14 DAY TRIAL // Apparently, there is no need to keep looking for the magical, wondrous fountain of youth. It's not hidden deep in some forest that Indiana Jones or Lara Croft alone could hope to explore, it's present in pretty much each and every drug store.
It goes by the name of ibuprofen and too many of us think of it as a perfectly common over-the-counter drug that can chase away pain and even fever. That's right, scientists now claim that ibuprofen might just be the key to enjoying a longer, healthier life.
They're just messing with us, right?
If we're going to be honest here, it must be said that learning that the common over-the-counter drug ibuprofen could be the fountain of youth we have been hoping to find for centuries now can be a wee mind-boggling, if not downright shocking.
The thing is that the scientists behind this claim do have evidence to support this announcement of theirs. Thus, they say that, having carried out a series of experiments on yeasts, worms and even flies, they found that ibuprofen can extend lifespan.
“We first used baker’s yeast, which is an established aging model, and noticed that the yeast treated with ibuprofen lived longer,” explained specialist Dr. Michael Polymenis, an AgriLife Research biochemist in College Station.
“Then we tried the same process with worms and flies and saw the same extended lifespan. Plus, these organisms not only lived longer, but also appeared healthy,” the scientist went on to detail the outcome of his and his colleagues' study, as cited by Science Daily.
True, the researchers are yet to prove that ibuprofen can also help people lead longer, healthier lives. Then again, seeing how the doses that were administered to the yeast, the worms and the flies were comparable to the recommended human dose, this could be the case.
The scientists say that they want to further research the potential use of ibuprofen to slow down natural aging processes and to help people stay healthy even when long past their prime. Hopefully, some good news will soon come our way.
A short history of ibuprofen
In case anyone was wondering, ibuprofen was developed by scientists in England back in the 1960s. For about two decades after it was made available to the general public, people could only get it if they had a prescription. In was only in the 1980s that the drug became an over-the-counter one.
The World Health Organization describes ibuprofen as a drug that serves to reduce pain, fever and inflammation, and lists it among the essential medications any basic health system must make available to people living in one corner of the world or another.
