Metformin anyone?

Science and Technology
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I stumbled across this a few days ago. I had never heard of the stuff before.
World’s first anti-ageing drug could see humans live to 120

As an old sci-fi reader and believer in the advancement of science the discovery of some form of life extension does not surprise me. But as a side effect of a cheap drug used for something else it does? Some people seem to not be as interested as I am though.

psik

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But as a side effect of a cheap drug used for something else it does? psik
Look at Warfarin. It was designed to be a rat poison. Now it's a blood/heart medicine for people.
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So far the earliest mention I have found of this is 2003.
Life Extension Articles/2003/8/Metformin Dosage/Page 01
That is about dosage but it certainly needs more testing. Finding the minimum dosage for effective life extension could take many years. Assuming it works.
I just find it very peculiar that a bigger deal is not made of this.
psik

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I just find it very peculiar that a bigger deal is not made of this. psik
Probably because none of the research is conclusive yet... and nobody is really ready to scoop the "old fountain of youth story" with any seriousness. Besides, who want's everybody living to 120? We can't afford those kinds of costs...we got refugees to resettle.
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Besides, who want's everybody living to 120?
So when are you planning on kicking the bucket? psik
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I know a few people in the 90-year-old range. Believe me, their lives are barely worth living now, and they admit it. Why would anyone want to live 30 more years as a very old person? It’s all downhill after 70 and the decline is exponentially faster every year after that.
Lois

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Besides, who want's everybody living to 120?
So when are you planning on kicking the bucket? psik Sometime within the current average lifespan.
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I stumbled across this a few days ago. I had never heard of the stuff before. World’s first anti-ageing drug could see humans live to 120 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/12017112/Worlds-first-anti-ageing-drug-could-see-humans-live-to-120.html As an old sci-fi reader and believer in the advancement of science the discovery of some form of life extension does not surprise me. But as a side effect of a cheap drug used for something else it does? Some people seem to not be as interested as I am though. psik
This is interesting basic research but that's all it is at this point. Its based on some basic biochemistry and a study done in worms. The history of medical research shows that more often than not theories based on this sort of research are not confirmed when studied in-vivo in humans. I prescribe Metformin every day for diabetic patients and its a very good drug that has been around for a long time. It will be interesting to see if human studies produce similar results but this is going to take decades and someone or some organization willing to put up the money (setting up registries, distributing medication, and doing medical follow ups over 20-30 years isn't cheap). Since its a generic drug its unlikely that pharma will put up the funds. This would be a good study for the NIH to fund but the government has slashed NIH funding over the past 15 years.
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This is interesting basic research but that's all it is at this point. Its based on some basic biochemistry and a study done in worms.
No, it is not that simple. The University of Cardiff did a retroactive statistical study of nearly 200,000 people. 80,000 were taking metformin, 20,000 were taking some other drug for diabetes and 100,000 were controls. The mortalities of the subjects were tracked over a period of 5.5 years. More people died with the other drug than with metformin, but apparently more "normal" people died than those suffering with diabetes and taking metformin. That was a "discovered" phenomenon, it was not expected. There are worm and mice studies. With all of the medical data in computers these days it should not be difficult to do more retroactive research. The mice studies show that too much metaformin kills mice off due to kidney damage. The harmful or discomforting side effects of metformin are not clear to me because I have seen no data on the percentage of people affected. But I presume the evaluation would be different if it keeps people with diabetes alive versus extending the lives of healthy individuals. Also this is not some new drug to be tested on people. It has been around for 50 years and 150 million people around the world are taking it for diabetes. Admittedly more research needs to be done but this is not some new drug just out of the lab still in the animal study phase. The trouble is that complete human ageing studies could take at least 20 years, maybe as much as 80. So someone only 20 years old today would be 40 by the time really conclusive data was available. That might cost them 5 years of life, hence the dilemma.
I prescribe Metformin every day for diabetic patients and its a very good drug that has been around for a long time.
So what are the adverse side effects and in what percentage of patients? Suppose it is severe in 1% and discomforting in 10% and negligible in the rest. This is a cheap drug, one source indicated $60 per year. Does a 20 year old have the right to dose himself with a diabetes drug even if he doesn't have diabetes if a doctor certifies that it has no harmful side effects on him? If it takes 30 years to learn that it works as an antiagapic millions of life-years would be lost. psik
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Psych if you can find a link to that Univ of Cardiff study I would like to read it myself. There is no study I am aware of that has ever shown any medical treatment was capable of restoring a diabetics life expectancy to normal much less extend it beyond a non-diabetic person and Metformin is probably the most commonly used and most studied diabetic drug available.
If you want more information and to see a list of the potential side effects Glucophage ( the brand name for Metformin) you can look here (http://packageinserts.bms.com/pi/pi_glucophage.pdf). According to the company’s own package insert approximately 50% of patients who take Glucophage will get some degree of diarrhea from the drug and about 25% may get nausea although in practice I have found the incidence of these problems to be a little lower. There is a rare but very serious side effect which can occur called Lactic Acidosis which although uncommon is fatal in about 50% of cases.
While the drug may be cheap it is not without risks and since there is no proven benefit in non-diabetic patients no ethical physician would ever prescribe this for a non-diabetic patient outside of a controlled study protocol.

