“Could an ‘elixir of life’ really increase your lifespan? “

Could an ‘elixir of life’ really increase your lifespan?
16:44 7 October 2010
Health

Jessica Hamzelou, reporter

A chemical elixir can add 10 years to your life! According to the media, anyway. How much of the claim that an amino acid cocktail can boost longevity should be taken with a pinch of salt?

For starters, the study was carried out in mice. Giuseppe D’Antona at Pavia University in Italy and his colleagues added a cocktail of three branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) – isoleucine, leucine and valine – to the feed of young nine-month-old mice.

Compared with mice that were fed regular, unsupplemented chow, which survived an average 774 days, the BCAA-fed mice on average lived to the ripe old age of 869 days. As D’Antona’s team point out, the BCAA-fed mice lived 12 per cent longer.

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source: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/10/could-an-elixir-of-life-really.html