Live Long and ... (life extension)

[psikeyhackr]

For decades I have been expecting this some time in this century:

Anti-diabetic drug slows aging and lengthens lifespan, animal study suggests
Date:
June 2, 2014
Source:
KU Leuven
Summary:
Researchers have provided new evidence that metformin, the world’s most widely used anti-diabetic drug, slows aging and increases lifespan. Scientists teased out the mechanism behind metformin's age-slowing effects: the drug causes an increase in the number of toxic oxygen molecules released in the cell and this, surprisingly, increases cell robustness and longevity in the long term.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140602150724.htm

My basic paranoia was expecting it to be expensive and kept secret. What will it do to the population problem?

The weird thing about science fiction was it not appearing for 700 years in Bujold´s CRYOBURN and for 1800 years in Weber´s Honor Harrington series.

But to show up as a side effect in a commonly used drug for a known disease, what scientific irony.

psik

 

[Ray McCarthy]

But to show up as a side effect in a commonly used drug for a known disease, what scientific irony.

Most unexpected discoveries are unexpected side effects? So actually this normal?

Thalidomide is still used for something.
They keep finding new reasons for Aspirin being a good idea if you have no allergy.
Some arthritis drug is good for something else.

By definition any SF using tech unknown today is guessing when it might be available. Who would have thought in 1950 that less than 20 years later men would walk on the moon, yet by 1980s there would be ZERO manned exploration of space?
Or that a supercomputer would fit in your pocket, but that strong AI would still be an incomprehensible task to implement? In terms of actual programs rather than I/O performance, pretty graphical output we don't know how to do anything we didn't know how to do in 1950s. We can have larger, faster programs, but not essentially different.

Genetic Engineering seems poised on the brink of making stunning progress. Software engineering has seen no progress and decrease in quality since mid 1980s, 30 years ago, possibly partly because computers have a million times more disk storage and 4,000 times more RAM, graphics controllers that are dedicated computers 100x faster than main cpu at graphic and about 400 times faster CPU (in real world, not clock/cores/benchmarks).

Gene Editing:
Scientists debate ethics of human gene editing at international summit

Longer life, more health ... or the end of humanity as we know it?

 

[psikeyhackr]

I find it curious that the mass media is not yelling about this stuff already.

First of all since this drug has been used for 60 years I would think it should not be particularly dangerous for most people.

Second, I have seen one article that said it is $0.16 per day. That is $60 per year.

So what is the harm even if it doesn't work and the probabilities look good that it does work? Looks better than playing the lottery to me.

But looking at the statistics of a mice experiment this reminds me of Heinlein's Methuselah's Children. There is significant variability of the death rates of "normal" untreated mice. So genetic variation could be a big factor. How could young mice, or humans, know the ageing genetics of potential partners? This drug shifts the survivability. At one point in the graph there were twice as many treated mice alive as untreated. So it is like the end of Heinlein's book where they found treatments that allowed normals to live as long as the Howards.

psik

 

[psikeyhackr]

More data. Science is such a pain.

Legitimizing Research in Anti-Aging Medicine

We already have, incidentally, a great deal of information about the benefits of metformin in people with Type 2 diabetes (T2D, or metabolic syndrome). It has been the first-line drug for T2D for fifty years, and about 150 million people are taking metformin worldwide. The huge numbers have made it easy to collect data on other diseases. People taking metformin have lower rates of cancer, heart disease and dementia than people taking other diabetic drugs. It is tempting to conclude that metformin forestalls the diseases of old age generally, but rates of all these diseases is already elevated in people with T2D. The new question being asked is whether metformin will offer benefits for people who don’t have diabetes to begin with. There is one Scottish studyreporting that cancer rates for diabetics taking metformin are depressed below the rate for non-diabetics who don’t take metformin. Now that’s promising.

http://hplusmagazine.com/2015/06/29/two-innovations-in-aging-and-health/

Can people with type 2 diabetes live longer than those without? A comparison of mortality in people initiated with metformin or sulphonylurea monotherapy and matched, non-diabetic controls

Can people with type 2 diabetes live longer than those without? A comparison of mortality in people initiated with metformin or sulphonylurea monotherapy and matched, non-diabetic controls - Bannister - 2014 - Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism - Wiley Online Library

psik

 

[hopewrites]

You can't take it if you have a shellfish allergy.

 

[psikeyhackr]

You can't take it if you have a shellfish allergy.

What percentage of the population is that?

psik

 

[hopewrites]

I'm not sure. It's just a fact that stuck in my head from back in my pharm-tech days.

 

[psikeyhackr]

What May Become the World's First Proven Cancer Preventive
(and Something Bigger) Ignored by Big Pharma October 2, 2012

It is not surprising to learn that Big Pharma has shown no interest in what may become the world's first proven cancer prevention pill. If big profits aren't promised, pharmaceutical companies predictably pass on such a development.

The pill is a relatively safe FDA-approved generic drug, prescribed millions of times to help control diabetes, and it costs maybe 10-cents a day. But what is surprising is that public health authorities appear to be remiss in announcing this breakthrough. They are the agency in society commissioned to address important public health issues such as this.

Data has been accumulating for 5 years now showing metformin (Glucophage), an anti-diabetic drug, dramatically reduces the risk for cancer and prolongs life among patients who are battling cancer.

What May Become the World's First Proven Cancer Preventive (and Something Bigger) Ignored by Big Pharma - LewRockwell LewRockwell.com

This seems to be getting stranger.

psik