A cheap and commonly used drug may hold the secret to anti-aging

A team of scientists said that the 20-cent drug Metformin, the most common type 2 diabetes drug, could be the key to living longer.

The research team launched the “Targeting Aging Using Metformin” ( TAME ) trial, which will last 6 years, so that the Wake Forest University School of Medicine in North Carolina will be the main institution for the test series in the United States.

The team plans to recruit more than 3,000 patients between the ages of 65 and 79 to “test whether those taking metformin experience delayed growth or the development of age-related chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and dementia.”

The proposed benefits are based on previous animal research, such as a 2013 study that found improved lifespan in mice.

“Studies have already shown that metformin can delay aging in animals,” the TAME scientists wrote. “It may also affect fundamental aging factors that underlie many age-related conditions in humans.”

The ultimate goal is to get the drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat aging, “to indicate that aging can be ‘cured’.”

Dr. Steven Austad, chief scientific advisor at the American Federation for Research on Aging, said: “I don’t know if metformin increases human lifespan, but existing evidence suggests that it may well do so.”

It is noteworthy that metformin was first used to treat type 2 diabetes in the 1950s in France, and it received FDA approval to treat this condition in the 1990s. The World Health Organization considers it an “essential” medicine in pharmacies around the world.

Since then, recent studies have pointed to a range of other benefits, including weight loss and a reduced risk of long Covid.