Metformin diabetes drug could help extend lifespan for all
The diabetes drug metformin may help prolong the lives of millions of people, both with and without diabetes, a large British study has found.
Published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, the Cardiff University research found that the cheap and widely used medication can help patients with type 2 diabetes live longer than non-diabetics, as well as potentially being able to increase life expectancy in those without the condition.
The large-scale study, involving over 180,000 people, set out to compare the survival of diabetes patients treated with either metformin or sulphonylureas – another common class of diabetes drugs – with non-diabetics who were matched based on criteria that included age, gender, smoking status, clinical status and same general practice. After developing diabetes, life expectancy is known to reduce by an average of around eight years.
Using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), which represents around 10% of the UK population, 78,241 patients treated with metformin were identified, along with 12,222 treated with a sulphonylurea, and matched them with 90,463 subjects without diabetes (control group). A total of 7,498 deaths were recorded during the study.
Diabetes is thought to reduce life expectancy by an average of around eight years. However, researchers …read more
Source: News from Diabetes.co.uk