X-Message-Number: 31928
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 23:20:36 -0700 (PDT)
From:
Subject: World's oldest dog, human both chocoholics
[Eating chocolate is probably one of the easiest life extension strategies.]
8( )
(World's oldest dog) Snip:> "She also liked chocolate, usually considered toxic
to dogs"
(World's oldest human) Snip:> "She ascribed her longevity and relatively
youthful appearance for her age to olive oil, which she said she poured on all
her food and rubbed onto her skin, as well as a diet of port wine, and nearly 1
kilo of chocolate eaten every week."
Snip:> "Chocolate consumption had a strong inverse association with cardiac
mortality. When compared with those never eating chocolate, the
multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios were 0.73 (95% confidence interval,
0.41-1.31), 0.56 (0.32-0.99) and 0.34 (0.17-0.70) for those consuming chocolate
less than once per month, up to once per week and twice or more per week
respectively"
[There is also evidence that Jeane Calmente's practice of rubbing olive oil on
her skin really did help her retain a "relatively" youthful appearance.]
Snip:> "Protective effect of topically applied olive oil against
photocarcinogenesis following UVB exposure of mice."
[Jeane Calmente was making all the right longevity promoting dietary choices.
Wine helps too.]
Snip:> "Independent of total alcohol intake, long-term wine consumption of, on
average, less than half a glass per day was strongly and inversely associated
with coronary heart disease (HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.89), total cardiovascular
(HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.86) and all-cause mortality (HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.62 to
0.87). "
_____________________________________________________________________
World's oldest dog, wire-haired dachshund named Chanel, dies in NY at 21 - or
147
at 23:02 on August 31, 2009, EDT.
Virginia Byrne, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - A wire-haired dachshund that held the record as the world's oldest
dog and celebrated its last birthday with a party at a dog hotel and spa has
died at age 21 - or 147 in dog years.
The dog, named Chanel, died Friday of natural causes at her owners' home in
suburban Port Jefferson Station, outside New York City.
Chanel, as stylish as her legendary namesake, wore tinted goggles for her
cataracts in her later years and favoured sweaters because she was sensitive to
the cold, owners Denice and Karl Shaughnessy said Monday.
The playful dachshund was only 6 weeks old when Denice Shaughnessy, then serving
with the U.S. Army, adopted her from a shelter in Virginia.
Along with her owner, Chanel spent nine years on assignment in Germany, where
she became adept at stealing sticks of butter from kitchen countertops and
hiding them in sofa cushions in the living room, Shaughnessy said. She also
liked chocolate, usually considered toxic to dogs, Shaughnessy said.
"She once ate an entire bag of Reese's peanut butter cups, and, you see, she
lived to be 21, so go figure," Shaughnessy added.
Karl Shaughnessy nominated Chanel for the title of world's oldest dog after
noticing the Guinness World Records book had no record.
Guinness World Records officials presented Chanel with a certificate as the
world's oldest dog at a Manhattan birthday bash hosted by a private pet food
company in May.
Chanel loved the party, especially the cake, which had a peanut butter flavour
and had been made for dogs, Denice Shaughnessy said.
Chanel exercised daily and ate home-cooked chicken with her dog food, but good
care wasn't entirely responsible for her long life, said her owners, who
attributed God.
"Dogs are God's angels sent here to look out for us," Denice Shaughnessy said.
A dog from Louisiana, named Max, is vying for the record of world's oldest dog.
Owner Janelle Derouen said Max marked his 26th birthday on Aug. 9. She said
Guinness World Records officials were reviewing documents to authenticate his
age; a Guinness World Records official in London didn't immediately answer an
email from The Associated Press requesting confirmation of that.
When asked the secret to her dog's long life, Derouen said she was shocked he's
still with her.
"I have five kids, and all my kids are grown and gone," she said. "Now my
grandkids are playing with this dog."
_________________________________________________________
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment
Health and lifestyle
Calment's remarkable health presaged her later record. At age 85, she took up
fencing, and at 100, she was still riding a bicycle. She was reportedly neither
athletic, nor fanatical about her health.[7]
Calment lived on her own until shortly before her 110th birthday, when it was
decided that she needed to be moved to a nursing home after a cooking accident
(she could barely see) started a small fire in her flat. However, Calment was
still in good shape, and was able to walk until she fractured her femur during a
fall at age 114 years and 11 months, which required surgery.[3][10] After her
operation, Calment became confined to a wheelchair and weighed 45kg in 1994.[12]
Calment became ill with the flu shortly before her 116th birthday.[13] She
occasionally smoked until the age of 117, only five years before her
death.[13][14][15] She ascribed her longevity and relatively youthful appearance
for her age to olive oil, which she said she poured on all her food and rubbed
onto her skin, as well as a diet of port wine, and nearly 1 kilo of chocolate
eaten every week.[9] Calment is the oldest person known to have survived a hip
operation.
____________________________________________________________
J Intern Med. 2009 Sep;266(3):248-57.
Chocolate consumption and mortality following a first acute myocardial
infarction: the Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program.
Janszky I, Mukamal KJ, Ljung R, Ahnve S, Ahlbom A, Hallqvist J. Department
of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
OBJECTIVES: To assess the long-term effects of chocolate consumption amongst
patients with established coronary heart disease. DESIGN: In a
population-based inception cohort study, we followed 1169 non-diabetic
patients hospitalized with a confirmed first acute myocardial infarction
(AMI) between 1992 and 1994 in Stockholm County, Sweden, as part of the
Stockholm Heart Epidemiology Program. Participants self-reported usual
chocolate consumption over the preceding 12 months with a standardized
questionnaire distributed during hospitalization and underwent a health
examination 3 months after discharge. Participants were followed for
hospitalizations and mortality with national registries for 8 years.
