Metformin's case as an anti-ageing drug now rests on three null results
Twenty-one years of cancer follow-up, multimorbidity data to 2021, and a randomised trial in frail older adults. In each, metformin did not beat placebo. Lifestyle change did.
Grip strength predicts death better than blood pressure. A gripper won't change your odds.
In half a million people, weaker grip tracked with higher mortality — a strong marker. But it reads out whole-body strength and health, not a number you move by training your hands.
GLP-1s and lean mass: 2026 trials narrow the question without closing it
Pooled randomised data show incretin drugs shed lean mass in about the same proportion as lifestyle weight loss. The evidence gap is people who train seriously, and it has not been filled.
Weekend-only exercise tracked the same lower disease risk as spreading it out
Across 89,573 accelerometer-monitored adults and 678 conditions, no disease showed a significant difference between activity concentrated in one or two days and activity spread through the week.
Age-related muscle loss is now a diagnosable disease. One treatment has strong backing.
Sarcopenia got a formal definition and diagnostic cut-offs. The clinical guidelines that followed back resistance exercise strongly — and are far more cautious about protein powders, vitamin D and drugs.
Two 2026 papers test the protein advice older adults keep getting. Neither result is clean
A NHANES analysis of 5,736 US adults over 60 found the benefit of higher protein directionally present and statistically imprecise. A meta-analysis of protein at breakfast found nothing at all.
Alkaline water is marketed for muscle recovery in older adults. Nobody has tested it.
A review of two decades of research found ten studies on alkaline water and muscle outcomes — and every single one excluded adults over 65, the exact population the marketing targets.
Two October papers on creatine in older adults point at strength, not muscle mass
A meta-analysis of 20 trials found a two-kilogram gain in one-rep max and no effect on bone density. A small crossover trial found functional strength gains largely independent of muscle mass.