Metformin, synthesised in the 1920s from the medicinal plant goat’s rue, or French lilac, is widely prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes. New research suggests the drug may slow the effects of ageing and fight cancer.
One of the hottest new anti-ageing drugs has in fact been around for a long time. Discovered in 1922, metformin was introduced as a medicine in France in 1957 and has been widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes – and it still is – but research now suggests it may have a number of additional health benefits. What’s more, it’s very affordable.
Metformin is derived from a plant, French lilac, also known as goat’s rue, that has been used since the Middle Ages for the treatment of diabetes. It is also a staple in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is known as quei fu di huang wan and is used for diabetes as well as to treat elevated blood sugars and for preventive health. At one time the plant was fed to goats, as it was thought to improve milk production, thus the name goat’s rue.
There are more than 700,000 people with diabetes in Hong Kong and that number is expected to jump to 1.02 million by 2030, according to Dr Rose Ting Zhao-wei, a specialist in endocrinology. Metformin is among the most common treatments for type 2 diabetes, but increasingly it is also being recognised as being able to do much more.
A 2014 study at Cardiff University of more than 180,000 people found that when patients with diabetes were given metformin they lived longer than those without the condition. “That was the big leap to, ‘Wow, we should take it, why are diabetics healthier than we are’,” says Dr Lauren Bramley at Dr Bramley & Partners, a medical practice in Hong Kong’s Centrat district that focuses on wellness.
We tend to lose insulin sensitivity as we age. Metformin’s use as an anti-ageing treatment revolves around the fact that it helps to increase sensitivity to insulin, which in turn lowers blood-sugar levels.
Ageing is also associated with glycation, when sugar molecules stick to your cells, your collagen. The result is a feeling of “brain fog”, the mind is not as sharp as it once was and the body feels heavy. A lot of glycation on our collagen leads to wrinkles.
Type 3 diabetes has been proposed as a title for Alzheimer’s disease, because it results from insulin resistance in the brain.
There is a growing body of evidence that metformin is effective in both the prevention and treatment of cancer. Studies suggest that if you have type 2 diabetes and are taking metformin you have a lower risk of developing cancer than if you do not take metformin. (Having type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for developing certain cancers.)
Whether or not this is related to being overweight – common in those with type 2 diabetes – the natural production of more insulin or another factor is unknown. Still, in studies using tissue cells, metformin can inhibit the growth of breast, colon, lung, pancreatic and prostate cancer cells.
In a paper published in March in the online Polish journal Postepy Hig Med Dosw, researchers wrote that “Metformin is now attracting the attention of researchers in fields other than diabetes, as it has been shown to have anti-cancer, immunoregulatory and anti-ageing effects.”
The anti-cancer effects of metformin were seen to be two-fold: by directly affecting the inflammatory processes that are reported to play a significant role in tumour progression and indirectly by modifying the blood glucose and insulin levels which can influence the survival of cancer cells.
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