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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