Metformin: – An Effective and Underappreciated Life Extension Drug

Metformin (GlucophageTM) is an anti-diabetic biguanide drug which has recently been introduced in the United States for the treatment of non-insulin-dependent diabetes (Type II diabetes). In addition to its promise in treating diabetes, I believe that Metformin is one of the most promising anti-aging, life extending drugs available!

Metformin is chemically very similar to Phenformin, an anti-diabetic drug which was discontinued in the United States by the FDA in 1976. The reason for Phenformin’s removal from the market was because of a number of excess deaths in diabetic patients, caused by lactic acidosis. These deaths were invariably due to the continued use of phenformin by diabetics who had compromised kidney or liver function. No deaths were ever reported in patients who had normal kidney and liver function.

Phenformin’s removal from the market was greatly lamented by most diabetologists at the time, one of whom once told me, “Phenformin did everything! It lowered blood sugar, lowered insulin, reduced blood cholesterol and triglycerides, stimulated immunity, and even resulted in weight loss!” He blamed the excess deaths associated with phenformin’s use on the “stupid docs” who continued to use it in the face of abnormal liver or kidney function. Metformin is similar to phenformin in its beneficial metabolic effects, but it is much safer, in that it has even less propensity to cause lactic acidosis than phenformin.