The Secret of Immortality. Pt. 2.

  I have already, albeit somewhat facetiously, shared with you the secret of immortality, at least until the age of 80.  It will require several more blogs to get to what seems to be, by popular consensus, the next step, one hundred and twenty years old.  At least, that is what my local newspaper told me with a headline that read "Anti-aging drug could help you to live to one hundred and twenty.  As I scanned through the article I discovered the miraculous drug that the article informed me would be the world's first anti-aging drug to be tested on humans. It was also hoped it would help to dramatically reduce the incidence of such diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. 
   This is a drug that physicians have been using for many years for the treatment of  type 2 diabetes.  The researchers at the University of Cardiff, in Wales, wanted to know if the drug METFORMIN helps to lower the risk of early death in diabetes.  The study involved 180,000 people.  Previous studies in mice showed that the drug increased their lifespan.  In this study lifespan was compared in metformin treated patients to patients on another anti-diabetic drug. Patients treated with metformin had a small statistically significant improvement in survival compared with a cohort of age and gender matched non diabetics.  Those treated with another anti diabetic drug, sulphonylurea, had a significantly reduced survival compared with non diabetics.
   The researchers said that metformin not only reduces cancer and heart problem risk but also reduces pre-diabetic risk  of developing diabetes.  Obviously, this is going to require much further investigation.

   Meanwhile Nir Barzilai, of the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York and other researchers, plan to test that notion in a clinical trial called Targeting Aging with Metformin, or TAME. They will give the drug metformin to thousands of people who already have one or two of three conditions — cancer, heart disease or cognitive impairment — or are at risk of them. People with type 2 diabetes cannot be enrolled because metformin is already used to treat that disease. The participants will then be monitored to see whether the medication forestalls the illnesses they do not already have, as well as diabetes and death.
On 24 June, researchers will try to convince FDA officials that if the trial succeeds, they will have proved that a drug can delay ageing. That would set a precedent that ageing is a disorder that can be treated with medicines, and perhaps spur progress and funding for ageing research.
Let me know if yua're interested in living forever!