Clinical academics at the university conducted a blind trial in which 130 people with an average age of 79 and difficulties in managing day-to-day activities were given either a placebo tablet or commonly-prescribed ACE inhibitor drug (perindopril) daily for 20 weeks. At the end of the trial the researchers found that the older people taking the ACE inhibitors – which are primarily used in the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure - had better exercise capacity and better quality of life than the placebo group. 

Professor Marion McMurdo, Head of the Ageing and Health unit within the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee, said the findings are “tremendously important” and provide further encouragement about the possibility of slowing decline and disability in later life. 

She continued: “We found that the people who had been given the drug could walk on average 30 metres further in six minutes than those who had been given the placebo. 

“This is a level of improvement in exercise capacity that is equivalent to that reported after six months of exercise training, and may make an important difference for a growing sector of the population in which people might find it difficult to sustain that level of exercise.”