{"id":498106,"date":"2026-02-25T07:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/498106\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T07:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:52:10","slug":"popular-anti-ageing-drugs-can-either-add-years-to-your-life-or-none-at-all-its-a-biological-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/498106\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular anti-ageing drugs can either add years to your life or none at all \u2013 it\u2019s a \u2018biological lottery\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The longevity effects of drugs like Rapamycin<\/a> are more like a \u201cbiological lottery\u201d with their benefits varying widely between individuals, a new study finds.<\/p>\n

A key aim of such drugs is not only to work at the individual level, but also to ensure that humans live longer<\/a> at a population scale with less variation among people in their age at death.<\/p>\n

To study this variation, researchers use what\u2019s called a \u201csurvival curve<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a graph that shows how many individuals in a population are still alive at different ages.<\/p>\n

In societies facing high early mortality, this curve slopes down gradually as many die young, others at middle age, and some live longer.<\/p>\n

Previous studies anticipated that lifespan-extending treatments like Rapamycin would \u201csquare the survival curve\u201d of the population as mortality is compressed more towards a narrower age window near the end of life.<\/p>\n

However, the new research review found that this is not the case.<\/p>\n

\"Metformin<\/p>\n

Metformin ER 500 mg tablets are shown on July 09, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Researchers assessed lifespan extension interventions cited in 167 studies, conducted across eight non-human species, including fish, mice, rats and rhesus monkeys.<\/p>\n

Scientists found that across datasets, the longevity benefits among individual animals were variable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis suggests that lifespan-extending treatments do not reduce variance and \u2018square the survival curve\u2019,\u201d researchers wrote in the study published in the journal Biology Letters.<\/p>\n

“These approaches can make animals live longer, but the benefits aren’t shared equally. Without more information, the outcome looks like a biological lottery,\u201d said biologist and study author Tahlia Fulton from The University of Sydney.<\/p>\n

The latest finding suggests that approaches like dietary restriction or drugs such as Rapamycin or Metformin may be likely beneficial for longevity, but how much benefit they offer is unclear.<\/p>\n

It also reframes how anti-ageing breakthroughs are to be interpreted, hinting that future therapies may not produce uniform outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome individuals will be much longer lived, some will be a little longer lived, and some might not live any longer than they would have anyway,\u201d Dr Fulton told New Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re working to understand why, so future longevity science helps everyone,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Researchers are yet to fully understand the relationship between lifespan extension and healthspan, which is the number of years spent in good health.<\/p>\n

While anti-ageing therapies may lead to some people living much longer, this may be accompanied by extended periods of frailty, the study suggests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The longevity effects of drugs like Rapamycin are more like a \u201cbiological lottery\u201d with their benefits varying widely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,199488,84,17350,199489,67347,155952,10571,199487],"class_list":{"0":"post-498106","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-effects-of-drugs","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-individuals","13":"tag-lifespan-extension","14":"tag-lottery","15":"tag-rapamycin","16":"tag-researchers","17":"tag-survival-curve"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}