Research
Energy balance
Metformin protects against cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury and improves heart failure outcomes post-MI by activating AMPK, which promotes glycolysis and prevents mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) opening.
If you have had a heart attack, metformin (even in low doses) may help protect your heart muscle from further damage by improving energy use in heart cells. This benefit extends to non-diabetic heart failure patients as well, improving heart pumping function.
ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Several studies have suggested that metformin protects against cardiac IRI through the activation of AMPK [52–54]. Activation of AMPK promotes glycolysis and protects myocyte viability through closure of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP)... metformin protects the heart against IRI through AMPK–eNOS signaling
Why this rating
Strong animal data and some human observational data; mechanism is well-described.
Source
Metformin: An Old Drug with New Applications
Joseph Zhou et al. · International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2018
DOI 10.3390/ijms19102863
narrative_reviewCited 229×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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