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Review
. 2025 Jul;42(7):591-598.
doi: 10.1007/s40266-025-01208-2. Epub 2025 Jul 3.

Drugs and Healthy Aging

Sarah N Hilmer  1 , Luigi Ferrucci  2 , Antonio Cherubini  3   4
Affiliations
Review

Drugs and Healthy Aging

Sarah N Hilmer et al. Drugs Aging. 2025 Jul.

Abstract

Appropriate drug treatment can enhance the likelihood of experiencing healthy aging and maintaining functional ability up to very late in life. Strong evidence exists that overall drugs can help prevent and manage diseases. However, such evidence is mostly available from studies that are not representative of older people and do not include functional/well-being outcomes. Therapeutic drugs can also impair physical and cognitive function and social interactions, particularly in the context of polypharmacy, multimorbidity and frailty. Certain drugs can affect the ability to exercise and consume a healthy diet, which are key nonpharmacological interventions that promote healthy aging. Yet, exercise and nutritional interventions can help manage adverse drug reactions. In the future, drugs (gerotherapeutics) may be developed that slow the aging process, which should prevent or delay the incidence and progression of many chronic diseases, improving healthy aging.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Funding: Open Access funding enabled and organized by CAUL and its Member Institutions. S.N.H. received no funding to write this opinion piece. The work of A.C. is supported in part by Next Generation EU—“Age-It—Ageing well in an ageing society” project (PE0000015), National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP)—PE8—Mission 4, C2, Intervention 1.3”. The views and opinions expressed are only those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be held responsible for them. L.F. is supported by the Intramural Research program of the National Institute on Aging, NIH, Baltimore, MD, USA. Conflict of interest: The authors have no disclosures related to the work submitted for publication. S.N.H. is an Editorial Board member of Drugs and Aging. S.N.H. was not involved in the selection of peer reviewers for the manuscript nor any of the subsequent editorial decisions. Ethics approval: Not applicable. Consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Availability of data and material: Not applicable. Code availability: Not applicable. Author contributions: All authors contributed to the paper conception and drafting and editing of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript and agree to be accountable for the work.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The relationship between drugs and healthy aging. Complex, multidirectional, positive, and negative interactions exist between drugs and factors related to intrinsic capacity (black circles). The arrows between drugs and disease, health behaviors, and function are solid, indicating that these bidirectional relationships are well established. The arrow between biological age and drugs is unfilled because the development of effective gerotherapeutics is a goal that has not currently been realized. The drug factors related to intrinsic capacity are underpinned by factors related to extrinsic capacity (blue rectangle)
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