Originally designed to treat type 2 diabetes, GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy quickly made it into the hands of every now-formerly hefty person in your life. A new study suggests that these drugs, specifically their active ingredient semaglutide, might be shielding your brain from dementia in addition to melting fat.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University, led by Rong Xu, just published a study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease showing that diabetic patients on semaglutide had a 40 to 50 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared to those on other meds like insulin or metformin. This benefit showed up across age groups, genders, and whether or not the patient was obese. Everyone benefits.
And there is a bit of logic to it when you understand what, exactly, the health issues Semaglutide is solving. Diabetes. Obesity. Inflammation. Cardiovascular problems. They’re all bad on their own, but they’re all also risk factors for dementia.
All of this is in addition to Xu’s past research, which has shown that semaglutide might also curb addictive behaviors, like addiction to nicotine or opioids. As more research pours in, it seems like semaglutide might be the ultimate Swiss Army knife medication. Diabetic overweight nicotine addicts with a family history of dementia should be dancing in the streets.
Now, to tone down the fun just a little bit, the reduced dementia risk was mostly linked to vascular dementia, which is the second most common form after Alzheimer’s. It didn’t seem to help with other types of dementia, like Lewy body or frontotemporal dementia.
Still, it’s compelling enough that drugmaker Novo Nordisk is running full-blown clinical trials right now to test semaglutide’s ability to fight Alzheimer’s.
If those trials are successful, semaglutide can cross dementia off its kill list, since it will start acting as a dementia prevention tool that tons of people are already taking, and potentially tons more once semaglutide GLP-1 meds start getting cheaper and more accessible.
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