Journal: The Lancet Healthy Longevity

Authors: Witham MD, McDonald C, Wilson N, Rennie KJ, Bardgett M, Bradley P, Clegg AP, Connolly S, Hancock H, Hiu S, Nicholson K, Robertson L, Simms L, Steel AJ, Steves CJ, Storey B, Wason J, von Zglinicki T, Sayer AA

Summary: Clinical trials for older people have historically been challenging to design and recruit to, hence few trials have been done to test interventions for sarcopenia.

In this phase II, multicentre trial, we tested the medication metformin (which has been used to treat diabetes for many years) as a treatment for sarcopenia in 72 people aged 65 and over with sarcopenia recruited from two UK centres. Our trial design made it easy for older people to take part, with many study visits done in participants own homes.

Almost everyone who started the trial completed it successfully - a major step forward in our ability to deliver trials for people with sarcopenia. However, metformin did not improve muscle strength or physical performance and did not improve quality of life in older people with sarcopenia. Importantly, metformin was not well tolerated and caused frequent side effects, even at the low dose we used. Metformin is therefore unlikely to be useful as a treatment for sarcopenia in older people who are already significantly affected by muscle weakness.

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