Desperate people will do whatever they can to improve themselves. Imagine you have neurogenerative disease and in few years you will be stuck to wheelchair forever.

Eh, people have different risk appetites and not everybody wants to wait for an authority figure to say something is safe (especially when that authority figure is always slow, sometimes makes mistakes, and sometimes makes decisions based on politics). I don't fault people with a little self-experimentation as long as they're given the opportunity to understand the risks and rewards they're facing.

Not even research chemicals my Dad had IPF and from what I could find Metformin was a promising off-label cure. But there was no way to try it. People get desperate sometimes not even the people who are sick but their caregivers.

My dad passed away April 21, 2021 on my birthday.

Sorry for your loss. Did you or your dad tried talking to doctors for a prescription? Metformin is a very common drug and has a safe profile, some doctors would be able to prescribe it off-label.

Thank you. And yes I even printed off some peer-reviewed studies about IPF and Metformin for Dad to take with him to the doctor. The doctor would "look into it" but I suspect that Dad who was not great at anything technical would have agreed with the doctor and not challenged him.

My mother has type 2 diabetes so Metformin was right there in the house. It's infuriating to think Metformin could have made Dad's life better. Maybe not cure him but at least help a tiny bit.

The other problem severely ill people who have been sick for years give up before they even know it. I saw it in Dad but I couldn't see the effects of anxiety which was also there until it was too late. Anxiety is what eventually killed him more than his disease.

I'd rather die than have a late stage neurogenerative disease. Plenty of desperate people.

Maybe they're in particularly desperate situations? I do concur if these people are healthy/young though, seems insane to take something with side effects this concerning that don't even need proper trials to manifest if you're not working to fix a preexisting problem that hurts your lifespan/quality though.