Metformin and growth hormone reverse aging in humans

[Sibiriak]

Thanks Karl for those interesting observations.

Josh Mitteldorf  has an informative discussion of the study here.

 

Edited October 11, 2019 by Sibiriak

[Dean Pomerleau]

Thanks Karl. I agree that it's disappointing the authors haven't tried the same cocktail in mice to see if it has similar beneficial effects on the thymus and/or epigenetic age, and most importantly, to see if there are any negative side effects of long-term GH treatment that impact longevity.

11 hours ago, kpfleger said:

I didn't read the paper directly. Did it present error bars on its Horvath clock averages (and cite the data and methodology by which they were computed)?

Here is the relevant figure on the Horvath epigenetic age (EA) measures from the Fahy paper:

Treatment was conducted in months 0-12, with the 18 month data collected six months after discontinuing treatment on a subset of participants.One thing I noticed from reading the methods section of the full text was that the researchers adjusted the dosage of the elements in the cocktail per individual subject every two months during the study based on blood samples to "maximize IGF‐1 and minimize insulin."

Personally I wouldn't be inclined to try to maximizing IGF-1 based on data from rodents and people. 

--Dean

[kpfleger]

7 hours ago, Sibiriak said:

Thanks Karl for those interesting observations.

Josh Mitteldorf  has an informative discussion of the study here.

 

Yes, I saw that he wrote an long post about it, didn't notice any discussion of FOXN1 nor of error bar methodology for small n use of methylation clocks (but I didn't read the whole thing carefully after seeing no discussion of FOXN1).

 

[Sibiriak]

On 10/9/2019 at 1:49 AM, TomBAvoider said:

So far I'm on a statin and metformin and I'll be adding rapa soon

 

FWIW:

Statin-induced GGPP depletion blocks macropinocytosis and starves cells with oncogenic defects (Feb. 25, 2020)

Statins starve cancer cells to death (March 12, 2020)

[TomBAvoider]

But on the other hand, metformin does not prevent or ameliorate prostate cancer, and may in fact even promote it:

Metformin Found Not to Prevent Prostate Cancer

"

Contrary to previous research, a new study examining how genetic variations impact the effect of metformin suggests that this drug commonly used for glycemic control may not be an effective agent for the chemoprevention of prostate cancer (PCa).

In fact, the new study found an increased risk of PCa associated with metformin use."

[Mike41]

Father in law has been on both statin and metFormin for decades. Fat, still drinks a couple beers, drank and smoked heavily til late mid life. He is 91 and remarkably healthy and all there mentally. Can talk your head off. 

Edited June 13, 2020 by Mike41

[Gordo]