For research and educational purposes only. Not medical advice.
Acarbose Reference
Educational, not medical advice reference for Acarbose: Metabolic, Longevity; regulatory status, evidence posture, source review, and schedule notes. Also kn…
Reference summary
STOP-NIDDM (Chiasson 2002 Lancet, n=1,429 adults with impaired glucose tolerance) demonstrated a 25 percent relative reduction in progression to T2D over a mean 3.3 years on acarbose 100 mg three times daily. The NIA Interventions Testing Program (Strong 2016 Aging Cell) reported lifespan extension in male mice across multiple ITP cohorts when acarbose was started in middle age - a result that parallels rapamycin's ITP signal and is the basis for off-label longevity interest. Human outcome data for longevity-specific endpoints are not available.
Regulatory and posture
- Categories
- Metabolic, Longevity
- Aliases
- Precose, Glucobay (international brand), Alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (small molecule, not a peptide)
- Evidence posture
- human - Off-label longevity use is investigational; the ITP mouse-lifespan signal is the main rationale and is not equivalent to human outcome evidence.
- Regulatory status
- FDA-approved as Precose (1995) for type 2 diabetes as an adjunct to diet and exercise, alone or with sulfonylureas, metformin, or insulin. Off-label longevity use is investigational; the longevity hypothesis rests primarily on the NIA Interventions Testing Program mouse-lifespan data plus the STOP-NIDDM prevention-of-T2D trial.
- Content review status
- label verified
Selected public sources
- DailyMed: Precose (acarbose) prescribing information
- PubMed: Chiasson et al. Lancet 2002 - acarbose for prevention of type 2 diabetes mellitus (STOP-NIDDM randomised trial) (PMID 12086760)
- PubMed: Strong et al. Aging Cell 2016 - longer lifespan in male mice treated with a weakly estrogenic agonist, an antioxidant, an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (acarbose), or a Nrf2-inducer (NIA ITP) (PMID 27312235)