Click here to sign in with or
Forget Password?
Learn more
share this!
56
4
Share
Email
January 5, 2023
by Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News
Is an ancient compound the new “wonder drug”?
Metformin, a common medication to control diabetes, has become the controversial darling of tech’s health-conscious digerati who are enticed by preliminary research suggesting it might help promote longevity, reduce dementia and prevent a whole host of other conditions—including, most recently, long COVID.
With origins that date back to Medieval Europe, metformin has been used for decades as a powerful tool to lower blood sugar in people with diabetes. In those patients, it also offers cardiovascular benefits and weight loss.
Now, it is increasingly popular for use in conditions that have nothing to do with diabetes. Intrigued by early studies and promotion on TikTok, Instagram and health-focused blogs, Americans are seeking “off-label” prescriptions for metformin, using a drug for a different condition or at a different dosage than what is FDA-approved
But experts urge caution, saying the data isn’t sufficient to start recommending daily doses.
According to UC San Francisco infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, “I’d be very wary about using metformin off-label at this point,” citing lack of extensive research. “The evidence has to be really strong,” he said, “if you take a drug for a particular indication in which there’s not a lot of good data.”
“Certainly, a lot of young healthy people are looking into taking it with hopes of kind of optimizing their health and ‘biohacking’ to improve their longevity down the line,” said Stanford University endocrinologist Dr. Marilyn Tan. While it’s unlikely to do harm, Tan said, “there’s also no proven benefit from any randomized controlled trial in terms of anti-aging effects. … It’s not FDA-approved for any of these other indications.”
Metformin, or dimethylbiguanide, traces its history back to a traditional herbal medicine in Europe called Galega officinalis, or goat’s rue. While it can cause side effects in people with kidney problems, it improves blood-sugar control by improving insulin sensitivity, reducing the amount of sugar released by the liver into the blood and increasing glucose absorption.
It is now the fourth most widely prescribed medication in the nation. About 20 million Americans were prescribed the drug in 2020.
What is tantalizing are preliminary findings—based on animal studies and imperfect clinical trials that have not been reproduced—that hint that the drug may help slow aging and increase life expectancy. While the underlying mechanism remains unclear, it may create cellular changes that improve the body’s responsiveness to insulin and boost blood vessel health.
Its reputation has grown with a recent barrage of social media attention, including a viral posting by Silicon Valley-based internet entrepreneur and “biohacker” Serge Fague, who described taking two grams of the medication every day.
“Have you heard about metformin?” asked one Twitter influencer. The New York City-based longevity company NOVOS, which has enlisted Harvard’s Dr. George Church and other highly esteemed scientists to its advisory board, posted on Instagram: “Metformin: The secret to anti-aging?”
Publicity was further boosted last week, when a University of Minnesota team reported that about 6% of metformin patients infected with the SARS CoV-2 virus went on to experience long COVID, compared to 11% of those who were not on the drug. The study is not yet peer-reviewed.
But there is a better drug—the FDA-authorized virus-killing Paxlovid—to reduce the risk of long COVID, said Chin-Hong. “Metformin doesn’t make sense, from an infectious disease perspective, to work against long COVID,” he said. “It’s not a card-carrying antiviral.”
Off-label prescribing is legal and common. An estimated 20% of all prescriptions in the U.S. are for off-label use, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Beta-blockers, for instance, are approved to reduce risk of high blood pressure and heart problems but are used off-label to treat anxiety.
But off-label prescriptions may put people at risk of receiving ineffective or even harmful treatment if there is a lack of scientific evidence, said Chin-Hong.
“In tech circles, people use a lot of things off-label—for example, for weight loss,” said Chin-Hong. “It’s promoted by celebrities on TikTok. But it’s always a dangerous enterprise to use something off-label.”
Doctors have long prescribed metformin off-label for these conditions:
Other studies looked at the potential of metformin to:
“There’s a lot of interest in it, and additional studies are warranted to see if there are more benefits,” said Tan. “But no studies have conclusively shown a clinically significant benefit for any of those conditions.”
“It’s a great diabetes drug,” she said.
2023 MediaNews Group, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Explore further
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Feedback to editors
Jan 5, 2023
0
Jan 5, 2023
1
Jan 4, 2023
0
Dec 30, 2022
10
Dec 29, 2022
0
1 hour ago
2 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
3 hours ago
4 hours ago
4 hours ago
4 hours ago
4 hours ago
6 hours ago
Dec 7, 2022
Dec 19, 2022
Nov 18, 2022
Dec 9, 2019
Sep 16, 2020
Jun 11, 2022
3 hours ago
9 hours ago
10 hours ago
12 hours ago
6 hours ago
4 hours ago
Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form. For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines).
Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request
Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.
Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.
Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient’s address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Medical Xpress in any form.
Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we’ll never share your details to third parties.
More information Privacy policy
Daily science news on research developments and the latest scientific innovations
The latest engineering, electronics and technology advances
The most comprehensive sci-tech news coverage on the web
This site uses cookies to assist with navigation, analyse your use of our services, collect data for ads personalisation and provide content from third parties. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.