A coalition of top medical and anti-aging researchers has formed to launch on a new clinical trial to test a common diabetes pill that they believe could prevent or delay some of the most debilitating diseases of old age — including Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease.
Their goal is not necessarily to prolong life, but to allow people to grow older without suffering debilitating diseases that compromise quality of life in later years, the
Wall Street Journal reports.
The study aims to test the diabetes drug metformin and is being called Targeting/Taming Aging With Metformin, or TAME.) Metformin is cheap, has been widely used for more than 60 years, has very few side effects, and has been linked to a range of health benefits — beyond diabetes management.
“Aging is the major risk factor for all these diseases — heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s,” noted Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City who is leading the proposed study. “If you want to make a real impact you have to modulate the risk of aging and by that the risk for all those diseases of aging.”
Researchers hope to enroll more than 1,000 elderly participants in the randomized, controlled clinical trial to be conducted at several research centers. Results are expected in five to seven years, Dr. Barzilai said.
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