Golden root (or Rhodiola rosea) is a well-known stress relieving herbal treatment. And now, the glorious yellow plant has been found to boost the lifespan of fruit flies by around 24 percent.
That's good news for the average fruit fly. But what does it mean for us? Could golden root help us live longer too?
How does golden root extend life?
Interestingly, researchers at UC Irvine in the United States, found that golden root had an incredible impact on fruit fly lifespan without any dietary restrictions.
Why is that worth mentioning? Because dietary changes are commonly used to boost animal lifespan during trials. And for a long time now, scientists have been seeking another solution to keeping animals alive for longer in the lab.
Golden root looks like the answer.
Research team leader Mahtab Jafari said Rhodiola improves life span on top of caloric restriction and other dietary changes. And it has the same effect on healthy subjects, whereas other solutions only seem to work on ‘fattened up' or unhealthy subjects.
How did they prove it? By putting the poor fruit flies on a low-calorie diet. While researchers already knew that fruit flies can live 5 times longer when they eat less yeast, they didn't expect golden root to have a similar benefit.
Even old flies benefited, with extended retirement.
Could golden root help extend human life?
Unfortunately, there's little to suggest humans can benefit from golden root's age-defying properties. However, the team's research does open the door to exploring natural plants and other supplements for improving life span.
Either way, golden root has heaps of other benefits for humans. If your herbal medicine practitioner recommends it, you may find Rhodiola to help improve your mood and wellbeing, memory, energy, fatigue, and even lessen anxiety and depression.
Originally published on Jun 22, 2015
