David Sinclair· PhD
Molecularly, what's happening is that the metformin molecule gets inside the cell and into the mitochondria where there's what's called the electron transport chain. This is a series of bundles of proteins, five in all, that pass electrons between them like a hot potato, and generate chemical energy. Metformin disrupts that first step, and in doing so releases free radicals. Superoxide anion is one that goes off and damages parts of the cell. And we call this damage mitohormesis, which is a little bit of damage makes actually the cells stronger. One of the main things that happens is that the cells react and say, oh my goodness, we don't have enough energy, make more mitochondria, more battery packs, more energy for the body. The other thing that happens is that this signal sends a protein called GLUT4 to the outside of the cell in the membrane to suck more sugar out of the blood stream, and having lower blood sugar protects the body from this caramelization process that also causes many diseases,