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
MedicationsKetoconazole
Ketoconazole kills fungi by blocking the enzyme that converts lanosterol to ergosterol, so the fungal cell membrane fails.
2026-10-03 · 30 min read
MedicationsKetorolac tromethamine
For short-term severe acute pain the evidence is reasonably good: pooled single-dose trials give a number-needed-to-treat of about 3 for at least half the pain relieved.
2026-10-03 · 25 min read
MedicationsLabetalol hydrochloride
For lowering blood pressure it works, and the label documents the dose-response in detail.
2026-10-03 · 41 min read
MedicationsLansoprazole
Lansoprazole reliably cuts stomach acid, and the randomised evidence for healing damaged oesophagus and preventing ulcers is strong and quantified: 8-week healing rate ratio 1.62 (95% CI 1.46-1.76) against ranitidine.
2026-10-03 · 37 min read
MedicationsLetrozole
Well established. In postmenopausal breast cancer the evidence is strong and quantified.
2026-10-03 · 32 min read
MedicationsLevetiracetam
It reduces seizures, and the evidence for that in drug-resistant focal epilepsy as an add-on is solid: in the pivotal placebo-controlled trials it cut weekly partial seizure frequency by 26.1% to 30.1% over placebo.
2026-10-03 · 30 min read
MedicationsLevocetirizine
Randomised placebo-controlled trials show levocetirizine reduces nasal and eye symptoms in allergic rhinitis and reduces itch in chronic idiopathic urticaria.
2026-10-03 · 34 min read
MedicationsLevofloxacin
Levofloxacin kills bacteria, and for several respiratory and urinary infections trial evidence is consistent with benefit.
2026-10-03 · 40 min read
MedicationsLinaclotide
Well established. It makes the bowel wetter and faster.
2026-10-03 · 43 min read
MedicationsLiothyronine sodium
T3 is the form of thyroid hormone that actually acts on cells, so giving it works biochemically: trials consistently show higher blood T3 and lower T4.
2026-10-03 · 27 min read
MedicationsLithium
Lithium is the oldest mood stabiliser and still the one with the most consistent long-term randomised evidence.
2026-10-03 · 27 min read
MedicationsLoperamide hydrochloride
The evidence is strongest for shortening an episode of acute diarrhoea and for reducing stool frequency.
2026-10-03 · 51 min read
MedicationsLovastatin
Lovastatin lowers LDL cholesterol by about a quarter at 20 to 40 mg a day, and the trial evidence that this prevents heart attacks is strong but has to be read separately for people who have and have not already had cardiovascular disease.
2026-10-03 · 37 min read
MedicationsMagnesium salts used as medicines
Well established. Magnesium does three quite separate things depending on the salt and the route.
2026-10-03 · 28 min read
MedicationsMeclizine hydrochloride
The honest summary is that the evidence is thin and mostly about the drug class rather than meclizine itself.
2026-10-03 · 24 min read
MedicationsMedroxyprogesterone acetate
The depot injection prevents pregnancy very reliably, with a 12-month failure rate of zero to 0.7 in five company studies, by stopping the hormone surge that releases an egg.
2026-10-03 · 85 min read
MedicationsMelatonin
Melatonin is a body-clock signal, not a sedative, and the measured effects on sleep are small.
2026-10-03 · 27 min read
MedicationsMemantine
Across high-certainty evidence from around 3,700 participants, memantine produces a small benefit in moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease - about 3.11 points on a 100-point cognitive scale over six months - and the reviewers themselves note that effect sizes in this field may be smaller than the minimum clinically important difference.
2026-10-03 · 21 min read
MedicationsMesalamine
The evidence is strongest, and of high certainty, for ulcerative colitis: oral 5-ASA beats placebo both for getting mild-to-moderate disease into remission and for keeping it there.
2026-10-03 · 23 min read
MedicationsMethotrexate
For rheumatoid arthritis the evidence is reasonably strong and reasonably well quantified: a Cochrane review of 7 placebo-controlled trials (732 people) found about 15 more people in 100 reached a major response (ACR50) on methotrexate than on placebo at 52 weeks.
2026-10-03 · 36 min read
MedicationsMethylprednisolone
The evidence is strong that methylprednisolone suppresses inflammation and immune responses, and that this helps in some specific situations and harms in others.
2026-10-03 · 31 min read
MedicationsMetoclopramide
It moves the stomach along and settles nausea, and the evidence is stronger for the nausea than for the stomach.
2026-10-03 · 50 min read
MedicationsMetronidazole
The evidence is strongest for the infections it is licensed to treat: a randomised trial in 623 women found 7 days of metronidazole cleared Trichomonas vaginalis better than a single 2 g dose.
2026-10-03 · 29 min read
MedicationsMirabegron
In three 12-week placebo-controlled trials the absolute effect is small and measurable: about 0.3 to 0.4 fewer wetting episodes and about 0.4 to 0.6 fewer trips to the toilet per 24 hours than placebo.
2026-10-03 · 41 min read