Effects of Metformin
Reduces glucose, Reduces Insulin
Improves Insulin sensitivity
Reduces CRP, Fibrinogen and BP
Reduces LDL (10%)
Weight loss (2.5 kgm in 1 year)
36% reduction in all cause mortality,
42% in diabetes related death, 32% diabetes related endpoint,
39% reduction in MI (UKPDS)
Metformin seems to protect against cancer! (BMJ:4.6.05 pp 1304ff)
From 314,127 residents of Tayside 1993 to 2001, 11,876 were newly diagnosed as diabetics. 923 of these developed cancer (hospitalised) 2 matching diabetic controls without cancer were generated for each cancer case. Metformin consumption measured for all cases. 36.4% had received at least 1 prescription for metformin in the year before, c/w 39.7% of controls. Total amount and total duration of metformin use were measured. Confounding variables were allowed for (smoking, BMI, BP and Deprivation). Pts were divided into quartiles in terms of metformin use.
Duration of Metformin use:
Top quartile (>1806 days) c/w bottom quartile (never used) had odds ratio of 0.56
Amount of Metformin consumed:
Top quartile (>964,000 mgm) c/w lowest use (never)
had odds ratio of 0.57
(Quotes various)
The world’s first anti-ageing drug will be tested on humans next year in trials which could result in people being able to live healthily well into their 120s.
Although it might seem like science fiction, researchers have already proven that the diabetes drug metformin extends the life of animals, and the Food and Drug Administration in the US has now given the go-ahead for a trial to see if the same effects can be replicated in humans.
Scientists think the best candidate for an anti-ageing drug is metformin, the world’s most widely used diabetes drug which costs just 10 cents a day.
When Belgian researchers tested metformin on the tiny roundworm C. elegans the worms not only aged slower, but they also stayed healthier longer. Last year Cardiff University found anecdotal evidence that when patients with diabetes were given the drug metformin they lived longer than others without the condition, even though they should have died eight years earlier on average.
The new clinical trial called Targeting Aging with Metformin, or TAME, is scheduled to begin in the US next winter. Scientists from a range of institutions are currently raising funds and recruiting 3,000 70 to 80-year-olds who have, or are at risk of, cancer, heart disease and dementia.
Daily Telegraph UK Nov 2015