Earlier this year, researchers from Belgium tested the effect of metformin, a drug commonly prescribed for type 2 diabetes patients, on the roundworm C. elegans. But through previous and current studies on the drug, researchers discovered that people who take it regularly tend to live longer than those who don’t have diabetes.
Advertisement
Science has been trying to figure out this whole aging thing for a long time now, and a new development just could be one of those watershed moments in history.
When mice were treated with the drug, they even developed stronger bones, The Telegraph reported.
A breakthrough drug that could see people living in good health well into their 120s will be tested on humans next year.
The drug in question is a widely used diabetes pill called Metformin and costs mere cents to make.
Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the green light for researchers to proceed with a clinical trial, which will begin next year. For the goal of the trial, scientists from different institutions are collecting funds and recruiting 3,000 participants aged between 70 and 80 who have, or are at risk of, cancer, heart disease and dementia. The trial is expected to run for five to seven years. Dr Simon Melow of the Buck institute for Ageing Research said:”You’re talking about developing a therapy for a biological phenomenon which is universal and gives rise to all of diseases”. “If you target an aging process and you slow down aging then you slow down all the diseases and pathology of aging as well”.
“That would be something never done before”.
The tale of the Fountain of Youth has been told for over a thousand years now, which is a spring that can restore the youth of those who drink or bathe in its water. “Our minds are not able to keep up with the duration were allowing our bodies to live so I think we have to look at all this…”
Advertisement
The American Federation for Aging Research has received FDA approval to begin research for their facilitated Taming Aging with Metformin (TAME) study.
