Semaglutide – this diabetes And weight loss Drug known by brand names such as Ozempic And Wegovy– continues to show potential for treating a variety of other conditions.
While recent studies have shown that these medications can help you quit Opioid addiction, Smokeand even help people live longera new study published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association now also associates semaglutide with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
In the study, researchers at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine analyzed three years of electronic records from nearly one million Americans with type 2 diabetes. They compared patients who were prescribed semaglutide – a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) Receptor agonist – to those prescribed one of seven other antidiabetic drugs, including metformin, dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i) and other GLP-1RAs (which mimic the effects of GLP-1). Patients prescribed semaglutide had a 40 to 70% lower risk of an initial diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease compared to other antidiabetic drugs.
“The result is in line with our expectations,” says Rong Xu, professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western Reserve University and lead researcher on the study Assets.
Given other studies showing that semaglutide can help Reduce inflammation in the body, Prevent neuron damagesupport financially weight losscontrol diabetesand prevent Cardiovascular diseasesXu says the drug not only helps curb urges to smoke and drink, but also already reduces risk factors for Alzheimer’s.
“If we can address these risk factors, semaglutide may help prevent or slow the symptoms or development of Alzheimer’s disease,” Xu says.
Xu makes it clear that this study was not intended to examine whether semaglutide reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in people without diabetes.
“Diabetes itself is a risk factor [for Alzheimer’s]“, she says. That’s why Xu and her team wanted to find out whether people at higher risk – people with diabetes – had better results with semaglutide than with other diabetes drugs.
Researchers can’t say that semaglutide reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, only that there is a link. Further research is needed.
However, Xu is also optimistic about what these study results could mean for people currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She says she would like to see if semaglutide could improve outcomes or have a therapeutic effect on those currently struggling with Alzheimer’s symptoms.
More information about Alzheimer’s:
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