Newsletter - November 3, 2005

November 3, 2005 - In this Issue

Pomegranate Juice May Reduce Prostate Cancer Risk
by ABC News – Reuters
Protein Diet Plus Exercise Equals Weight Loss
by Charnicia E. Huggins – Reuters Health
CT Scan Diagnoses Coronary Artery Disease As Well As Heart Cath
by Gilbert L. Raff MD, FACC - et. al – American College of Cardiology
Vegetables and Soy-Rich Diet May Reduce Lung Cancer Risk
by Michael Smith – MedPage Today Staff Writer
Chocolate Shake That Tastes Good and Is Good For You (and your kids)
World's Oldest Person Dies at 115
by BBC News – UK Edition
Green Vegetables Prevent Mental Decline
by Tufts University – ScienceDaily.com
Mice Regrow Organs
by Kristen Philipkoski – WiredNews.com
1918 Flu virus Recreated in Attempt to Find Vaccine for New H5N1 Flu
by MSN Health & Fitness – AP Story
Longevity Evaluations Available at Frontier Medical Institute

Pomegranate Juice May Reduce Prostate Cancer Risk
by ABC News – Reuters

Pomegranate juice shrank human prostate tumors previously injected into mice, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin Medical School, reporting in the September 27th issue of the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The juice is rich in antioxidants. Prostate cancer will kill 30,000 men this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: Prostate cancer is the second largest cancer cause of death for men (right behind lung cancer). More than 230,000 U.S. men, will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and given the severe side effects associated with conventional therapies, many of these men will elect not to undergo any therapy.

In the words of said Dr. Hasan Mukhtar, a professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin Medical School who led the study, "Our study — while early — adds to growing evidence that pomegranates contain very powerful agents against cancer, particularly prostate cancer."

Certainly further research will be done to isolate the specific compounds within pomegranate juice that confer its potent anti-cancer effects. But, in addition, healthy men may wish to consider drinking pomegranate juice as a preventive therapy against prostate cancer.

Protein Diet Plus Exercise Equals Weight Loss
by Charnicia E. Huggins – Reuters Health

A high-protein diet can help trim body fat and build muscle in exercising women, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, reporting in the August issue of the Journal of Nutrition. Two high-exercise groups averaged more than 200 minutes of walking and weight-lifting per week, one eating a high-protein diet rich in meat and dairy, the other eating more complex carbohydrates, like race or pasta. Both groups lost the same amount of weight but the high-protein group lost mostly body fat, while one third of the weight loss in the high-carb group came from muscle.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: Clearly most people looking to lose weight are really more interested in losing fat than in losing muscle mass. In comparing these two groups of women who exercised about 30 minutes a day, the weight that was lost in the high-protein group was almost 100 percent fat, while the high-carb dieters lost one-third of their weight as muscle.

The data suggests high-protein beats high-carb for fat loss.

CT Scan Diagnoses Coronary Artery Disease As Well As Heart Cath
by Gilbert L. Raff MD, FACC - et. al – American College of Cardiology

Multislice computed tomography (MSCT) with a new 64-slice scanner had diagnostic accuracy comparable to quantitative coronary angiography in detecting coronary vessel disease in a study of 70 patients reported in the August 2 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. MSCT, considered less invasive, uses radiation and small amounts of contrast material injected into the patients' arm vein. Quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) uses radiation and contrast material injected through a catheter guided all the way from a limb vein to the patient's coronary arteries.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: Quantifying the degree of stenosis or blockage in the coronary arteries provides important information to cardiologists as to which arteries need balloon angioplasty and stenting. Since both angiograms and the balloon/stenting procedures are invasive procedures that can be done at the same time, does this study really provide that much value to patients?

From a conventional viewpoint, the main value would be in screening out those patients whose blockages are not large enough to warrant angioplasty. Such patients wouldn’t be subjected to any invasive procedures.

The value to the patients of complementary medical practitioners would be even greater. Physicians who use chelation therapy and EECP (external extracorporeal counterpulsation) to treat patients with coronary heart disease would be able to both diagnose and treat patients completely non-invasively in the overwhelming majority of cases. The few patients who are found to have very severe blockages in multiple arteries could be referred to the cardiac surgeons for surgery.

Vegetables and Soy-Rich Diet May Reduce Lung Cancer Risk
by Michael Smith – MedPage Today Staff Writer

Diets rich in phytoestrogens (weak estrogen mimics found in soy, spinach, carrots, broccoli) may reduce human lung cancer risk, according to a report by researchers at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in the Sept 28 Journal of the American Medical Association. This is consistent with animal and laboratory data, although human data have been conflicting prior to this large observational study of 1,674 lung cancer patients and 1,735 matched healthy controls. Editorial writers cautioned that the study had methodological limits and needed confirmation.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: This study showed that those whose diets included the most phytoestrogens had a 46% decrease in their risk of lung cancer, according to Matthew Schabath, Ph.D. The protective effect extended to current smokers.

