Canagliflozin - Another Top Longevity Drug

People with BD have a certain ACM, as do people with other morbidities. It’s very hard to group them together with all SGLT2i and try to compare ACMs across all these disparate cohorts.

And also, if you look at ACM itself, what is that composed of? They try to separate cause specific to BD, such as suicide, death from unnatural causes etc., but really we should just look at deaths from “natural causes”, here given as - (RR = 1.90, 95% CI: 1.75–2.06, k = 17).

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Use of Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT 2) inhibitor is associated with reduced emergency room visits and hospitalizations in patients with Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0954611124002944

SGLT-2 Inhibitors and the Risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Exacerbations and Mortality in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

The clinical effectiveness of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors on prognosis of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60582-y

Sodium–Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitor Use and Risk of Liver-Related Events in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Meta-analysis of Observational Cohort Studies

https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/48/6/1042/158297/Sodium-Glucose-Cotransporter-2-Inhibitor-Use-and

Here is a list of top 10 causes of death in the USA in 2024:

  • Heart disease: 683,491
  • Cancer: 619,876
  • Accidents (unintentional injuries): 197,449
  • Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 166,852
  • Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 145,643
  • Alzheimer’s disease: 116,022
  • Diabetes: 94,445
  • Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 55,081
  • Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis: 52,274
  • Suicide: 48,824

Try to evaluate how many of these are impacted by SGLT2i. Question: should SGLT2i be added to the water supply?

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New paper (pay walled), mouse model, apparently shows damage and scarring of distal renal tubules due to the high concentration of glucose being excreted from the kidneys.

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Sounds like you should hydrate well if on an SGLT2i - at least you can try to dilute the kidney output. I figured as much anyway.

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Interesting paper but one surprising bit: “Empagliflozin induced hyperglucosuria that persisted post-cessation”

This is not something that happens in humans so the results might not be translatable to humans. Even more so as they go against the massive amount of evidence showing SGLT2i renal benefits. Including preclinical literature showing that SGLT2i reduce, not worsen, renal inflammation/fibrosis/EMT pathways. For instance: Renal protective effects of empagliflozin via inhibition of EMT and aberrant glycolysis in proximal tubules - PMC

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The paper you linked is in proximal tubules. Has anyone examined empagliflozin’s effects on distal tubules in humans?

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Could this be because to date they’ve only been looking at proximal as opposed to distal renal tubules, and/or overall renal function as opposed to zooming in specifically on the distal tubules?

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Holly molly are these convos ever scientific where I have no clue what to make of them. I started Empa about year ago on suggestions from these boards and do 1/2 pill =12.5mg per day. Are we still in agreement that SGLT2i are beneficial or should I damn stop all the meds and never look at anything until I’m in my death bed LOL. Btw, I started it more so for benefits to other organs (and hopefully as synergetic to rapa) than to lower my glucose which is a bit high mid 90’s but still within normal range.

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@jnorm @Davin8r: it’s true that most papers looked at proximal rather than distal tubules but some did:

Surely the above would have noticed if fibrosis was present?

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One point in favor of the 2026 paper: “This study is the first to show that acute empagliflozin treatment induces senescence in distal tubular cells of wild-type mice, but not in diabetic mice. Additionally, the long-term effects of empagliflozin promote senescence, EMT, and renal interstitial fibrosis in the distal tubules of both wild-type and diabetic mice.”

Maybe previous papers only looked at diabetic mice and therefore missed “senescence in distal tubular cells”? However, the second sentence applies to both types. Also, ITP found life extension in wild type with canagliflozin and a Chinese paper replicated the result with empagliflozin (but smaller effect).

It’s also surprising that the 2026 paper did not cite or discuss the three papers above. When you make such an extraordinary claim vs all previous literature, you should discuss it a bit, shouldn’t you?

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What about ARBs used either alone or in conjunction with SGLT2i wrt. distal tubular cell impact? I haven’t performed any extensive literature search, but I might try later, time allowing. A very general look at kidneys:

Observations of the Effects of Angiotensin II Receptor Blocker on Angiotensin II-Induced Morphological and Mechanical Changes in Renal Tubular Epithelial Cells Using Atomic Force Microscopy

“Renal fibrosis, characterized by increased extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation on the kidney parenchyma, is the final common manifestation of chronic kidney disease (CKD), regardless of the primary causes [1, 2]. Previous studies reported that renal tubular epithelial cells (TECs) played an important role in the development of renal tubulointerstitial fibrosis [3]. TECs release chemokines and profibrogenic cytokines and undergo epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) in pathological conditions [46]. Therefore, understanding the changes of TECs are important for the prevention and effective treatment of renal fibrosis.”

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Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors and the risk of late onset epilepsy: A real-world cohort study 2026

SGLT2i use was associated with lower risk of LOE (HR = .55, 95% CI = .44–.68), status epilepticus (HR = .38, 95% CI = .21–.69), and antiseizure medication initiation (HR = .63, 95% CI = .58–.69)

One more benefit…

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Some other papers against SGLT2i, make whatever you want of it:

The above are mostly about canagliflozin and/or not high-quality papers.

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This caught my eye because I take Dapa:

“Dapagliflozin in concentrations of 10-20 μM had no effect on the parameters of respiration and oxidative phosphorylation of rat liver mitochondria. Increasing dapagliflozin concentration to 50 μM led to a significant inhibition of mitochondrial respiration in states 3 and 3UDNP.”

So I asked an LLM

The 10-20M range mentioned in your query is approximately 25 to 50 times higher than the peak concentration found in the blood of a human taking a standard 10mg dose.

Based on that, the paper finding effects at 50M doesn’t sound alarming. Unfortunately I have no way of validating the LLMs output.

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What LLM did you use?

Gemini 3 fast

Association of SGLT2 Inhibitor With Stroke in Type 2 Diabetes With Diabetic Retinopathy: A Multicenter Electronic Health Record Data Study

https://dom-pubs.pericles-prod.literatumonline.com/doi/10.1111/dom.70744

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Henagliflozin extends telomeres. Could apply to all SGLT2’s. Interesting stuff

https://x.com/agingroy/status/2050953236283076734?s=46

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My doctor has a good thing to day about dapa.

Henagliflozin (a newer, primarily Chinese-marketed SGLT2i) and dapagliflozin (a widely established global SGLT2i) provide similar HbA1c reduction and weight loss in type 2 diabetes. Both agents improve glycemic stability; however, dapagliflozin has broader, extensive evidence for reducing heart failure hospitalizations, while henagliflozin may have a higher rate of adverse effects at certain doses. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

It is also being studies for longevity at UoT
https://x.com/davidasinclair/status/2029715732280566203?s=20

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Just noticed that CostPlus has Dapagliflozin Propanediol (Generic for Farxiga) for $15.07/90 pills ($0.17/pill)

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