Fountain Of Youth May Be Hiding In Common Prescription Drugs

A woman and an older lady standing next to each other.


For centuries, humans have searched for the Fountain of Youth.  The latest search for longevity may arrive in pill form.  Scientists are now trying to extrapolate life-prolonging experiments in animals to something which would work on a human being.  Two leading candidates are metformin—a common diabetes treatment—and rapamycin, a drug currently used to prevent transplant patients from rejecting organs.  There is also a new class of drugs called senolytics.  These clear the body of senescent cells, old cells that stop dividing but don’t die.  They accumulate in tissues throughout the body and damage healthy cells and have been linked to cognitive impairment.  Let’s hope at least one of these works!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-you-fight-aging-scientists-are-testing-drugs-to-help-11641913275

 

Monterey, CA Diabetes Is Preventable

A blood glucose level chart showing the optimal levels.


A study which began in 1996 of 3,234 people with prediabetes randomly assigned them to groups which were either given metformin, given intensive lifestyle (nutrition and physical activity) counseling or a placebo, found good news.  Three years later, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes was reduced by 58% with lifestyle counseling and 31% with metformin.  Two decades later, 2,425 are still alive and being followed. The diabetes risk remains lower than the placebo group by 25% in the original lifestyle group and by 18% in the metaformin group.  Although metformin isn’t approved for prediabetes treatment, your doctor can still prescribe it off label.  The American Diabetes Association recommends it for people with prediabetes who are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes.