Isn't it mainly the olive oil that extended the rats' lives?
Some misinformed online commenters have said that it was in fact the olive oil that made the greatest contribution to the C60-treated rats' extended lifespan, and not the C60 itself.
That this is false can be seen in the survival graph from the original study (our additions in green):
The median age of death for the C60-treated rats was around 62 months (slightly more than 5 years), wheras the median age of death for the olive-oil treated rats was around 40 months, or a good chunk more than three years. So the C60 rats lived nearly two years longer than the olive oil rats. Spectacularly impressive for an animal that normally lives only two and a half years. These C60 rats became the oldest rats in scientific history, says the study.
The control group on olive oil without C60 was better nourished through the health benefits of olive oil and that this is why it outlived the water control group. But the olive oil only added about 30% more lifespan to the rats, whereas C60 + oil adds approx. 90%. No comparison. This means that C60 adds an incredibly high number of extra months of lifespan to even the olive-oil fed rats. It could be, though, that olive oil has something to do with C60's anti-aging effects. It could be due to some kind of synergy between the C60 and its embedded long-chain fatty acid from the olive oil, turning the Buckminsterfullerene into a lipofullerene.
No, the record-long lifespan of C60-fed rats has nothing to do with the olive oil, at least not directly. The olive oil only works as a solution medium, and a means to transport the C60 to the cell lipophillic membranes. Olive oil by itself has proven to be healthy in countless trials already, but olive oil + C60 is the only thing so far yielding these spectacular results. Make no mistake about it - this C60 rat study is the most exciting thing that has ever been published in the history of longevity science. Humans will very likely not double their lifespan as the rats did, but we think that all mammals will greatly benefit. It is conceivable that humans would live two decades longer and would avoid cancer and other age-related diseases, as the rats on C60 did. None of the C60 rats died of tumors (they died of generalized old age), whereas the majority of the rats in the control group died either of cancer or of pneumonia.
