A recent study set out to screen for FDA-approved drugs that might extend lifespan:
The screening consisted of an assay based on neuronal cells in a medium with 15 mM (millimoles) of glucose. This amount of glucose is about three times the normal human blood glucose level, though a level easily achieved by out-of-control diabetics, and is toxic to neural tissue. The assay set out to find which drugs promoted survival in that level of glucose, and came up with 30 of them.
Then the researchers tested each of the 30 cell-survival promoting drugs on the roundworm C. elegans, the animal of choice in many anti-aging studies. (The animal is both tiny and has a short lifespan, making it ideal for this sort of thing: cheap, easily manipulated, fast results.) Six compounds were found that extended lifespan: caffeine, ciclopirox olamine, tannic acid, acetaminophen, bacitracin, and baicalein.
Acetaminophen overdoses kill hundreds and hospitalize thousands each year, but lower doses may protect against glucose toxicity.
“Acetaminophen overdoses kill hundreds and hospitalize thousands each year” kind of sugar coats it. I know a nurse in San Diego who exclusively does liver transplants. She says that the majority of her patients come by way of too much acetaminophen and perhaps a little bit of alcohol. A liver transplant is vastly more expensive and drastic than a routine hospitalization. She’s of the opinion that getting rid of the use a acetaminophen is one of the single best things we could do.
And what’s up with the study, they didn’t even get around to testing the effectiveness of low dose aspirin? ;-)