Discovering New Mechanisms of Action for Metformin

Metformin is a terrible approach to slowing aging in comparison to, say, mTOR inhibition. Slowing aging in this way, by manipulating the operation of an aged cellular metabolism without repairing the underlying damage that causes aging, is in turn a terrible approach to the treatment of aging. Yet metformin attracts a great deal of interest. I believe that most people simply don't care about effect size and reliability. Most popular science materials don't discuss these points, thus putting every intervention on the same footing in the minds of much of the public. Yet effect size and reliability are the very heart of the matter. The animal data on metformin shows it to be unreliable when it comes to effects on life span; results from different studies and different groups are quite varied. The one large human study to examine mortality and life span looked at people with type 2 diabetes, not healthy individuals. It is known that metformin disrupts the operation of mechanisms needed for benefits to health to arise from regular exercise - a significant issue. Lastly, even if taking the human data at face value, the effect size is really just not large enough to care about. Nothing in the research noted here changes any of this. Previously, the only biochemical pathway that was known to be activated by metformin was the AMPK pathway, which researchers discovered stalls cell growth and changes metabolism when nutrients are scarce, as can occur in cancer. But the s...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs