Have you ever wondered if there's a natural way to lower your high blood pressure,

guard against Alzheimer's, lose weight, feel better?

Well, it turns out there is.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast.

I'm your host, Dr. Michael Grecker.

Today we look at the anti-aging properties of the diabetes drug metformin.

The noxious weed Goats Roo was widely used as an herbal medicine back in the middle ages

for thirst and frequent urination, what we now know of as a cardinal symptom and sign

of diabetes.

The plant produces a mitochondrial poison known as galagene.

One can imagine how this could help discourage grazing herbivores, but why would crippling

mitochondrial function help with diabetes?

Well, if you got the dose just right, you could impair energy production just enough to spring

AMPK into action. AMPK would then dial down the liver's energy-intensive process of sugar production,

and blood sugars would fall.

Gallagame proved too toxic for use in humans, presumably goats,

but was tweaked into a milder form in the 1950s.

That's the origin story of metformin,

now even 60-plus years later,

the most widely prescribed diabetes drug in the world.

Sold originally as glucophage, meaning sugar-eater,

metformin is now prescribed annually

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