By Dr. Robert Goldman & Dr. Ronald Klatz

Longevity News and Review provides readers with the latest information in breakthroughs pertaining to the extension of the healthy human lifespan.  These news summaries are compiled by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M; www.worldhealth.net), a non-profit medical society composed of 26,000 physician and scientist members from 120 nations, united in a mission to advance biomedical technologies to detect, prevent, and treat aging related disease and to promote research into methods to retard and optimize the human aging process.   Dr. Ronald Klatz, M.D., D.O., A4M President, and Dr. Robert Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., D.O., FAASP, A4M Chairman, physician co-founders of the anti-aging medical movement, distill these headlines and provide their insightful commentary.

Mind Your Fruits & Veggies
Saverio Stranges, from University of Warwick Medical School (United Kingdom), and colleagues analyzed data collected on 13,983 adults enrolled in the Health Survey for England 2010-2011. Over one in every three (33.5%) of subjects with high mental wellbeing ate five or more portions of fruit and vegetables a day, compared with only 6.8% who ate less than one portion.  As well, 31.4% of those with high mental wellbeing ate three to four portions of fruits and veggies daily, and 28.4% ate one to two. The study authors report that: “Along with smoking, fruit and vegetable consumption was the health-related behaviour most consistently associated with mental well-being in both sexes.”

Dr. Klatz observes: “Essential for body systems involved in physical health, consuming ample amounts of fruits and vegetables may also factor into mental well-being.  UK researchers report that people who eat 5 or more portions of fruits and vegetables every day enjoy high mental well-being.”

The Beverage of Champions
David Poole, from Kansas State University (Kansas, USA), and colleagues report that beetroot juice increases blood flow to the skeletal muscles during exercise by 38%, and was preferential to the less-oxygenated, fast-twitch muscles.  Observing that: “[dietary nitrate] supplementation via [beetroot juice] improves metabolic control in fast twitch muscle,” the study authors conclude that: “These data therefore provide a putative mechanism for the [beetroot juice] -induced improvements in high-intensity exercise performance seen in humans.”

Remarks Dr. Goldman: “Previously, studies report that dietary nitrate (NO3?) increases skeletal muscle function during exercise.  An abundant dietary source of nitrate, beetroot, in juice form, is fast becoming a beverage of competitive athletes.”

A Toast for Memory
Brian Downer, from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (Texas, USA), and colleagues analyzed data collected on over 660 subjects enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring Cohort. Participants were surveyed for alcohol consumption habits, administered neuropsychological assessments, assessed for the presence or absence of the genetic Alzheimer’s disease risk factor APOE e4, and underwent MRI brain scans.  The researchers found that light and moderate alcohol consumption in older people is associated with higher episodic memory and is linked with larger hippocampal brain volume. Amount of alcohol consumption had no impact on executive function or overall mental ability. The study authors write that: “The findings from this study provide new evidence that hippocampal volume may contribute to the observed differences in episodic memory among older adults and late life alcohol consumption status.”

Comments Dr. Klatz:  “Previous data from animal studies suggest that modest alcohol consumption may raise the volume of the brain’s hippocampus – the region involved in episodic memory, by promoting generation of new nerve cells in the area.  These data suggest that modest alcohol consumption may enhance episodic memory, among otherwise healthy men and women in their 60s and older.”

Anti-aging medicine is the fastest-growing medical specialty throughout the world and is founded on the application of advanced scientific and medical technologies for the early detection, prevention, treatment, and reversal of age-related dysfunction, disorders, and diseases.  It is a healthcare model promoting innovative science and research to prolong the healthy lifespan in humans.  As such, anti-aging medicine is based on solid scientific principles of responsible medical care that are consistent with those applied in other preventive health specialties.  The goal of anti-aging medicine is not to merely prolong the total years of an individual’s life, but to ensure that those years are enjoyed in a productive and vital fashion.  Visit the A4M’s World Health Network website, at www.worldhealth.net, to learn more about the A4M and its educational endeavors and to sign-up for your free subscription o Longevity Magazine™ e-Journal.