
Metformin as a Geroprotector (2011) - rfreytag
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21882902
======
reasonattlm
The evidence for metformin to slightly slow aging is not robust. It's nowhere
near as good as that for rapamycin, for example. Aspirin and ibuprofen have
arguably similar results in short-lived species. Which is a good argument
against getting interested or excited by those results. As a general rule
things that extend life by 30% in mice, worms, flies, etc, have negligible
results on human life span; these short-lived species have highly plastic life
spans, and we do not in comparison. Messing around with drugs in this very
simplistic way is not the path to rejuvenation and radical life extension. The
best data is for calorie restriction and growth hormone receptor loss of
function mutations, since we have human populations for both of those, and I
can tell you that they aren't living much longer than the rest of us.

For the all over the map and not all that impressive nature of metformin data,
take a look at the table in this open access paper:

[http://impactaging.com/papers/v4/n5/full/100455.html](http://impactaging.com/papers/v4/n5/full/100455.html)

The reason why metformin is getting attention now is because a coalition of
researchers are using it as the narrow end of the wedge to change the FDA
position on treatment of aging, which is currently that aging is not a medical
condition and thus no-one is permitted to treat it. They cannot possibly
expect meaningful results on aging, but that's not the point; the point is to
run a trial with something that the FDA cannot object to on other grounds
because it has been used for decades and is already approved for other uses.
Thus the FDA accepts a trial to slow aging, and the door is open to all the
methods that might actually have some meaningful effect in the future.

[http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/09/feature-man-
who-w...](http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/09/feature-man-who-wants-
beat-back-aging)

~~~
rfreytag
Your discussion of the motivation for the metformin research is intriguing -
thanks. NCI has funded human trials based on human epidemiological studies to
further examine metformin's possible impact on cancer: (April 2015)
[http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-
prevention/researc...](http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-
prevention/research/metformin)

Calorie restriction support was recently undermined by a NIA study. The
conflict between the NIA and Wisconsin study is summarized by TIME here:
[http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/29/want-to-live-longer-
do...](http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/29/want-to-live-longer-dont-try-
caloric-restriction/)

The teams are supposed to be working on a joint study to resolve their
differing results.

EDIT: I have seen Dr. Mosley's BBC documentaries and they pre-date the recent
CRON results. His HIIT segment is also very interesting. Not dismissing any of
it - just not the slam-dunk that it seemed at first.

~~~
dghughes
Calories restriction as in Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition aka CRON
seems promising more than just restricting calories.

On BBC Michael Mosley has some interesting segments about CRON and its help
reducing the levels of the IGF-1 hormone.

------
gliese1337
My wife was recently on metformin for a while. According to her, even if
metformin _does_ prevent aging in humans (which is not at all _certain_ ), it
would not be worth the side effects.

~~~
stahlkopf
What side effects specifically?

~~~
gliese1337
There is a fairly wide range of possible side effects, none of which are
terribly pleasant, though I don't know how relatively common each of them is.

In my wife's case, it was nausea and hypoglycemia.

------
DrScump
Other articles:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10648506](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10648506)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10653553](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10653553)

