Metformin: ‘Anti-Aging Drug’ Could Extend Our Crazy-Old-Lady Years

Metformin Could Be the Anti-Aging Drug That Lets You Live to 120 Years Old.

Medical scientists have uncovered what seems to be an anti-aging pill that could ward off illnesses associated with the aging process, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The drug, Metformin, actually isn’t new—it’s been used to treat type 2 diabetes for years (it’s the world’s most widely used drug for the disease).

Metformin, which suppresses glucose production in the liver and increases sensitivity to insulin according to Inquisitr, reportedly has been prolonging the lives of roundworms, as well as a few strains of mice. Experts at Cardiff University in the U.K. have also released some shocking evidence of the pill’s anti-aging abilities, finding that those treated with Metformin for diabetes live longer than normally expected, and sometimes longer than those who don’t suffer from diabetes at all.

Before you go jumping for joy, scientists aren’t exactly sure if the drug really does increase a human’s lifespan. To test the theory out, researchers will be conducting a study in the U.S., which “will involve 3,000 adults aged 70- to 80-years old, with known risk of cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases that cause cognitive impairment,” according to Inquisitr.

If the tests wind up being comparable to the roundworms and mice, then 70-year-olds who use the drug could potentially have the same health and vigor as people in their 50s.

“I have been doing research into aging for 25 years and the idea that we would be talking about clinical trial in humans for an anti-aging drug would have been thought inconceivable,” professor Gordon Lithgow, the lead researcher in the study said. “But there is every reason to believe it is possible. The future is taking the biology that we’ve developed and applying it to humans.”

Agencies/Canadajournal