Doctors and scientists want drug regulators and research funding agencies to consider medicines that delay ageing-related disease as legitimate drugs. Such treatments have a physiological basis, researchers say, and could extend a person's healthy years by slowing down the processes that underlie common diseases of ageing — making them worthy of government approval. On 24 June, researchers will meet with regulators from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to make the case for a clinical trial designed to show the validity of the approach.
Current treatments for diseases related to ageing "just exchange one disease for another", says physician Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. That is because people treated for one age-related disease often go on to die from another relatively soon thereafter. "What we want to show is that if we delay ageing, that's the best way to delay disease."
takyon: The "pill" in question is the drug metformin, currently used to treat type 2 diabetes under the brand name Glucophage. People with type 2 diabetes will not be enrolled in the anti-aging trial.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 19 2015, @01:43PM
Well, you are at least talking out of your ass.
Metformin is one of the most widely prescribed medicines for Type II Diabetes , and has one of the best records for lack of side effects.
I've been on it for years, with no problems whatsoever, and my doctor tells me it's the first prescription he writes for someone who has A1c over 7.5. He has hundreds, if not thousands, of patients on it with very rare reports of negative side effects.
It's generic, cheap, and effective at reducing fasting/baseline blood sugar levels.
How about you come back when you are smarter.