In an editorial which was published along with the research paper, they suggested that patients "should be informed that they may further reduce their risk of developing cancer by adopting a diet rich in fruits and vegetables."

This should not be taken by smokers as an excuse that if they eat more fruits and veggies they can keep smoking. But they should certainly eat more fruits and veggies while they are getting ready to quit – and from then on as well.

Chocolate Shake That Tastes Good and Is Good For You (and your kids)

Over 60% of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. One popular way to control calories without sacrificing nutrition is using low calorie meal replacement beverages.

The problem is that most of the products on the market are loaded with ingredients that are anything but healthy ... such as artificial sweeteners, colorings, flavorings and preservatives. Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman spent over a year developing Ray & Terry's Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake, a product that is not only delicious ... it is blended with ingredients just the way nature gave them to us.

Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is intended for use as a complete meal replacement, using healthy, natural, non-artificial ingredients to fill you up and inhibit your need for additional food for several hours. It also provides a high source of vitamins, minerals, fibers and proteins to create a nutritionally balanced diet as part of a weight control and maintenance program.

Each of the ingredients contained in Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is natural -- and the formulation contains no artificial ingredients (e.g., colors, sweeteners, etc.)

One serving of the meal replacement composition provides:

10 g of carbohydrates of which 7 g are fiber for a net carbohydrate yield of 3 g
4 g of fat of which 0 g are trans fats and 1.5 g are saturated fat
18 g of protein
200 mg of sodium
Total calories are 117 of which 35 calories (30%) are from fat

When mixed with sugar-free soy milk, the shake is still only has 185 calories. And it’s made with Ghiardelli cocoa and tastes great. Your kids will love it too!

World's Oldest Person Dies at 115
by BBC News – UK Edition

Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, the world’s oldest person was born on June 29, 1890, and died in her sleep at a nursing home the Netherlands on August 30, 2005. She was 115.

According to the Guinness World Records, the current oldest person in the world is Elisabeth Bolden of the U.S. who is also 115.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: When asked about the secrets to her longevity on her 114th birthday, she replied, "I eat a herring every day and I drink a glass of orange juice every day for the vitamins."

Interestingly, these aren’t bad suggestions at all. Herring is rich in omega-3 fats and orange juice contains many important vitamins and phytonutrients. (Although, we feel it would be better for most of us to eat the whole orange and cut down on the amount of sugar in the juice, one certainly can’t argue with Hendrikje’s program at least for her.)

The world’s oldest person ever documented by accurate birth and death records was Jeanne-Louise Calment who died at the age of 122 in 1997.

Based on our current aging models, that is very close to the upper limit for human life span of 124 years without making some changes to the basic genetics of the aging process. As scientists learn more about telomeres and aging genes such as daf-2, this upper limit should soon begin to increase.

Green Vegetables Prevent Mental Decline
by Tufts University – ScienceDaily.com

Researchers at Tufts University reported that men who obtained more folic acid in their diets showed significantly less decline in verbal skills and certain cognitive skills over the course of three years than did men who consumed lower amounts of dietary folate.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: It is well known that increased consumption of folic acid can lower levels of homocysteine, which has been established as a marker for age-related memory impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Interestingly, the effects of folate on memory in this study appeared to be independent of its effects on lowering homocysteine. Currently, our thoughts on treatment of high homocysteine levels are in a state of flux since publication of our 2004 book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever. It may turn out that treatment of high homocysteine levels is not an important goal even though such elevated levels are associated with many disease conditions.

In any event, consuming more folate through food can help preserve your memory. The word folate, by the way, derives from “foliage” and folic acid is concentrated in green, leafy vegetables.

Mice Regrow Organs
by Kristen Philipkoski – WiredNews.com

Mice discovered accidentally at the Wistar Institute in Pennsylvania are able to rgenerate their organs. Multiple organs and extermities were deliberately removed or amputated and the missing parts including the heart, liver and brain, grew back.

Dr. Ellen Heber-Katz discovered the strain in 1998 accidentally. She had pierced holes in the ears of the genetically altered mice to distinguish them from a control group, but the holes healed quickly with no scarring.

They snipped off the tip of a tail, severed a spinal cord, injured the optic nerve and damaged various internal organs and all of these grew back with minimal scarring.

The researchers began hunting for the specific genes that gave the mice their special powers. They are now focusing on three specific genes at the moment, but she suspects that many more likely contribute to the regenerative abilities.

Dr. Grossman's Comments: These regenerative abilities now found in other mammal species is very encouraging for humans. Regeneration in amphibians is well known, but to have found this in other mammals moves human applications much closer. The situation may be similar to the regenerative capablilities of human fetuses in the first three months of embryonic life, when similar regeneration occurs. We may be able to accomplish organ regeneration from our own tissues with a genetic therapy such as this one.