THE SEARCH FOR ETERNAL YOUTH has been the stuff of myth and legend for many centuries, but now scientists believe that they may be one step closer to achieving it. “Death is inevitable, but ageing is not,” says Dr. Nir Barzilai, founding director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York City. Barzilai and his team have raised $50m to begin five-year clinical trials of metformin, an inexpensive drug already commonly prescribed for a range of uses, including Type 2 diabetes, and which has already demonstrated an ability slow the onset of age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s, heart disease and all cancers. The drug, said Barzilai, slows the ageing process, making cells and tissues “younger”. It is thought that metformin’s ability to reduce cellular ageing is so effective that those who take it can potentially expect to live longer, healthier lives.

METFORMIN GLUCOPHAGE IN TABLET OR LIQUID

The implications of the research into metformin medication — currently a prescription-only drug that also goes under the brand names, Glucophage, Fortamet and Glumetza, and is produced both in tablet and solution — are potentially huge for health and beauty culture. The anti-ageing industry and its products are valued at an estimated $110bn (£82.5bn) – and is set to rise to $610bn by 2025. In the UK alone, 260 companies, 250 investors, 10 non-profits, and 10 research labs are currently experimenting with science’s most advanced technologies in the to hunt for the holy grail of youth. 

METFORMIN USES VIA GOOGLE

If research into metformin as an anti-aging treatment are successful, the so-called anti-aging creams that make billions for the beauty industry, as promoted by Hollywood celebrities and supermodels, may become a thing of the past. Rising interest in the drug can be tracked via the number of Google search queries consumers have about the treatment. Currently, the search engine records 550,000 global monthly searches for the word ‘metformin’, and 3,600 searches for the term ‘metformin anti-aging’. The word ‘Glucophage’ is searched 27,100 times. The total number of Google queries adds up to over 7 million searches per year.

METFORMIN ANTI-AGING TREATMENT SIDE EFFECTS

But despite metformin’s incredible claims, healthcare practitioners warn of a host of side effects associated with the uses of the anti-aging treatment, including diarrhoea, nausea, stomach pain, headaches, drowsiness, dizziness and fatigue. But Barzilai, who has taken the drug himself for five years as a treatment for pre-diabetes, claims that “the only long-term side effect is living for longer than your pension lasts”. However, new research suggests that using the treatment may actually harm the positive physical effects of exercise that would otherwise help people age well.

Meanwhile, Professor Lynn Cox from the Department of Biochemstry at Oxford University, warns that while the research into metformin as an anti-aging treatment is still in its infancy, a safer and more effective approach to staying youthful is simply to do what we already know works naturally — exercise, eat a balanced diet, get plenty of sleep and avoid stress.