Is diabetes pill an anti-ageing wonder drug, and magic bullet to treat cancer and Alzheimer’s?

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

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Diabetes patients on Metformin age more slowly, suggesting it has a wider use. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 3:45pm, 31 Jul 2017Updated: 5:10pm, 31 Jul 2017

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.

French lilac has been used for hundreds of years to treat diabetes both in Europe and China. Photo: Shutterstock

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.

Metformin’s properties could make it a key anti-ageing treatment. Photo: Shutterstock

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.