Re:Metformin as a Geroprotector (2011)
by rfreytag on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @11:36AM
(#10697422)
Your discussion of the motivation for the metformin research is intriguing - thanks. NCI has funded human trials based on human epidemiological studies to further examine metformin's possible impact on cancer: (April 2015) http://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/researc...
Calorie restriction support was recently undermined by a NIA study. The conflict between the NIA and Wisconsin study is summarized by TIME here: http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/29/want-to-live-longer-do...
The teams are supposed to be working on a joint study to resolve their differing results.
EDIT: I have seen Dr. Mosley's BBC documentaries and they pre-date the recent CRON results. His HIIT segment is also very interesting. Not dismissing any of it - just not the slam-dunk that it seemed at first.
Re:Metformin as a Geroprotector (2011)
by dghughes on Tuesday December 08, 2015 @12:26PM
(#10697838)
Calories restriction as in Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition aka CRON seems promising more than just restricting calories.
On BBC Michael Mosley has some interesting segments about CRON and its help reducing the levels of the IGF-1 hormone.
For the all over the map and not all that impressive nature of metformin data, take a look at the table in this open access paper:
http://impactaging.com/papers/v4/n5/full/100455.html
The reason why metformin is getting attention now is because a coalition of researchers are using it as the narrow end of the wedge to change the FDA position on treatment of aging, which is currently that aging is not a medical condition and thus no-one is permitted to treat it. They cannot possibly expect meaningful results on aging, but that's not the point; the point is to run a trial with something that the FDA cannot object to on other grounds because it has been used for decades and is already approved for other uses. Thus the FDA accepts a trial to slow aging, and the door is open to all the methods that might actually have some meaningful effect in the future.
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/09/feature-man-who-w...