A cheap drug widely used for type 2 diabetes turns out to have anti-aging properties that can potentially allow humans to increase their lifespan by about 50 percent and live up to 120 years old Metformin belongs to a class of drugs known as biguanides. For patients with type 2 diabetes, it helps control blood sugar by reducing the amount of glucose absorbed from food and the levels of glucose produced by the liver. It also increases the body's natural response to insulin. Earlier this year, researchers from Belgium tested the effect of metformin, a drug commonly prescribed for type 2 diabetes patients, on the roundworm C.
elegans . They found out that it caused the worms to age slower and stay healthy for a longer time, adding about 40% to their average lifespan. When mice were treated with the drug, even they survived longer and developed stronger bones. Last year, a study done…
