Diet and Botanical Supplementation: Combination Therapy for Healthspan Improvement?

Healthspan science aims to add healthy, functional years to human life. Many different methods of improving healthspan have been investigated, chiefly focusing on just one aspect of an organism's health such as survival. Studies in <i>Drosophila melanogaster </i>have demonstrated that a reversal to a long-abandoned ancestral diet results in improved functional health, particularly at later ages. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical studies have demonstrated that botanical extracts have potent anti-aging properties, capable of extending the mean lifespan of D. melanogaster by up to 25%, without a decrease in early fecundity. Here we combine these two different approaches to healthspan extension to examine whether a combination of such treatments results in a synergistic or antagonistic effect on Drosophila healthspan. One botanical extract, derived from Rhodiola rosea, mimicked the effects of the ancestral apple diet with better performance at later ages compared to the control. Another extract, derived from Rosa damascena, decreased age-specific survivorship when combined with the apple diet providing support for the "Poisoned Chalice" hypothesis that combinations of various supplements or diets can elicit adverse physiological responses. More experiments in model organisms should be completed researching the effects of combining healthspan-extending substances in various diet backgrounds.