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Longevity supplements › Metformin and Aging › Studies

Randomized trial · measured lab tests or safety

2-week trial in 16 healthy older adults found mixed muscle energy results with metformin

McKenzie and colleagues · Experimental gerontology · 2022

Original title: Short-term exposure to a clinical dose of metformin increases skeletal muscle mitochondrial H2O2 emission and production in healthy, older adults: A randomized controlled trial.

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What the study found

Mixed

Metformin did not change maximal mitochondrial respiration. Mitochondrial H2O2 emission was higher with metformin (2.59 ± 0.72 SE Fold, P = 0.04) and production too (2.29 ± 0.53 SE Fold, P = 0.02).

The study at a glance

Type of study
Randomized trial
Who or what was studied
16 people · Healthy older adults who had never taken metformin
What was tested
Metformin vs placebo for 2 weeks (8 people each); muscle biopsies checked energy-making parts of cells
What it measured
Lab tests or markers
How long
2 weeks
Trial registration
NCT03107884
Who has a stake
Company stake
One author is cofounder, consultant and shareholder of Centaurus Therapeutics.
Journal
Experimental gerontology, 2022
Source
PubMed record 35405248. 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.
  • –Small: 16 people. Small trials can miss real effects or find chance ones.
  • –Short: 2 weeks. Longer-term effects are unknown.
  • –Measured lab tests or markers, which stand in for aging, frailty and death in people without diabetes. A better marker does not always mean better health.
  • –Company stake: One author is cofounder, consultant and shareholder of Centaurus Therapeutics.
  • •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

  3. Trials in people: lab tests or safety

    6

    2 benefit, 2 mixed, 2 no difference

    ↑ This study is the ringed dot

  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 5 papers on the same step: 2 benefit, 1 mixed, 2 no difference. This one found mixed.

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 two reads differed. The reviewer checked the abstract and kept the first read. 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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