A paramedic holds a kit containing syringes, bandaids and antiseptic pads which are going to be used by drug addicts inside a supervised injection room in Athens November 25, 2013. Greece has set up its first "drug consumption" room to contain a
A paramedic holds a kit containing syringes, bandaids and antiseptic pads which are going to be used by drug addicts inside a supervised injection room in Athens November 25, 2013. Reuters/Yorgos Karahalis

Researchers from the US have fund that ibuprofen, an over-the counter drug for relieving pain and curing colds and fevers, could hold the key for a longer life. Experiment on yeasts, worms and flies showed that their lives extended by about 15 percent. In human beings, this would add an extra 12 years of healthy life to a person's life, reported the Daily Mail.

The researchers said that they had a lot to be excited about. They said that the over-the-counter drug was a safe drug that was found in the medicine cabinets of most people. The dosage of the drug was similar to the ones that are usually taken by people for the treatment of headaches, muscle pain and the flu.

The experiments that were conducted on worms with the use of ibuprofen showed that the worms had a healthy life as well. The lead researcher of the study from the Buck Institute for Age Research in California, Dr Chong He, said that the worms tended to thrash a lot and the treated worms trashed for a period longer than was normally expected. He explained that with age, the worms swallowed the food also much faster than what was expected.

Dr Michael Polymenis, a researcher from the Texas A&M University who is a part of the study, said that they thought that one of the promising aspects of their study was that safe drugs like ibuprofen were worth being looked at further. He said that their study supported the idea that drugs that had a common use might have unexpected properties. He added that a little more research was necessary to examine as well as understand those properties. He warned against self-medication and advised the people to speak to their doctors before they consumed any medicines.

There was no clear idea as to why or how the drug slowed down the process of ageing. But the researchers suspected that it had something to do with the drug stopping the cells from taking in a compound that is usually found in eggs, chocolates and turkey called trytophan.

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