X-Message-Number: 8685
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 22:03:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: 17'th update on fly longevity experiments
This is the seventeenth update of my fly experiments. As an ancillary
experiment I tried substituting killed yeast flakes for 4-24 medium in
one bottle. At day 10 this bottle was host to several types of mold,
despite heating the bottle in the oven before use, boiling the water used
and sterilizing the tools I used with rubbing alcohol. It appears that
the mold inhibitor 4-24 medium contains is essential.
The source of the flies used in this sixth run was from 3 breeding
bottles. I ran two control bottles from each breeding bottle, one with,
and the other without yeast. It appears that the yeast has a detrimental
effect on survival. None of the supplement bottles contains yeast.
I am testing chitosan, since this fiber binds fat quite effectively.
One problem with using flies for longevity experiments, is their
inability to tolerate dietary fat. If a spice for example contains too
much fat, it is going to decrease fly longevity irrespective of its
merits in a mammalian context. By including chitosan, I hope in future to
be able to remove this confounding factor. I will test whether adding
chitosan to various spices increases life span in a future run.
A number of supplements appear to offer some benefit, including my old
favorities paprika & sage. However since the flies used are not age
synchronized, it is still too early to come to any conclusions concerning
the efficacy about other supplements. A good survival may mean merely
that the bottle had fewer old flies in it. Also not enough of the
supplements may have been absorbed earlier in the experiment to make much
of a difference. For these reasons the tail end of the survival curve is
the most interesting.
The zero survival on day 26, in the high dose St John's Wort bottle I
attribute to the phototoxicity of this herb.
Sixth Run SURVIVAL
BB# Supplement #FLIES DAY 10 DAY 14 DAY 18 DAY 26
1 cntl 1 15 93% 87% 80% 47%
1 cntl 1 +yeast 20 90 85 70 45
1 B complex 17 94 82 71 47
1 B complex 4X 18 83 78 67 44
1 chitosan 14 86 79 64 36
1 chitosan 4X 12 83 83 83 75
1 chondroitin sulfate 18 89 83 83 78
1 chondroitin sulfate 4X 17 88 82 65 65
1 chromium picolinate 20 75 65 60 50
1 chromium picolinate 4X 24 92 88 83 79
1 cinnamon 20 90 85 85 75
1 cinnamon 4X 15 93 87 80 40
1 DMAE bitartrate 13 85 62 62 46
1 DMAE bitartrate 4X 18 78 78 78 56
2 cntl 2 27 89 82 67 37
2 cntl 2 +yeast 22 82 82 64 18
2 french mushroom 25 80 72 56 40
2 french mushroom 4X 23 74 43 43 26
2 kava kava 24 79 67 54 38
2 kava kava 4X 36 83 75 64 56
2 onion 22 77 73 68 32
2 onion 4X 16 81 75 75 63
2 paprika, spanish 25 84 76 60 48
2 paprika, spanish 4X 17 94 82 76 59
2 l-proline 15 73 60 53 33
2 l-proline 4X 32 94 81 75 59
2 sage 19 95 68 63 32
2 sage 4X 20 95 90 90 85
2 sodium citrate 13 62 46 46 38
2 sodium citrate 4X 18 89 83 61 33
3 cntl 3 22 77 68 64 59
3 cntl 3 +yeast 13 92 85 62 15
3 St John's Wort 20 85 75 70 40
3 St John's Wort 4X 18 72 50 39 0
3 sumac 14 43 43 43 36
3 sumac 4X 14 79 71 57 36
3 wild yam 12 50 42 25 25
3 wild yam 4X 22 82 55 50 32
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