4 ms·

Metformin as a Geroprotector (2011)

26 points by rfreytag 11y ago

reasonattlm 11y ago
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-wants-beat-back-aging http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/09/feature-man-who-w...
- rfreytag 11y ago
  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/research/metformin http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/researc... 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-dont-try-caloric-restriction/ http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/29/want-to-live-longer-do... 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 11y ago
    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.
- DrScump 11y ago
  With metformin being so cheap, at least we know that any studies that favor it aren't corrupted by profit motive.
gliese1337 11y ago
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.
- DennisP 11y ago
  Some people tolerate it pretty well, others don't. The gastrointestinal effects usually lessen after a while.
- stahlkopf 11y ago
  What side effects specifically?
  - gliese1337 11y ago
    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 11y ago
  Gastrointestinal upset can be mitigated by always combining with food and spreading out among smaller doses. If she was prescribed 1g tablets, for example, have her ask for a new script for twice as many 500mg tablets. (Those 1g are a pain to split.)
DrScump 11y ago
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

26 points by rfreytag 11y ago

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

rfreytag 11y ago
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/research/metformin http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/researc... 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-dont-try-caloric-restriction/ http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/29/want-to-live-longer-do... 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 11y ago
  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.
DrScump 11y ago
With metformin being so cheap, at least we know that any studies that favor it aren't corrupted by profit motive.

gliese1337 11y ago

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.

DennisP 11y ago
Some people tolerate it pretty well, others don't. The gastrointestinal effects usually lessen after a while.
stahlkopf 11y ago
What side effects specifically?
- gliese1337 11y ago
  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 11y ago
Gastrointestinal upset can be mitigated by always combining with food and spreading out among smaller doses. If she was prescribed 1g tablets, for example, have her ask for a new script for twice as many 500mg tablets. (Those 1g are a pain to split.)

DrScump 11y ago

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