A new study on Monday highlighted the potential benefits of popular diabetes drugs on a wide range of health problems, including dementia and cardiovascular disease, although experts caution against viewing them as miracle drugs.
The study published in Natural medicine is unique in its scale and marks an important step in the study of new generation weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro, which have already somewhat revolutionized the fight against obesity.
“No one had comprehensively studied the effectiveness and risks of GLP-1 receptor agonists for all health conditions,” epidemiologist Ziyad Al-Aly said at a press conference on Monday.
GLP-1 drugs, which came on the market about a decade ago, combat obesity and related conditions by mimicking the function of a hormone that secretes insulin, slows stomach emptying and suppresses ‘appetite.
They are widely considered one of the great medical developments of recent years, generating colossal revenues for pharmaceutical companies such as Novo Nordisk (Ozempic/Wegovy) and Eli Lilly (Mounjaro).
Numerous studies have already shown that their benefits could go beyond weight loss and diabetes.
These studies showed that patients taking GLP-1 drugs fared better against a wide range of health problems such as dementia, cardiovascular disease or alcohol dependence.
Monday’s large study confirmed the findings of previous research, also providing more specific information on the promising effects of the drugs.
The researchers conducted their investigation in the United States, using health data from hundreds of thousands of veterans.
They compared two groups of diabetics: one receiving standard treatment, the other on GLP-1 treatment.
GLP-1 patients had “a lower risk of drug use, psychological or seizure disorders, neurocognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia, coagulation and cardiometabolic disorders, diseases infectious and various respiratory pathologies”, according to the study.
A wide range of effects
Obesity is associated with multiple health problems, said Al-Aly, the epidemiologist, and GLP-1 drugs help patients lose weight.
But the researcher said drugs could also have a more direct impact.
“The biology is complex and the GLP-1 receptors in the body don’t control anything,” Al-Aly said.
Monday’s study marks an important milestone.
Until now, work on the potential of GLP-1 has been scattered and no study has given such a broad overview of the drugs.
It also partly answers questions about the risks associated with this type of medication.
Patients taking GLP-1 often experience digestive problems, but they do not appear to have more suicidal thoughts than others, as has been reported in previous studies.
But researchers say it’s far too early to imagine that these drugs will become some sort of magic cure for countless illnesses.
The study drew its observations from people to whom the drug was prescribed and does not establish a causal link between the drugs and the diseases.
For this, comprehensive clinical tests, which could take years, would be necessary. And not all health issues receive the same level of attention.
Some clinical tests on cardiovascular disorders have given good results and some are also well underway for Alzheimer’s disease.
But in other areas, such as alcohol dependence, very little action is taken.
Also, the Natural medicine The study focuses on patients with a very specific profile, generally older men, supposedly all diabetics.
It is therefore impossible at this stage to generalize its conclusions.
Finally, the effects of medications are often mild: in cases of dementia, the risk is reduced by a little more than a tenth.
“This is important work,” pharmacologist Dipender Gill, who was not involved in the study but worked for years for Novo Nordisk, told AFP.
“The authors are clear that the research is exploratory and should be used for discovery purposes.”
Gill cautioned that no patient should seek to take GLP-1 drugs based solely on the promises of this study.
© Agence France-Presse
