Metformin is approved in the US as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. A new study by Cardiff University, UK, involving over 180,000 people, reveals that the drug could also increase the lifespan of those individuals who are non-diabetics.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there are around 29.1 million people in the US with diabetes, equating to 9.3% of the population.

Type 2 diabetes accounts for 90-95% of diabetes cases and is usually associated with older age, obesity and physical inactivity, family history of type 2 diabetes or a personal history of gestational diabetes.

Share on Pinterest A commonly prescribed diabetes drug could offer surprising health benefits to non-diabetics – making them live longer.

Type 2 diabetes is preventable through healthful eating, regular physical activity and weight loss. It can be controlled with these same activities, but insulin or oral medication also may be necessary.

Metformin (metformin hydrochloride) is an oral biguanide antidiabetic medicine to treat type 2 diabetes, a condition in which the body does not use insulin normally and, therefore, cannot control the amount of sugar in the blood.

Metformin helps to control the amount of glucose (sugar) in your blood, it decreases the amount of glucose you absorb from your food and the amount of glucose made by your liver. Metformin also increases your body’s response to insulin, a natural substance that controls the amount of glucose in the blood.

The objective of the study, published in leading diabetes journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, was to compare all-cause mortality in diabetic patients treated with either sulphonylurea or metformin with matched individuals without diabetes including age, gender, same general practice, smoking status and clinical status criteria.

The data is from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD), which encompasses clinically rich, pseudonymized data collected from primary care general practitioners (GPs) in the UK and represents around 10% of the UK population.

The data available from the CPRD includes demographics, symptoms and diagnoses, prescriptions, immunizations, results of investigations, referrals to specialists and secondary care, feedback from other care settings, and lifestyle information such as body mass index (BMI), smoking, and exercise.

A total of 78,241 subjects treated with metformin, 12,222 treated with sulphonylurea were identified, together with 90,463 subjects without diabetes who were matched to their respective cases.

Recently, Medical News Today reported on research that finds metformin may slow the aging process and increase lifespan. That study was led by Wouter De Haes, of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium, and tested in roundworms. Also reported was research into health and lifespan improvement in middle-aged male mice using metformin.