Like rapamycin, metformin mimics aspects of calorie restriction. But instead of inhibiting TOR, it limits the metabolic reactions in mitochondria, sl… - David A. Sinclair

Up until the second half of the twentieth century, it was generally accepted that organisms grow old and die “for the good of the species” — an idea that dates back to Aristotle, if not further.

A study of more than 41,000 metformin users between the ages of 68 and 81 concluded that metformin reduced the likelihood of dementia, cardiovascular disease, cancer, frailty, and depression, and not by a small amount. In one group of already frail subjects, metformin use over the course of nine years reduced dementia by 4 percent, depression by 16 percent, cardiovascular disease by 19 percent, frailty by 24 percent, and cancer by 4 percent.22 In other studies, the protective power of metformin against cancer has been far greater than that.

Even if they don't recognize its violence, children come to understand the tragedy of death surprisingly early in their lives. By the age of four or five, they know that death occurs and is irreversible.2 It is a shocking thought for them, a nightmare that is real. A "GOOD, LONG LIFE." My grandmother "Vera" sheltered Jews in World War II, lived in primitive New Guinea, and was removed from Bondi Beach for wearing a bikini. The end of her life was hard to watch. "This is just the way it goes," she said. But the person she truly was had been dead many years at that point. At first, because it's calming, most children prefer to think that there are certain groups of people who are protected from death: parents, teachers, and themselves. Between 5 and 7, however, all children come to understand the universality of death. Every family member will die. Every pet. Every plant. Everything they love. Themselves, too.