RESULTS: Chocolate consumption had a strong inverse association with cardiac
mortality. When compared with those never eating chocolate, the
multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios were 0.73 (95% confidence interval,
0.41-1.31), 0.56 (0.32-0.99) and 0.34 (0.17-0.70) for those consuming
chocolate less than once per month, up to once per week and twice or more
per week respectively. Chocolate consumption generally had an inverse but
weak association with total mortality and nonfatal outcomes. In contrast,
intake of other sweets was not associated with cardiac or total mortality.
CONCLUSIONS: Chocolate consumption was associated with lower cardiac
mortality in a dose dependent manner in patients free of diabetes surviving
their first AMI. Although our findings support increasing evidence that
chocolate is a rich source of beneficial bioactive compounds, confirmation
of this strong inverse relationship from other observational studies or
large-scale, long-term, controlled randomized trials is needed.
PMID: 19711504
___________________________________________________________
Carcinogenesis. 2000 Nov;21(11):2085-90.
Protective effect of topically applied olive oil against photocarcinogenesis
following UVB exposure of mice.
Budiyanto A, Ahmed NU, Wu A, Bito T, Nikaido O, Osawa T, Ueda M, Ichihashi
M. Department of Dermatology, Kobe University School of Medicine, 7-5-1,
Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Division of Radiation Biology, Faculty
of Pharmaceutical Science, Kanazawa University, Japan.
Reactive oxygen species have been shown to play a role in ultraviolet light
(UV)-induced skin carcinogenesis. Vitamin E and green tea polyphenols reduce
experimental skin cancers in mice mainly because of their antioxidant
properties. Since olive oil has also been reported to be a potent
antioxidant, we examined its effect on UVB-induced skin carcinogenesis in
hairless mice. Extra-virgin olive oil was applied topically before or after
repeated exposure of mice to UVB. The onset of UVB-induced skin tumors was
delayed in mice painted with olive oil compared with UVB control mice.
However, with increasing numbers of UVB exposures, differences in the mean
number of tumors between UVB control mice and mice pretreated with olive oil
before UVB exposure (pre-UVB group) were lost. In contrast, mice that
received olive oil after UVB exposure (post-UVB group) showed significantly
lower numbers of tumors per mouse than those in the UVB control group
throughout the experimental period. The mean number of tumors per mouse in
the UVB control, pre-UVB and post-UVB groups was 7.33, 6.69 and 2.64,
respectively, in the first experiment, and 8.53, 9.53 and 3.36 in the second
experiment. Camellia oil was also applied, using the same experimental
protocol, but did not have a suppressive effect. Immunohistochemical
analysis of DNA damage in the form of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD),
(6-4) photoproducts and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in samples
taken 30 min after a single exposure of UVB showed no significant difference
between UVB-irradiated control mice and the pre-UVB group. In the post-UVB
group, there were lower levels of 8-OHdG in epidermal nuclei, but the
formation of CPD and (6-4) photoproducts did not differ. Exposure of olive
oil to UVB before application abrogated the protective effect on 8-OHdG
formation. These results indicate that olive oil topically applied after UVB
exposure can effectively reduce UVB-induced murine skin tumors, possibly
via its antioxidant effects in reducing DNA damage by reactive oxygen
species, and that the effective component may be labile to UVB.
PMID: 11062172
____________________________________________________________
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2009 Jul;63(7):534-40. Epub 2009 Apr 30.
Long-term wine consumption is related to cardiovascular mortality and life
expectancy independently of moderate alcohol intake: the Zutphen Study.
Streppel MT, Ocke MC, Boshuizen HC, Kok FJ, Kromhout D. National Institute
for Public Health and Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
BACKGROUND: Light to moderate alcohol intake lowers the risk of
cardiovascular mortality, but whether this protective effect can be
attributed to a specific type of beverage remains unclear. Moreover, little
is known about the effects of long-term alcohol intake on life expectancy.
METHODS: The impact of long-term alcohol intake and types of alcoholic
beverages consumed on cardiovascular mortality and life expectancy at age 50
was investigated in the Zutphen Study, a cohort of 1373 men born between
1900 and 1920 and examined repeatedly between 1960 and 2000. Hazard ratios
(HRs) for total alcohol intake and alcohol from wine, beer and spirits were
obtained from time-dependent Cox regression models. Life expectancy at age
50 was calculated from areas under survival curves. RESULTS: Long-term light
alcohol intake, that is < or =20 g per day, compared with no alcohol, was
strongly and inversely associated with cerebrovascular (HR 0.43, 95% CI 0.26
to 0.70), total cardiovascular (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.89) and all-cause
mortality (HR 0.75, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.91). Independent of total alcohol
intake, long-term wine consumption of, on average, less than half a glass
per day was strongly and inversely associated with coronary heart disease
(HR 0.61, 95% CI 0.41 to 0.89), total cardiovascular (HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.53
to 0.86) and all-cause mortality (HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.62 to 0.87). These
results could not be explained by differences in socioeconomic status. Life
expectancy was about 5 years longer in men who consumed wine compared with
those who did not use alcoholic beverages. CONCLUSION: Long-term light
alcohol intake lowered cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk and
increased life expectancy. Light wine consumption was associated with 5
years longer life expectancy; however, more studies are needed to verify
this result.
PMID: 19406740
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