From Memios
The Longevity Letter
Practical writing and video on living strong and active into your 90s. No hype, no supplements to sell. Just what the evidence supports and what it looks like on an ordinary Tuesday.
579 items
MedicationsClindamycin
The evidence is strongest for short courses in bacterial skin and soft-tissue infection, where a placebo-controlled randomised trial showed it raised cure after abscess drainage.
2026-10-03 · 25 min read
MedicationsClobetasol propionate
Topical corticosteroids reduce inflammation, itching and redness in the skin, and in a network meta-analysis of 22,028 patients potent and very potent steroids ranked at the top for plaque psoriasis.
2026-10-03 · 27 min read
MedicationsClotrimazole
Well established. Clotrimazole treats infection where it is applied.
2026-10-03 · 26 min read
MedicationsColchicine
Colchicine blunts the inflammatory response rather than killing anything or lowering uric acid.
2026-10-03 · 33 min read
MedicationsCyanocobalamin
Disputed. B12 is needed to make DNA, red blood cells and the myelin sheath around nerves.
2026-10-03 · 23 min read
MedicationsCyclosporine
Cyclosporine suppresses the immune system, and the evidence base is different for each thing it is used for.
2026-10-03 · 36 min read
MedicationsCyproheptadine
It blocks histamine and serotonin at their receptors and has anticholinergic and sedative effects.
2026-10-03 · 37 min read
MedicationsDesvenlafaxine
Well established. For major depressive disorder in adults the evidence supports a modest effect.
2026-10-03 · 28 min read
MedicationsDexamethasone
Well established. What the evidence actually shows depends entirely on which condition is being treated.
2026-10-03 · 41 min read
MedicationsDexlansoprazole
The evidence is strongest for healing and keeping healed the acid-damaged oesophagus (erosive esophagitis) and for reducing heartburn in reflux disease.
2026-10-03 · 29 min read
MedicationsDexmethylphenidate
Short-term randomised trials show a clear reduction in ADHD symptom scores against placebo.
2026-10-03 · 35 min read
MedicationsDextroamphetamine
The evidence for dextroamphetamine and the wider amphetamine class is strongest, and almost entirely confined to.
2026-10-03 · 40 min read
MedicationsDextromethorphan hydrobromide with promethazine hydrochloride
It is sold to quieten a cough and dry up cold and allergy symptoms. The evidence for the cough-suppressing part is weak and, in children.
2026-10-03 · 35 min read
MedicationsDiazepam
Well established. The evidence is strongest and shortest-term.
2026-10-03 · 23 min read
MedicationsDicyclomine
Dicyclomine is approved in the United States for one thing only: functional bowel or irritable bowel syndrome.
2026-10-03 · 29 min read
MedicationsDocusate
The claim is that it draws water and fat into the stool so the stool softens and straining eases.
2026-10-03 · 39 min read
MedicationsDonepezil
Donepezil produces small, measurable improvements in cognition and day-to-day function in Alzheimer's dementia that do not change the course of the disease.
2026-10-03 · 29 min read
MedicationsDorzolamide
Dorzolamide reliably lowers eye pressure, and the question the literature actually answers is by how much and whether that translates into saved sight.
2026-10-03 · 27 min read
MedicationsDorzolamide; Timolol
The evidence that this drop lowers intraocular pressure is strong and consistent; the evidence that lowering pressure with these particular drugs preserves vision is weaker and partly negative.
2026-10-03 · 30 min read
MedicationsDoxazosin
Doxazosin works for prostate symptoms and lowers blood pressure, but the outcome evidence splits sharply between those two uses.
2026-10-03 · 24 min read
MedicationsDrospirenone and ethinyl estradiol
The evidence that it prevents pregnancy is strong, and the trial Pearl Index for the 3 mg/0.02 mg product was 1.41 pregnancies per 100 woman-years.
2026-10-03 · 44 min read
MedicationsDupilumab
Dupilumab has unusually consistent placebo-controlled evidence across several conditions, each with its own pivotal trial.
2026-10-03 · 31 min read
MedicationsEmtricitabine; Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate
For treatment, this backbone outperformed the older zidovudine-lamivudine backbone: 84% versus 73% reached viral suppression below 400 copies/mL at 48 weeks.
2026-10-03 · 25 min read
MedicationsEnalapril
Well established. The evidence for enalapril is unusually strong in one setting and weak in another.
2026-10-03 · 20 min read