Does Metformin Extend Lifespan? | Research, Dosing, and Side Effects
Metformin is an amazing drug for type 2 diabetes but does it work for longevity let’s kind of look into some studies and then see if it’s actually something that you should be taking for anti-aging and longevity benefits so metformin is a anti-glycemic medication used for type 2 diabetes not type 1 diabetes type 1 diabetes is for people that don’t make any insulin
They need to inject insulin there’s no other treatment that will work type 2 diabetes is people that don’t make enough insulin so giving them something that increases insulin production like metformin is always first line therapy pretty much 99 of people that are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are going to be given metformin right from the start right from the jump
It’s a very tried and true medication 60 years worth of data very safe and very effective for type 2 diabetes but we want to look for longevity because there was a study that said people that were on metformin with diabetes lift 15 longer than those that were not on metformin and did not have diabetes now diabetes in itself is an aging disease it kind of you know
Progresses worse and worse as time goes on it’s not something you want to have if your goal is to you know live as long as possible it has many many complications like neuropathy and cardiovascular disease and you know blindness and things like that so you want to avoid diabetes as much as possible i’m not going to sit here and tell you to not get diabetes you should
Know that by now you should be exercising 150 minutes a week so that’s basically 50 minutes three times a week monday wednesday friday something like that or 30 minutes five days a week a total of 150 minutes per week all right now we know metformin works for diabetes we want to see if it works for longevity so let’s look at some studies that are particularly looking
At longevity anti-aging with metformin and seeing if it has any benefit so the first study is the one that i mentioned previously people that were on metformin and had diabetes survived 15 percent longer than those that did not have diabetes and were not on metformin so this is an interesting result because basically people that were sick and were taking medication
Lived longer than those that were not sick not taking medication kind of a general way of looking at it but if we take a few minutes and kind of dive in deep and try to figure out why this happened you can kind of tell that people that have diabetes they’re going to be monitored by their physician more frequently usually every three to six months so they’re going to the
Doctor way more often to make sure that diabetes is under control and that they’re taking their medication someone that’s healthy or thinks they’re healthy is not going to go to the doctor once every three months they’re gonna go once a year once every two years once every five years god knows so we can’t rely on you know just this kind of data and the authors kind
Of figured that out themselves in the end of the study they said we conclude that metformin should not be seen as a quick fix panacea what the hell is panacea a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases okay if we get nowhere from this video at least we learned a new word panacea moving on should not be seen as a quick fix panacea for aging at the expense
Of non-pharmacologic interventions such as diet exercise and lifestyle modifications indeed the use of metformin may negate some of the positive effects of exercise and lifestyle and less favorable effects in older subjects was also emphasized by the diabetes prevention program on the more positive side we do accept that the use of metformin and the treatment of
Patients with type 2 diabetes is associated with a positive benefit on helpspent now david sinclair is probably one of the leading scientists when it comes to longevity he supplements with metformin 800 milligrams at bedtime now there are studies out there that say that metformin reduces exercise performance and kind of things that are related to exercise so he also
Does a low dose 800 milligrams compared to the usual 1000 milligrams twice a day it is a lower dose and on top of that he skips it on the nights before he’s gonna work out this is not a bad way of going about it this is a pretty decent or good strategy okay now we have this other study here titled the effects of metformin and lifestyle interventions on mortality
And the diabetes prevention program and diabetes prevention program outcome study in this study there was 3234 adults at higher risk for type 2 diabetes they were randomized to an intensive lifestyle intervention masked metformin or placebo the study lasted 21 years which is a very long time and the results showed that metformin did not influence mortality from all
Causes cancer or cardiovascular disease the study shows that metformin was not successful in extending lifespan so a couple of the results of this study its ability to decrease exercise performance and the results from the other study that said it was not a quick fix panacea so an otherwise a healthy person is probably not going to really benefit from just taking
