Live Ten Years Longer With New Miracle Drug, Seriously This Time!

Rapamycin, a bacteria thing found in the soil on Easter Island, has been tested on mice and has shown some pretty staggering results:

Male mice given rapamycin lived on average 28 per cent longer than a control group of animals, while the effect on females was greater still, with a 38 per cent increase in life expectancy. The animals were treated at an age of 20 months, which is the equivalent of 60 years in humans.

That’s ten more years you can spend taking other, better drugs!  Is there a catch?  

Mostly just scientists being their cautious, over-qualifying old selves:

Scientists warned, however, that nobody should take rapamycin in the hope of living longer. The drug, originally identified in soil samples from Easter Island, is a powerful suppressor of the immune system, commonly given to patients to help to prevent the rejection of transplanted organs, and its dangers to healthy people would far outweigh any potential benefit.

But!

“It may be possible to develop pharmacological strategies that provide the health and longevity benefits without unwanted side effects.”

4 out of 5 doctors agree: Rapamycin is awesome but you shouldn’t take it unless you are already old and dying and it’s time to pull the goalie, immunologically speaking.  Rapamycin: helping old people get older.

Source: Times of London.