Classifying Aging As A Disease: Making Anti-Aging Drugs Legitimate

Currently prescription required drugs that may have anti-aging potential aren’t easy to come by unless you already have another ‘condition’. Aging in itself isn’t classed as a ‘disease’ by the FDA and so prescribing any medicines that show potential is tricky.

Metformin, presently a diabetes drug, is one molecule that might have some of this delaying capacity.  Researchers want to conduct a clinical trial: ‘Targeting Aging with Metformin’ , to measure whether it can slow age associated diseases, offering a more preventative approach to aging. Their hope is that if they’re successful, FDA officials might be persuaded to alter their approach, setting a precedent for considering aging to some extent treatable, or at least worth ameliorating. 

In the struggle against age related deterioration and chronic disease, changing perceptions might help increase support for aging research and produce longer healthier lives, not simply longer ones. 

Read more in Nature