water and the Mediterranean diet, a regimen low in meat and dairy, and rich in olive oil, fish, beans, fruits and vegetables ... In the P.P.I. group, 54 percent achieved a clinically significant six-point reduction on the index, compared with 63 percent for the diet cohort" - See alkaline water pitchers at Amazon.com.
• More alkaline water options.  Just search Google for "alkaline water machine near me".  I found out that they all seem to work according to a new pH meter I bought.  The problem was that an old pH meter that I used for yogurt years ago was unreliable.  I just go by time on the yogurt these days.  This is my favorite way to dispense it though.

Vitamin B Derivative (Nicotinamide) Appears to Reduce Skin Cancer Risk - Medscape, 10/16/17 - "Nicotinamide is a widely available, inexpensive and welltolerated agent. It has been reported in a small number of studies to be of benefit in a range of skin conditions, including acne, rosacea, immunobullous disease and photoaging. Recent studies show that it may also be an effective chemopreventive agent against skin cancer, possibly due to its ability to both augment cellular DNA-repair mechanisms and counteract UVinduced immunosuppression. Due to its favorable safety profile and demonstrated effectiveness, nicotinamide supplementation should be considered as an adjunctive chemopreventative treatment for patients at high risk of developing NMSC or AKs." - See nicotinamide at Amazon.com.

• What Is the Difference Between Niacin & Niacinamide? - LiveStrong.com - "Your body can convert niacin into niacinamide ... Niacin and niacinamide have identical function when used as vitamins ... their pharmacologic properties differ. For example, high doses of niacin can cause skin flushing. Niacinamide, however, does not have the same vasodialating, or blood-vessel widening, effects, that niacin has, so it does not lead to skin flushing" - Note:  I already take niacin which is why I'm not adding nicotinamide.

Vegetarianism Linked to Depression - Medscape, 10/11/17 - "The men also completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) between weeks 18 and 20 of their partner's gestation. A score >10 indicated a high probability of mild to moderate depression ... The unadjusted odds ratio (OR) for an EPDS score >10 was 1.75 for the vegetarians/vegans (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26 - 2.43). After fully adjusting for a variety of confounders, including age, family history of depression, and religion, the OR was still 1.67 ... Dr Jacka noted that she grew up as a vegetarian, "but that changed with the research. I noticed growing up that I was probably very deficient in iron, and I was constantly falling asleep in class. Red meat is actually important for zinc and iron, etc," she said"

'Ridiculously healthy' elderly have the same gut microbiome as healthy 30 year-olds - Science Daily, 10/11/17 - "The main conclusion is that if you are ridiculously healthy and 90 years old, your gut microbiota is Whether this is cause or effect is unknown, but the study authors point out that it is the diversity of the gut microbiota that remained the same through their study groupnot that different from a healthy 30 year old in the same population ... maintaining diversity of your gut as you age is a biomarker of healthy aging, just like low-cholesterol is a biomarker of a healthy circulatory system ... The researchers suggest that resetting an elderly microbiota to that of a 30-year-old might help promote health" - See probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week:

Time Course of Change in Blood Pressure From Sodium Reduction and the DASH Diet - Hypertension. 2017 Nov;70(5):923-929 - "When comparing DASH to control, DASH changed SBP/DBP by -4.36/-1.07 mm Hg after 1 week, which accounted for most of the effect observed, with no significant difference in weekly rates of change for either SBP (P interaction=0.97) or DBP (P interaction=0.70). In the context of a typical American diet, a low-sodium diet reduced BP without plateau, suggesting that the full effects of sodium reduction are not completely achieved by 4 weeks. In contrast, compared with control, DASH lowers BP within a week without further effect thereafter"

Association Between Urinary Sodium and Potassium Excretion and Blood Pressure Among Adults in the United States: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2014 - Circulation. 2017 Oct 11 - "Higher levels of sodium and lower levels of potassium intake are associated with higher blood pressure ... Hypertension was linearly associated with progressively higher sodium and lower potassium excretion; compared with the lowest quartiles of excretion, the adjusted odds of hypertension for the highest quartiles were 4.22 (95% CI 1.36, 13.15) for sodium, and 0.38 (95% CI 0.17, 0.87) for potassium, respectively" - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.

Long-Term Potassium Monitoring and Dynamics in Heart Failure and Risk of Mortality - Circulation. 2017 Oct 12 - "Mean potassium at discharge was 4.3±0.48 mEq/L. Hypokalemia (<3.5 mEq/L), normokalemia (3.5 to 5.0 mEq/L), and hyperkalemia (>5 mEq/L) were observed at the index admission in 77 (3.6%), 1965 (90.8%), and 122 (5.6%) patients, respectively. At a median follow-up of 2.8 years (range=0.03-12.8 years), 1090 patients died (50.4%). On a continuous scale, the multivariable-adjusted association of potassium values and mortality revealed a non-linear association (U-shaped) with higher risk at both ends of its distribution (omnibus p-value=0.001). Likewise, the adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for hypokalemia and hyperkalemia - normokalemia as reference - were 2.35 (95% confidence interval [CI]:1.40-3.93; p=0.001) and 1.55 (95% CI:1.11-2.16; p=0.011), respectively (omnibus p-value=0.0003). Furthermore, dynamic changes in potassium were independently associated with substantial differences in mortality risk. Potassium normalization was independently associated with lower mortality risk" - Note:  Correct me if I'm wrong but the way I read it, you're better off with high (1.55 risk) than low (2.35 risk) but normal is best (referenced 1.00 risk).  They're calling normal as 3.5 to 5.0 mEq/L. - See potassium citrate at Amazon.com.

Dietary Sodium to Potassium Ratio and Risk of Stroke in a Multiethnic Urban Population: The Northern Manhattan Study - Stroke. 2017 Oct 10 - "In adjusted models, a higher Na:K ratio was associated with increased risk for stroke (hazard ratio, 1.6; 95% confidence interval, 1.2-2.1) and specifically ischemic stroke (hazard ratio, 1.6"

The Effects of Curcumin on Wound Healing in a Rat Model of Nasal Mucosal Trauma - Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2017;2017:9452392 - "curcumin reduced the inflammatory response and significantly accelerated wound healing"

Effects of microencapsulated Lactobacillus plantarum LIP-1 on the gut microbiota of hyperlipidaemic rats -  Br J Nutr. 2017 Oct;118(7):481-492 - "microcapsulation enhanced the colon colonisation of LIP-1 cells, which subsequently exhibited more pronounced effects in improving the gut microbiota composition of hyperlipidaemic rats and lipid reduction" - See microencapsulated probiotics at Amazon.com.

Neat Tech Stuff / "How To's":

The best 4K TV on a budget - engadget.com, 10/15/17 - "After spending 80 hours testing new models for 2017, we found that the 55-inch TCL 55P607 is the best 4K TV if you're on a budget. Not only that, but it's also our pick for the best TV, period. Even when viewed side by side with TVs that cost two and a half times as much, the TCL won over our viewing panel. It's simply the greatest value we have ever seen in a TV"

• TCL P-Series (55P607) review - techradar.com, 8/10/17 - "The C-Series, which stands just above the P-Series, offers a built-in soundbar and a contemporary design for an extra $50, while the S-Series drops Dolby Vision from the equation for around $100 less than the P-Series. The P-Series might not have a ‘contemporary’ design or a built-in soundbar, but it does support Dolby Vision, a crucial component of HDR performance. So far, it’s not so bad being the middle child ... There will be a 50-inch and a 65-inch version sometime down the road"

Health Focus (Aromatization/Gynecomastia):