Did you know the Martian whims of Elon Musk? These are the everlasting obsessions of Sam Altman, a young American startup guru and head of OpenAi, the company behind ChatGPT.
As MIT Technology Review recounts, Altman recently invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences, a small company bent on saving humans 10 years of life. This goal is one of the fascinations of the 35-year-old businessman who also adheres to a strict lifestyle to delay his own aging. “Try to eat healthy, exercise, get enough sleep,” he summarizes.
To this, he adds a small pill that has become fashionable in Silicon Valley: metformin. This molecule is not new, it was even described for the first time in 1922. But it was in the late 1950s that a French doctor discovered its antidiabetic properties.
“Escape from Death”
Over the next few decades, it became one of the leading first-line drugs for type 2 diabetes. Well tolerated, metformin had few contraindications, even if risks could arise.
In recent years, it has experienced a resurgence of attention for its anti-aging properties. Beyond Sam Altman, one of the ambassadors is the billionaire Bryan Johnson.
Totally obsessed with eternal life, the businessman dedicates his fortune to rejuvenation, particularly metformin but also vitamin cocktails. With a main idea: “escape from death”.
It’s not a miracle pill
But if metformin really interests doctors, it especially fascinates Silicon Valley. Cheap, a few cents for a tablet, it goes from home to home. “Although I’m not prediabetic, it was low risk, so I tried it and I could quickly feel that it improved my metabolism as well,” an American investor told CNBC in 2019.
But this should not be seen as a miracle pill. “These types of molecules will arouse the curiosity of people who are precisely looking for a miracle solution, but that is not one because we go completely beyond the prescription when we take metformin when we are not diabetics”, explains in Doctissimo Christophe de Jaeger, M.D. French geriatrician and researcher specializing in the aging of the human body.
Another antidiabetic, Ozempic, has also become popular on social media for its appetite suppressant properties. But this injectable drug presents greater risks, forcing the National Medicines Agency (ANSM) and the French Health Insurance to reinforce monitoring of its use.
Source: BFM TV
