Aging as a preventable condition
In 2015, Michael Cantor was prescribed metformin for prediabetes. Once that was under control, his doctor said Mr. Cantor could quit the drug. But Mr. Cantor had heard about studies testing it as an anti-aging drug. The 62-year-old Connecticut-based attorney asked if he could stay on it. A year ago Cantor’s wife, Shari, who is mayor of West Hartford, Conn., started to take metformin, too.
“I read the articles, they made a lot of sense to me, and with the number of people that have been taking this drug worldwide for decades, I felt like there was nothing to lose,” he says.
The couple can’t say if their daily doses have led to any changes in how they look or feel. After all, they’re taking the pills not to treat current ailments but to prevent ones in the future.
They may have answers soon. Nir Barzilai, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health’s Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, is leading a study that hopes to prove aging is a preventable health condition. The TAME (Targeting Aging with Metformin) study is designed to do this by demonstrating that metformin, a cheap and widely prescribed pill for diabetes, may also be an anti-aging elixir.
The TAME trial is currently in phase III – typically the final step of research into any treatment before drugmakers can apply for FDA approval.
Earlier studies found that people with type 2 diabetes who take metformin have lower death rates from any cause, compared to peers who don’t take the drug. Metformin also seems to help curb the incidence of age-related diseases, including heart disease, dementia, and Alzheimer›s. It also may lower the risk of many types of cancer as well as raise the chances of survival. Observations made since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that people who get the virus while taking metformin are less likely to land in the hospital or die from it.
It’s not clear exactly how metformin works to do all that. The compound was originally derived from Galega officinalis, also known as goat’s rue, a perennial plant used as medicine since medieval times.
Dr. Barzilai says he hopes to prove that aging is a preventable condition.
“If the results are what they think they will be, the whole world could go on metformin and extend life for everybody – extend your good quality of life,” Dr. Barzilai says. “That’s what we all want. Every extra year that we could get where we’re still vigorous and vital would be amazing.”