A cheap drug used to treat diabetes could help you live a longer, healthier life, scientists say.
Metformin, which helps people lower their blood sugar and treats type 2 diabetes, may also protect against cancer, cognitive decline and heart disease.
This is due to its anti-inflammatory effects, NPR reported. It costs less than a dollar a day in some insurance plans..
Scientists are testing their hypothesis with a study called the TAME Trial to see if metformin can slow aging and prevent disease in healthy older people. The six-year trial aims to recruit 3,000 people aged 65 to 79.
West Hartford, Connecticut, Mayor Shari Cantor and her attorney husband, Michael Cantor, both take metformin and credit the drug with improving their lifestyle. They are both in their sixties.
Michael started taking the medication 10 years ago to help manage his weight and blood sugar, and Shari started taking it during the pandemic because she heard it could prevent infections.
“I tell all my friends about it. We all want to live a little longer and with a quality life if we can,” Michael told NPR.
A researcher on aging also intervened.
“I don’t know if metformin increases people’s lifespan, but the existing evidence suggests that it’s very possible,” said Steven Austad, senior scientific adviser at the American Federation for Aging Research, which studies the biology of aging.
Studies suggest that metformin reduces the risk of blood, urologic, and gastrointestinal cancers.
“It was a bit of a shock,” Austad said.
He also referenced a British study that found the drug reduced the risk of dementia in people who took the drug for type 2 diabetes. People taking metformin also had a lower risk of dying from a cardiovascular problem.
Austad and other researchers have pushed for a clinical trial because most of metformin’s aging benefits have been observational.
“Several of us went to the FDA to ask them to approve a trial of metformin. If you could help prevent multiple problems at the same time, as we think metformin could do, then it’s almost the ultimate in preventative medicine,” Austad said.
The Cantors say they haven’t experienced any negative side effects, although some metformin users have reported difficulty growing new muscle and a vitamin B deficiency.
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