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Randomized trial · measured other health measures

12-week trial in 53 older adults: metformin blunted fitness gains from exercise training

Konopka and colleagues · Aging cell · 2019

Original title: Metformin inhibits mitochondrial adaptations to aerobic exercise training in older adults.

Under review. A person has not yet checked this summary against the paper. It is written from the PubMed abstract. Until a person checks it, search engines are asked not to list this page.

What the study found

Points to harm

Metformin attenuated the gain in whole-body insulin sensitivity and VO2 max after exercise training, and abolished the exercise-driven rise in muscle mitochondrial respiration.

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
53 people · Older adults, average age 62, starting aerobic exercise training
What was tested
Metformin (n = 27) vs placebo (n = 26) during 12 weeks of aerobic exercise training
What it measured
Several kinds of outcomes
How long
12 weeks
Who has a stake
Company stake
No disclosure in PubMed; grants listed include Dairy Management Inc and Dexcom Inc.
Journal
Aging cell, 2019
Source
PubMed record 30548390. This page is based on the abstract only.

How much this study counts

  • ✓Randomized: people were put into groups by chance, so the groups start out alike.
  • ✓Compared with a placebo, a dummy treatment.
  • •Medium size: 53 people.
  • •Lasted 12 weeks.
  • •Measured several kinds of outcomes.
  • –Company stake: No disclosure in PubMed; grants listed include Dairy Management Inc and Dexcom Inc.
  • •Summarized from the PubMed abstract only. The full paper may hold details the abstract leaves out.

✓ Strength– Limit• Note

These points come from fixed rules about the type of study, its size and length, what it measured, and who has a stake. Every study on Digestery gets the same rules.

Where this study sits

Each dot is one on-topic paper on this question. Steps near the top answer the question more directly.

↑ Stronger evidence

  1. Trials in people: aging and age-related disease

    1

    1 benefit

  2. Trials in people: other measures

    3

    2 no difference, 1 harm

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    6

    2 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

  4. Population studies

    8

    6 benefit, 2 no difference

  5. Blood levels and genes

    0

    None among the papers we read.

  6. Animals

    3

    2 benefit, 1 harm

↓ Weaker evidence

  • Points to benefit
  • Mixed
  • No difference
  • No direction
  • Points to harm

How it fits with the other research

The short answer to “Does metformin slow aging in people without diabetes?”

Not shown in people without diabetes.

Confidence: low. Based on 26 on-topic papers.

Read the full answer

Of the other 2 papers on the same step: 2 no difference. This one found harm. It differs from most of them.

Other papers on the same step

See all 26 studies on this question

How this page was made

Label

First read of the abstract
Claude Sonnet
Independent second read
Claude Haiku
Differences settled
The reviewer corrected 3 fields after reading the abstract. Claude Opus 5.5.
Headline
Claude Sonnet, from the checked study record. A script checked its numbers and wording.
Numbers
Checked against the abstract by a script
“How much this study counts”
Fixed rules, the same for every study
Source check by a person
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