This is the legendary thing: a way to stop aging – or at least slow it down.
Unlike Ponce de León who is looking for immortality in the Florida swamps, a growing number of scientists now believe that a treatment for type 2 diabetes may be the key to slowing down the aging process, according to The Washington Post.
More specifically, the scientists believe that the treatment – called metformin – can help prevent or delay three age-related ailments: dementia, heart disease and cancer. If metformin can effectively fight these diseases, it can also prolong our lifespan.
Note the language: it can extend our lifespan. Not makes us immortal.
“We’re not about the fountain of youth,” said Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. WaPo. ‘It is to take an older person and make him young. What we are saying is that we can slow down aging. ”
Barzilai was part of a group of scientists who met in Spain in 2014 to discuss methods to fight aging. That meeting led to the formation of a proposed six-year clinical trial Aging with Metformin (TAME), which will take a deeper look at the anti-aging abilities of metformin. According to TAME’s website, 3,000 subjects between the ages of 65 and 79 are expected to be involved in 14 research sites at universities in the United States.
The scientists behind TAME were encouraged to create the experiment after seeing several promising studies. One published in Diabetes obesity and metabolism showed that diabetics using metformin survived non-diabetics. A separate study, published in the journal Cell Metabolism, encouraging results of treatment in the three earlier age-related diseases were shown.
In a world where the coronavirus pandemic has had an extraordinary impact on elderly populations, the study is more relevant and important than ever – says Corinna Ross, associate professor of population health at the Southwest National Primate Research Center in Texas. She studied the impact of drugs such as metformin on animals.
“Look what’s happening now,” Ross said WaPo. ‘COVID is exploding all around us, and people at greatest risk are in nursing homes. If we can prevent people from needing long-term care by reducing the effects of aging, we can reduce the impact on families, medical costs, the health care system and the economy in general. ”
It is important to keep in mind that the study, although promising, is still in its infancy. The trajectory over the next few years will determine the effectiveness and applicability of treatments such as metformin – and perhaps the way we will age in the future.