Two Medicines with Off-Label Benefits

Metformin: two 500-mg tablets taken separately per day.

All prescription medications may have harmful side effects, and I'm lucky that the ones I've taken have manifested none so far. In fact, two may have "off-label" benefits.

The corticosteroid budesonide, which I inhale twice a day for asthma, speeds the recovery and lessens hospitalization of early COVID-19 patients.

Metformin, which I've been taking since August for type II diabetes,

affects a variety of age-associated cellular functions, including improving metabolism, tamping inflammation and boosting the mitochondria. It also has a long history of use in people, with a good safety profile.

In other words Metformin may extend my life, and not just because it treats diabetes. A six-year systematic study on its anti-aging properties is about to commence.

On rare occasions the treatment for a disease leaves the patient better off than he was before he contracted it. I may just be one of the fortunate few.