The Archivist - The Compound Codex

Metformin title card: foil tablets beside a research folder tied shut and a blank clipboard, ringed by an empty axis, a dumbbell with a downward arrow, an empty jar and a prescription slip.

longevity

Metformin for slowing aging

The trial meant to settle this has never enrolled anyone. The question that has been tested twice is whether metformin blunts what exercise does.

Rapamycin title card: an amber pill bottle on a lab bench with a mouse cage behind it, ringed by a mouse, a lone data point on an empty axis, a crossed shield and a prescription slip.

longevity

Rapamycin for slowing aging

The best lifespan result ever produced in mice, and a single 114-person human trial whose positive findings were confined to women on the higher dose.

Modafinil title card: a blister pack of tablets on a prescription slip beside a desk clock, ringed by diverging arrows, an eye, a controlled-substance document and a maze.

nootropics

Modafinil for cognitive enhancement

It works for the sleep disorders it is licensed to treat. Whether it makes a rested person think better is a different question, with a messier answer.

Ginkgo biloba title card: fan-shaped leaves and a labelled bottle resting on two bound trial reports, ringed by a flat line chart, a crossed-out shield, a calendar and a brain icon.

nootropics

Ginkgo biloba for preventing dementia

Two multi-year trials in nearly six thousand older adults, one publicly funded and one paid for by the manufacturer. Both found nothing.

Title card reading DHEA, with two weathered stone busts behind a bottle of DHEA capsules, ringed by male and female symbols, a steroid molecule and a prohibition sign.

hormones

DHEA for anti-aging

Tested more thoroughly than almost anything else we grade — two years, restored hormone levels, and no benefit. The one positive finding belongs to the hormones it turns into.