fazTimes media: Scientists may have found a way to make people live longer, even though they aren't always healthy. It's not a new diet or miracle supplement. It's already on a lot of medicine shelves. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared two common drugs, metformin and rapamycin, which are now being studied to see if they could greatly increase human life span. Researchers have known for decades that lowering an animal's food intake can make it live a lot longer. Who, though, could stick to a strict diet for the rest of their lives? Researchers believe that this mix of medicines might be a better way to solve the problem.

A journey in science began almost 100 years ago.

It's not a new idea that eating less can make you live longer. As early as the 1930s, scientists found that rats that were fed a low-calorie diet lived a lot longer than rats that were fed a high-calorie diet. This led to decades of research into the biology of aging, with tests on mice, worms, monkeys, and even fish to see how long they could live in different conditions.

Scientists ran into a problem: long-term calorie restriction is hard to do in people, even though the treatments worked well on animals. Most people can't stick to such a strict diet for years, let alone decades, because of how they live, what they believe, and how disciplined they are. Now you can get the drug answer.

There is new hope with rapamycin and metformin.

The UK's University of East Anglia's School of Biological Sciences just released study results that show metformin and rapamycin are two common medicines.

Rapamycin was first found in the soil of Easter Island, which is locally called Rapa Nui, which is where the word comes from. It works by blocking an important cellular signal that tells the body it has enough food. It was first used to keep organ donation recipients from rejecting their new organ. In simple terms, it tricks the body into thinking it is eating fewer calories when it is eating more.
Metformin is a drug that is often given to people with type 2 diabetes. It comes from a chemical that is found in the French lilac plant. It is known to change how the body uses energy and help keep blood sugar levels in check.

What the research found

The researchers looked at 167 studies with eight different kinds of animals, like fish and monkeys, to see if these drugs could really have the same benefits as calorie restriction. Their goal is to find out what makes animals live longer.

What they found was the following:

Calorie restriction was the most dependable and effective way to make all animal species live longer, regardless of gender.
Rapamycin was the second most hopeful intervention, but its effectiveness depended a lot on the species and dose.
Researchers were shocked to find that metformin had little to no effect on life span in most tests.

This doesn't mean that metformin doesn't work, though. If it doesn't really make people live longer, it might still improve their quality of life. It's interesting to note that calorie restriction and rapamycin both shortened life spans in some tests, especially when the doses were too high or not right for the species. This shows how important it is to find the right mix in any aging treatment.

So, can these medicines make people live longer?

There is still work being done on the answer to this important question. A lot of the studies that have been done so far have been on animals, but scientists are cautiously optimistic about testing these ideas on people. Rapamycin is currently being tested on humans, and early results suggest that low doses may help people live longer or at least delay the decline that comes with getting older. But strong proof won't be available for years.

It also comes with some risks.

Rapamycin, for instance, is used to treat people who have had transplants because it weakens the immune system. This could make healthy people more likely to get infections. This is why scientists are looking into smaller or random doses right now, which might lower risks without lowering benefits.

Metformin, on the other hand, is safe and is already taken by millions of diabetics every day. Once more, there isn't enough information to say for sure what effect longevity has, but some studies suggest it may help avoid cancer or improve heart health.

What does it mean to you and me?

For people in India reading this, this study is more than just science done from afar. An old parent or the rising rates of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes are some of the real problems that many of us deal with. As people live longer, the worth of those extra years becomes even more important.

What if we could live better into our 80s and 90s, with fewer illnesses, sharper minds, and busier lives?

Wouldn't that be better than just living longer?

With more research and testing, these medicines could one day be used in preventive medicine to help people put off or even avoid getting age-related diseases. It could also change public health services, especially in places like India, where it's getting harder to keep up with the health of an aging population.

First, be careful, then have hope.

Even though the science behind these medicines is interesting, experts warn against using them without first talking to a doctor. More and more people, especially in the West, are looking for "anti-aging" drugs like metformin or rapamycin. Self-medication, on the other hand, can be dangerous, especially when using drugs like rapamycin that have strong effects on the immune system.

Scientists say the best thing to do is to wait for the results of long-term studies with humans, which are meant to show both pros and cons.

A New Era in Medicine?

If the trials show that the benefits are real, we might soon have a new type of medicine that slows down aging instead of curing disease. This would change the way we think about health in a big way. We could treat aging as a whole instead of just treating one sickness at a time.

And if you think that sounds like science fiction, remember that 20 years ago, the idea of using AI to detect diseases or change genes was unthinkable. Both are true now.

Finally, some words

On the way to living longer, there are many questions, moral debates, and scientific problems. But the fact that we're even talking about how everyday medicines can be used to make healthy people live longer shows how far medical science has come.

As science moves forward, it is hoped that more than just years will be added to those years. Keep reading fazTimes to learn more about this creative story and how it might change the way we live, age, and do well in the future.

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