A Tale of Two Sexes: Rapamycin and Friends Protect Bone in Females, Lifespan in Males (opens in new tab)

Three of the best-validated lifespan-extending drugs — rapamycin, acarbose, and 17α-estradiol — all preserved spongy (trabecular) bone in aging female mice but did almost nothing in males. Osteoporosis drugs strengthen bone, but they do nothing about the muscle weakness, poor balance, and failing eyesight that actually cause most of the falls that break bones. That is the appeal of “geroprotectors” — drugs that slow aging itself and might fix several of these problems at once. The catch is th...