5 ms·

I've been taking this on and off before meals as an anti-aging drug. Glad it's getting some mainstream coverage. It's quite possible just about everyone should

by rms 14y ago

I've been taking this on and off before meals as an anti-aging drug. Glad it's getting some mainstream coverage. It's quite possible just about everyone should be taking it, certainly everyone on a typical American high-carb diet.

sliverstorm 14y ago
It's quite possible just about everyone should be taking it Statements like this instantly set off my alarm bells. A drug that everybody should be routinely taking? Call me skeptical.
- jrockway 14y ago
  We all take powerful drugs every day: it's just that we mostly get them from food. (Example: Vitamin C and scurvy.)
  - sliverstorm 14y ago
    By that argument, glucose is also a drug. There's a key difference between drugs and foods. For example, Vitamin C is required for synthesis, metabolism, and enzyme operation [1]. Caffeine simply enhances alertness. Your body will cease to function correctly without Vitamin C; not so without Caffeine (unless you are fostering a dependance) [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C#Physiological_function_in_mammals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C#Physiological_functio...
    - rms 14y ago
      Sure, glucose is a drug. There's a lot of overlap between foods, supplements, and drugs, and for the most part the distinction is created by bureaucrats at the FDA. My favorite example of something that is simultaneously a food, drug, and supplement is the Seville orange. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_orange http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_orange The bitter orange is delicious with stronger orange flavor than a normal orange, particularly in the peel. Most commercially used "natural orange flavor" is derived from bitter orange peels. The bitter orange contains a powerful set of ephedra-like substances, which are quite powerfully mind altering. A single bitter orange is actually uncomfortably stimulating for most people, in the sense that people have enough of a sense for this kind of thing that they stop eating before they consume an entire orange. But even though sour orange extract is regulated as a supplement, it works as a powerful drug, and an unusually dangerous one at that. It still grows on trees and is very delicious and perhaps available blended in a $15 cocktail near you. Most bartenders don't realize they are adding a stimulant to a drink when they add Seville orange.
      - sliverstorm 14y ago
        Well, that settles it, clearly if every food is also a drug, that means any drug is safe to take in large quantities on a regular basis.
        jrockway 14y ago
        All he's saying is that the line's blurry. If you drink 50 gallons of water in a day, you will overdose -- everything is harmful in some quantity, food or otherwise.
- rms 14y ago
  I didn't really mean that; I meant something more like "every person that is unusually obsessive about their health and willing to regularly take diagnostic testing that is considered conventionally bad Bayesian medicine at a population level should try Metformin". So really I meant that everyone should have health care in the top .1% of healthcare available on the planet, but that's a utopia, not reality.
tocomment 14y ago
That's fascinating. How is it supposed to slow aging? Have you noticed anything to indicate it's working for you? Are there any side effects?
- rms 14y ago
  I've noticed no side effects in low dosages and my A1C has improved but hard to seperate that from other confounding factors. http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/metformin_dosage.html http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/metformin_dosage.html This is at very low dosage, 500mg once per day, but again, on and off, I mostly forgot to take it.

by rms 14y ago

sliverstorm 14y ago

It's quite possible just about everyone should be taking it Statements like this instantly set off my alarm bells. A drug that everybody should be routinely taking? Call me skeptical.

jrockway 14y ago
We all take powerful drugs every day: it's just that we mostly get them from food. (Example: Vitamin C and scurvy.)
- sliverstorm 14y ago
  By that argument, glucose is also a drug. There's a key difference between drugs and foods. For example, Vitamin C is required for synthesis, metabolism, and enzyme operation [1]. Caffeine simply enhances alertness. Your body will cease to function correctly without Vitamin C; not so without Caffeine (unless you are fostering a dependance) [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C#Physiological_function_in_mammals http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C#Physiological_functio...
  - rms 14y ago
    Sure, glucose is a drug. There's a lot of overlap between foods, supplements, and drugs, and for the most part the distinction is created by bureaucrats at the FDA. My favorite example of something that is simultaneously a food, drug, and supplement is the Seville orange. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_orange http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_orange The bitter orange is delicious with stronger orange flavor than a normal orange, particularly in the peel. Most commercially used "natural orange flavor" is derived from bitter orange peels. The bitter orange contains a powerful set of ephedra-like substances, which are quite powerfully mind altering. A single bitter orange is actually uncomfortably stimulating for most people, in the sense that people have enough of a sense for this kind of thing that they stop eating before they consume an entire orange. But even though sour orange extract is regulated as a supplement, it works as a powerful drug, and an unusually dangerous one at that. It still grows on trees and is very delicious and perhaps available blended in a $15 cocktail near you. Most bartenders don't realize they are adding a stimulant to a drink when they add Seville orange.
    - sliverstorm 14y ago
      Well, that settles it, clearly if every food is also a drug, that means any drug is safe to take in large quantities on a regular basis.
      - jrockway 14y ago
        All he's saying is that the line's blurry. If you drink 50 gallons of water in a day, you will overdose -- everything is harmful in some quantity, food or otherwise.
rms 14y ago
I didn't really mean that; I meant something more like "every person that is unusually obsessive about their health and willing to regularly take diagnostic testing that is considered conventionally bad Bayesian medicine at a population level should try Metformin". So really I meant that everyone should have health care in the top .1% of healthcare available on the planet, but that's a utopia, not reality.

tocomment 14y ago

That's fascinating. How is it supposed to slow aging? Have you noticed anything to indicate it's working for you? Are there any side effects?

rms 14y ago
I've noticed no side effects in low dosages and my A1C has improved but hard to seperate that from other confounding factors. http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/metformin_dosage.html http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/metformin_dosage.html This is at very low dosage, 500mg once per day, but again, on and off, I mostly forgot to take it.