The Food and Drug Administration has recently approved a trial to test the anti-aging effects of the world’s most widely used diabetes drug metformin. The aging process occurs because over a human lifespan there are billions of cell divisions that must occur and over time as more cells divide problems arise and cells can lose their ability to repair damage. One of the things that Metformin does is boost the number of oxygen molecules that are released into a cell, and as a result increasing longevity and robustness. “When Belgian researchers tested metformin on the tiny roundworm C. elegans the worms not only aged slower, but they also stayed healthier longer.” The new clinical trials to research the anti-aging effects of Metformin are scheduled to begin next winter and scientists are currently attempting to recruit “3,000 70- to 80-year-olds who have, or are at risk of, cancer, heart disease and dementia” to take part in the studies. The increasing lifespans from medical developments like this are going to have a tremendous impact on estate and retirement planning.
See Sarah Knapton, No more Alzheimer’s? World’s first anti-aging drug could let you live more than 120 years in good health, National Post, November 29, 2015.
