The widely used diabetes drug metformin comes with a rather unexpected and alluring side effect: it encourages the growth of new neurons in the brain.Or maybe glucose and insulin are contributing to the neural demise.
The new evidence lends support to that promising idea in both mouse brains and human cells. Mice taking metformin not only showed an increase in the birth of new neurons, but they were also better able to learn the location of a hidden platform in a standard maze test of spatial learning.
While it remains to be seen whether the very popular diabetes drug might already be serving as a brain booster for those who are now taking it, there are already some early hints that it may have cognitive benefits for people with Alzheimer's disease. It had been thought those improvements were the result of better diabetes control, Miller says, but it now appears that metformin may improve Alzheimer's symptoms by enhancing brain repair.
Either way, I am beginning to think I want some of this stuff. It's been on the market for decades and is safer than aspirin.
(I cannot tell if this is OTC in Mexico. I think it might be, but any real info has been swamped by dubious websites offering to sell me some. If anyone knows, please tell me.)