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Psych if you can find a link to that Univ of Cardiff study I would like to read it myself. There is no study I am aware of that has ever shown any medical treatment was capable of restoring a diabetics life expectancy to normal much less extend it beyond a non-diabetic person and Metformin is probably the most commonly used and most studied diabetic drug available.
That is the problem with what the study said and how derived articles are interpreting it. http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/45575-can-people-with-type-2-diabetes-live-longer https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=cardiff+metformin+ageing+mice&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGvbnWmM3JAhXSqYMKHV80BEkQgQMIGzAA http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280725.php http://www.ibtimes.com.au/new-york-study-looks-properties-diabetes-drug-metformin-potential-anti-ageing-pill-1455735 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039s585 The study said more normal people died in the 5.5 year time period than diabetics taking metformin. That could mean they would have lived longer if they had taken metaformin but is not acceptable as proof. Another issue is dosage. If the drug were given to healthy people just to affect the rate of aging would that mean a lower dosage than given to diabetics? So what would that mean for side effects. I saw that Lactic Acidosis mentioned in several places but none said anything about the incidence or that it could be fatal. Information is just scattered and distorted. I can't find an article I saw comparing treated and untreated mice populations. The Internet is so cool but often so annoying. LOL psik
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This doesn´t have any new information, it´s all in the way it says what it says.

psik

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DrBrettOsborn.com Announces Its Newest Page 1 Google Ad for the Term “Metformin Anti-Aging Expert Jupiter”
Read more: Press Releases – Digital Journal
Press Releases – Digital Journal
Is this contradictory information or a need to study dosage:
Metformin Ups Mortality in Advanced Kidney Disease
psik

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The Anti-Aging Pill
Facing a long wait for evidence, a longevity researcher takes an unusual path to market.

The company, Elysium Health, says it will be turning chemicals that lengthen the lives of mice and worms in the laboratory into over-the-counter vitamin pills that people can take to combat aging. The startup is being founded by Leonard Guarente, an MIT biologist who is 62 (“unfortunately," he says) and who’s convinced that the process of aging can be slowed by tweaking the body’s metabolism. The problem, Guarente says, is that it’s nearly impossible to prove, in any reasonable time frame, that drugs that extend the lifespan of animals can do the same in people; such an experiment could take decades. That’s why Guarente says he decided to take the unconventional route of packaging cutting-edge lab research as so-called nutraceuticals, which don’t require clinical trials or approval by the FDA.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534636/the-anti-aging-pill/?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=content&utm_term=longevity&utm_content=fastandMIT&utm_campaign=june2015 psik
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The Anti-Aging Pill Facing a long wait for evidence, a longevity researcher takes an unusual path to market.
The company, Elysium Health, says it will be turning chemicals that lengthen the lives of mice and worms in the laboratory into over-the-counter vitamin pills that people can take to combat aging. The startup is being founded by Leonard Guarente, an MIT biologist who is 62 (“unfortunately," he says) and who’s convinced that the process of aging can be slowed by tweaking the body’s metabolism. The problem, Guarente says, is that it’s nearly impossible to prove, in any reasonable time frame, that drugs that extend the lifespan of animals can do the same in people; such an experiment could take decades. That’s why Guarente says he decided to take the unconventional route of packaging cutting-edge lab research as so-called nutraceuticals, which don’t require clinical trials or approval by the FDA.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534636/the-anti-aging-pill/?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=content&utm_term=longevity&utm_content=fastandMIT&utm_campaign=june2015 psik
This is what people do when they care more about making money than they do about making a difference. " The research is too expensive, the time frame is too long" they complain. So they put an unproven product on the market that has no evidence to support claims of benefits and no evidence to prove these products are safe over the long run. He is playing Rusdian Roulette with people's health to line his pockets or take a desperate grab at fame. He's misguided at best and a dangerous self promoting opportunist at worst.
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This is what people do when they care more about making money than they do about making a difference.
Yeah, I found this interesting because it was about the same effect supposedly from metformin but not from a drug that has been used for 50 years. I just find it curious that a bigger deal isn't made of this. The problem is being certain. By the time we have certainty tens of millions of person years could be lost. But certainty could take 20 years. psik
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By the time we have certainty tens of millions of person years could be lost. psik
That is beautiful Psikey! :lol: About 25,000 children under age 5 die every day due to poverty induced filth/disease and malnutrition. Can we add that into the millions of lost person/years too? :lol:
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By the time we have certainty tens of millions of person years could be lost. psik
That is beautiful Psikey! :lol: About 25,000 children under age 5 die every day due to poverty induced filth/disease and malnutrition. Can we add that into the millions of person years too? :lol: You can if you want, but it is a separate issue from what I was talking about. psik
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By the time we have certainty tens of millions of person years could be lost. psik
That is beautiful Psikey! :lol: About 25,000 children under age 5 die every day due to poverty induced filth/disease and malnutrition. Can we add that into the millions of person years too? :lol: You can if you want, but it is a separate issue from what I was talking about. psik Yeah I know. First World Problems are a bitch.
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Yeah I know. First World Problems are a bitch.
That is one of the curiously peculiar issues with this. Metaformin is used by 150 million people around the world. It is a cheap public domain drug. So if it actually works at antiaging it becomes a a global factor and not just 1st world.
Metformin is the most commonly prescribed diabetes drug in the world, with over 61 million prescriptions filled in 2012 in the United States alone.
Approximately 197 million people worldwide have diabetes mellitus, most commonly because of obesity and the associated metabolic syndrome. This number is expected to increase to 420 million by 2025. India sadly is emerging as a world leader in diabetes prevalence and currently has 40.9 million patients – a number that is expected to rise to 69.9 million by 2025.
Is India 1st world? psik