Fish oils:

Fish oils reduce sudden cardiac death in patients with coronary heart disease.

Intake of fish oil reduces overall mortality, mortality due to heart attack, and sudden death in patients with coronary heart disease.

Fish oils work partially by reducing triglyerides in healthy men.

Fish oil supplements are more healthful than eating fish because they don't contain environmental toxins such as mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls, and organochlorine pesticides, which may negate the beneficial cardiovascular effects of fish meals.

Glucosamine and Chondroitin:

This is a good overview of glucosamine.

Glucosamine has a structure-modifying effect on osteoarthritis of the knee, and pain relief noted had no effect on the improvements noted with time on x-rays.

Here's a quick statement about chondroitin.

Chondroitin has a structure modifying effect on knee osteoarthritis.

Pelargonium sidoides represents an effective treatment of the common cold. It significantly reduces the severity of symptoms and shortens the duration of the common cold compared with placebo. The herbal drug is well tolerated.

There is encouraging evidence from currently available data that Pelargonium sidoides is effective compared to placebo for patients with acute bronchitis.

EPs 7630-solution (Pelargonium sidoides) is a well tolerated and effective treatment for acute bronchitis in adults outside the very restricted indication for an antibiotic therapy.

Compared with finasteride (Proscar), saw palmetto produces similar improvement in urinary tract symptoms and urinary flow and was associated with fewer adverse treatment events.

Saw palmetto decreases DHT levels in prostate tissue.

Here's a high-tech study from Johns Hopkins discussing how saw palmetto may help prostate health

Acetyl-l-carnitine, and derivatives:

There is evidence for a beneficial effect of L-carnitine supplementation in training, competition, and recovery from strenuous exercise and in regenerative athletics.

Acetyl-l-carnitine improves erectile function in men.

These data suggest that acetyl-l-carnitine (ALC) may be a better dietary supplement than L-carnitine.

These data support the use of l-carnitine l-tartrate (LCLT) as a recovery supplement for hypoxic exercise and lend further insights into the hormonal mechanisms that may help to mediate quicker recovery.

Creatine:

Supplementing with creatine after training of the arms resulted in greater increase in muscle thickness of the arms compared to placebo. Males have a greater increase in lean tissue mass with creatine supplementation than females.

The main finding of the present study indicates that supplementation with creatine in young soccer players improved soccer-specific skill performance compared with ingestion of placebo.

Creatine increases the number of satellite cells and nuclei of skeletal muscle. This is key to increasing muscle size and strength.

Lycopene:

These data taken as a whole indicate significant uptake of lycopene into prostate tissue and a reduction in DNA damage in both leukocyte and prostate tissue. The reduction seen in PSA is promising.

These data provide further evidence that increased consumption of tomato products and other lycopene-containing foods might reduce the occurrence or progression of prostate cancer.

Melatonin may prove to be a useful therapeutic agent in the treatment of age-related cognitive decline.

Nighttime melatonin reduces blood pressure in male patients with hypertension.

Melatonin exerts a pain-killing action by increasing the relesae of beta-endorphin.

Pycnogenol:

Pycnogenol, in addition to its antioxidant activity, increases nitric oxide (NO) levels. Additional protective effects could result from the well-established properties of NO to decrease platelet aggregation and adhesion, as well as to inhibit low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol oxidation, all of which could protect against atherogenesis and thrombus formation.

Pycnogenol protects brain cells.

Pycnogenol gels reduce the diameter of the scars remaining following complete scab loss in a concentration-dependent manner.

This study indicates that Pycnogenol treatment was effective in decreasing the number of thrombotic events (DVT and SVT) in moderate-to-high risk subjects, during long-haul airplane flights.

The most advantageous serum concentrations of Vitamin D begin at 30 ng/mL, and the best are between 36-40 ng/ml. In most persons, these concentrations could not be reached with the currently recommended intakes of 200 and 600 IU vitamin D/d for younger and older adults, respectively. An intake for all adults of > or =1000 IU vitamin D per day is needed to bring vitamin D concentrations in no less than 50% of the population up to 30 ng/mL.

Vitamin D levels below 17.8 are independently associated with all-cause mortality in the general population.

Higher vitamin D concentrations, which are easily modifiable through nutritional supplementation, are associated with longer telomere length, which underscores the potentially beneficial effects of this hormone on aging and age-related diseases.

There is ample biological evidence to suggest an important role for vitamin D in brain development and function.

Nonvertebral fracture prevention with vitamin D is dose dependent, and a higher dose should reduce fractures by at least 20% for individuals aged 65 years or older.

Lower vitamin D levels are associated with lower cognitive function in middle-aged and elderly men. This association is most pronounced below a vitamin D level of 14 ng/ml.

Lower vitamin D levels (particularly below 16) are associated with depression, and supplementation improves depression scores more than placebo.

Vitamin D(3) supplementation during the winter may reduce the incidence of influenza A, especially in specific subgroups of schoolchildren.

drragno.com  *  Joseph F. Ragno, M.D.  *  Longwood, Florida  *  407-381-7367