Metformin on its own they’re probably better off exercising and eating a healthy diet than taking a pill every single day the current evidence i wouldn’t say leads us to that direction but if you do want to take it let’s kind of go over dosing so the normal dosing for metformin is it starts at 500 milligrams daily and then it gets doubled up to 500 milligrams twice
Daily and then it gets doubled up again to a thousand milligrams twice daily that’s mostly where people take their medication most people with type of diabetes end up titrated up to 1 000 milligrams twice daily the reason why you touch it is because it has gastrointestinal side effects which i’m going to go over in a little bit but that’s basically the reason
Now again david sinclair takes a much smaller dose 800 milligrams at bedtime and he skips it on the nights before a workout so it was kind of out of the system by the time he works out the next day if you want to supplement maybe that’s a better way 500 milligrams to 1000 milligrams before bedtime something like that and then skip it on the days before exercise
That’s not a bad way now in terms of side effects gastrointestinal issues are huge a lot of people complain with stomach upset nausea diarrhea things like that it’s a huge huge side effect of metformin a lot of people complain about it we start you at a lower dose and then get you used to the medication until you go up to the you know the usual optimal dose of
1000 milligrams twice daily however for longevity we’re probably going to use lower doses at 500 to 1000 milligrams so the side effects of the saskatchew intestinal stuff is probably going to be less likely and less prevalent another huge side effect of metformin is its ability to reduce b12 levels it causes a b12 deficiency if you take it for a long time so a
Complication of diabetes is neuropathy and a complication of b12 deficiency is also neuropathy so if you don’t have your diabetes under control and you’re not measuring your b12 levels you’re accelerating your rate of neuropathy so it’s very important to have your a1c and blood sugar levels and b12 levels measured consistently so you’re not increasing your rate
Of neuropathy another big side effect that metformin is lactic acidosis this is a buildup of lactic acid because the body is just not able to get rid of it in time or excrete it in time so this causes a buildup this again is more prevalent with long-term use of metformin and also people that drink alcohol at a higher risk because alcohol also increases lactic acid
So if you have one drink you know once a week or something like that not really going to cause any problems not really going to increase your risk but if you’re not drinking five days every day throughout the day or you’re binge drinking five days you know even just once a week five drinks at one time within two or three hours this is going to increase your risk
Of lactic acidosis so you kind of want to be cautious of that if you are taking metformin okay so the million dollar question is obviously do we supplement with metformin for longevity for anti-aging benefits the research currently does not point in the right direction that it does help with longevity or anti-aging the research says that you know after 21 years
There was no increase in lifespan or health span for any of these patients so i would probably stay away from metformin until we have more data because these side effects are kind of outweighing the benefits at this time you might be able to get away with most of those side effects of metformin if you take it the way david sinclair does at a lower dose once a
Day before bedtime and then skipping it on the nights before a workout but i mean the evidence doesn’t really show that there’s much benefit so i wouldn’t be supplementing with metformin for longevity at this time now if you have pre-diabetes or borderline diabetes then taking metformin might be a good idea to either extend the amount of time it takes for you to
Develop diabetes or even better reverse the effects and not have any diabetes whatsoever exercise and diet is still number one i wouldn’t replace that with metformin but if you already have your exercise and diet well in check and you’re still you know at risk for diabetes you have pre-diabetes or something like that then maybe metformin is the right next step
For you always control what your healthcare provider before starting any supplement or medication and thankfully metformin is a prescription so you have to have a conversation with the provider before being started on it i also have a video on berberine which i will link in the description berbering is very very similar to metformin but it’s a natural supplement
In that video i go over a bird brain and its effects on blood sugar not necessarily longevity but they work very very similarly in berberine and metformin so you might get similar results for longevity if you want to supplement with berberine instead of metformin but that’s it for this video please leave a like and subscribe to the channel if you enjoyed the content thanks for watching
Transcribed from video
Does Metformin Extend Lifespan? | Research, Dosing, and Side Effects 2 By VITEMIN
