Kiss More, Eat Less & Take Testosterone If Needed

New research: the good news, the not-so-bad news, and the really bad news

First, the good news:

A major new study has found that taking testosterone supplements does not increase men’s risk of heart attack or stroke.

Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Utah studied 5,695 men between the ages of 53 and 71 who had low testosterone levels.

They found that men who received testosterone supplements to achieve normal or high testosterone levels had reduced overall rates of major adverse cardiac events at one and three years after their initial low levels of testosterone were measured, compared to other men who had persistently low levels of testosterone.

The results were reported at the 2014 American Heart Association now taking place in Chicago.

Now, the not-so-bad news:

A kiss that lasts more than 10 seconds transfers about 80 million bacteria, researchers say.

But the study, published in the journal Microbiome, also found that even before kissing, the couples had similar mouth bacteria.

Having a diversity of bacteria in the mouth is considered healthy so while the transfer of microorganisms while tonguing one’s beloved may sound yucky, it could actually be beneficial.

However, promiscuous kissing for the purpose of acquiring more diverse bacteria is probably not a good idea.

Finally, the really bad news:

The less you eat, the less your brain ages.

Neuroscientists at New York University have shown that calorie-reduced diets stop the normal rise and fall in activity levels of close to 900 different genes linked to aging and memory formation in the brain.

Though the studies were done on mice, researchers told the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C. that diets with fewer calories derived from carbohydrates likely deter some aspects of aging and chronic diseases in mammals, including humans.

“Our study adds evidence for the role of diet in delaying the effects of aging and age-related disease,” said Dr. Stephen Ginsberg.

Restrictive diets have been known for decades to prolong the lives of rodents and other mammals but their effects in humans have not been well understood. Benefits have been touted to include reduced risk of human heart disease, hypertension, and stroke. However, the widespread genetic impact on the memory and learning regions of aging brains has not been shown before.