Could a notoriously habit-forming drug be a key to prolonging life?
The founder of the biohacking movement, Dave Asprey, is highlighting research that suggests it could be.
If you’ve had a nasty allergy or cold that made you horribly congested, you might have tried Afrin. The nasal spray is available over-the-counter at any drug store and can be a godsend — immediately opening up your airways so you can breathe with ease.
But there’s a warning you’ll find on every label: Do not use for more than three days in a row.
The body quickly adapts to the drug, and becomes reliant on it to keep airways free. If this happens, when you stop using the drug, your sinuses will swell much larger than before you started using it in the first place. It’s an easy trap to simply reach for a spray of Afrin again for some relief.
“I’m snorting Afrin for longevity. Kidding,” Asprey wrote in an Instagram post. “That’s a bad idea.”
That said, researchers are seeing evidence the drug’s active ingredient, oxymetazoline, could be repurposed in the future to keep our cells young and functional.
Asprey says a solution that looks familiar and is readily available could be the “next longevity breakthrough.”
“Some of the biggest longevity wins will come from a drug that’s already sitting on a shelf, not from some new molecule,” he wrote. “I’ve been saying this for years.”
How could Afrin affect aging?
Researchers from Northeastern University looked at 6,442 drugs to see how they might impact 11 biological processes called “hallmarks of aging.”
These include changes to whether genes are turned “on” or “off” (called epigenetic alterations) and cells losing the ability to clear proteins inside it, allowing them to accumulate.
Researchers found that oxymetazoline, the active ingredient in Afrin, could help with one of these “hallmarks” – cell-to-cell communication.
Aging affects how cells send, receive, and process chemical messages across the body. This has a number of negative effects, from dampening the immune system to muscle and bone loss.
Oxymetazoline, which is also in Sinex nasal sprays, eyedrops and topical creams for redness, could be repurposed to improve this natural breakdown in communications.
Research on how the drug might affect cells is being done at Harvard right now, researchers said. They hope to find how exactly oxymetazoline improves communication between cells.
But right now, no research is being done with humans. And authors noted that they don’t see this as a “cure for aging,” and rather that “it offers a roadmap” to be tested in cells, animals and eventually, humans.
“I think we are not there yet,” lead author Bnaya Gross said. But “we are moving toward the era of preciseness.”
Could Aspirin be another anti-aging aid?
The study highlighted a number of other drugs that could help with aging.
Aspirin was shown to play a role in five hallmarks of aging, including the same one oxymetazoline affects: intercellular communication.
It also helps with epigenetic alterations (turning genes on and off), proteostasis (clearing proteins), nutrient sensing (reacting to things like changes in sugar, fat, and waste), and cell senescence (cells that don’t die but stop dividing).
Like oxymetazoline, any anti-aging benefits in humans haven’t been studied.
