By Dr. Ronald Klatz & Dr. Robert Goldman

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.

“D”isease Prevention
Reviewing evidence that suggests an association between vitamin D deficiency and chronic diseases associated with aging such as cognitive decline, depression, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and cancer, researchers from Loyola University (Illinois, USA) reaffirm the pivotal role of Vitamin D to prevent and treat aging-related diseases.  Sue Penckofer and colleagues write that: “current evidence regarding the role that vitamin D may play in diseases associated with aging and addresses the need for well-designed randomized trials to examine its benefit on health outcomes in the older adult.”

Dr. Klatz observes: “Review of current evidence reaffirms the importance of Vitamin D in the prevention and treatment of aging-related diseases.”

Exercise Curtails Death Risk
Physical activity heightens respiratory processes and may raise the deposition of air pollutants in the lung.  But a team from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) submits that there are benefits to exercise that outweigh the harmful effects of air pollution.  Zorana Jovanovic Andersen and colleagues analyzed data collected on 52,061 subjects, aged 50-65 years, enrolled in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health study.  Participants self-reported physical leisure activities, including sports, cycling to/from work and in their leisure time, gardening and walking. The researchers then estimated air pollution levels from traffic at their residential addresses. Data analysis revealed that there were 20% fewer deaths among those who exercised, as compared to those who did not exercise at all – even for those who lived in the most polluted areas (cities and close to busy roads and highways).  The study authors report that: “exposure to high levels of traffic-related air pollution did not modify associations indicating beneficial effects of physical activity on mortality.”

Remarks Dr. Goldman: “Danish researchers reveal that regular physical activity may reduce the risk of premature death, in urban and high-trafficked areas.”    

Power Napping Provides Memory Boost
Associative memory is a memory of a past event or place that occurs by recalling something associated with it.  Associative memory also refers to retrieval of a memory in relation to the presentation of an associated stimulus of it.  Sara Studte, from Saarland University (Germany), and colleagues enrolled 41 adult students in a study in which each participant learned single words and word pairs. Once the learning phase was over, the subjects were tested to determine how much information they could remember. About half of the participants were then allowed to take a nap (90 minutes duration), while the others watched a DVD. Afterwards, all subjects were retested.  The participants who took a nap were shown to have retained substantially more word pairs in memory, as compared to the subjects who watched a DVD and did not nap. Observing that: “successful learning and retrieval both before and after sleep relates to spindle density during nap sleep,” the study authors submit that: “these results speak for a selective beneficial impact of naps on hippocampus-dependent memories.”

Comments Dr. Klatz: “German team reports that an  hour-long nap may improve associative memory performance.”
    
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.