According to scientists, the medicine can help people stay in good health at both 110 and 120 years old. While this may sound like science fiction, scientists have already proven that the drug metformin, which is now used to treat diabetes, prolongs the life of animals, and now the US authorities have given the go-ahead to test it in humans.
If successful, this would mean that the health of a 70-year-old will match that of a 50-year-old. Moreover, this could open a new era in medicine, when doctors will not treat cancer, diabetes, and dementia separately, but immediately the main mechanism - aging.
"If we can slow down the aging process, then all pathologies that develop during aging will be slowed down," says one of the study authors, Professor Gordon Lithgow of the Institute for Aging Research in California.
Aging is not inevitable, because all cells contain a DNA blueprint that can support the body's proper functioning at all times. Some sea creatures do not age at all.
Metformin increases the number of oxygen molecules entering the cell, which increases its reliability and durability.
When Belgian researchers tested metformin on the tiny roundworms C. elegans, the worms not only aged more slowly, but they also stayed healthy longer.
In mice treated with metformin, lifespan increased by almost 40%, and their bones became stronger.
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Last year, Cardiff University found that when diabetic patients received metformin, they actually lived longer than others.
A new clinical trial is scheduled to begin next winter in the United States. Scientists from a number of institutes are currently raising funds and recruiting 3000 participants in the experiment aged 70-80 who have or are at risk of acquiring cancer, heart disease and dementia. Scientists hope to show that the drug slows down the aging process and stops disease.
The average age of life today in developed countries is about 80 years. If the results of studies on humans show the same results as on animals, we can expect that this period will increase by one and a half times, reports The Independent.
