The popular weight-loss jabs Wegovy and Mounjaro might be doing more than just helping people shed the pounds – they could also be slowing the ageing process, a study found.
In mice that were a healthy weight to start with, Wegovy made them live 12 per cent longer – equivalent to a person living until 93 instead of 83.
The findings are leading some to suggest that these injections could one day be used as anti-ageing drugs by everyone – regardless of weight.
But could the fountain of youth really be under our noses, or is this yet another anti-ageing “breakthrough” that’s too good to be true?
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NHS pensions are defined benefit schemes – often known as gold-plated schemes (Photo: Yau Ming Low/Getty)
Personal finance
Pension dashboard deadline nears – what it means for you
Pension schemes and providers have until the end of October to connect to a “dashboard” system allowing workers to monitor their retirement savings.
Crucially, the 31 October deadline applies only to companies and providers, rather than savers themselves. Consumers do not need to take any action.
Everything you need to know
The dashboards are designed to help workers track down and monitor old pension pots, allowing for closer planning of retirement incomes.
Each provider must connect to the information-sharing system by the end of next month. People will also be able to see their state pension details in the same place.
The move is part of wider changes in the pension system being brought in by Labour which will include value for money assessments.
Pension performance league tables
Ministers are planning a system for scrutinising pension performance using a new Value for Money framework.
Schemes will be rated by 2029 in a league table based on their investment performance, charging levels and quality of service.
The poorest performing schemes will be required to improve or face closure.
From 2029, providers will be expected to present savers with a single retirement income option which would combine all savings. Retirees would still be free to choose other options.
How El Niño could impact your garden and what you can do to prepare
Recent rain has brought welcome respite for plants and trees but the arrival of the El Niño – predicted to be the strongest in living memory – represents a new threat to parched gardens.
Gardening is a great way to improve muscle strength, balance and boost your mood (Photo: coldsnowstorm/Getty)
Everything you need to know
El Niño is the naturally occurring climate phenomenon caused by raised ocean temperatures that builds in the Pacific.
The phenomenon occurs every two-seven years and is when east to west trade winds weaken or reverse.
The Met Office has warned that this year’s El Niño is set to be unprecedentedly strong and the UK could be hit by a wet and stormy autumn and early winter.
Flash flooding and broken boughs
The system usually brings wetter or colder winters in the UK with experts warning that trees are particularly vulnerable because the summer drought may have weakened both root systems and hindered water absorption in branches.
Gardens remain flooded as high water levels begin to recede after Storm Babet flooded homes, business and roads (Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty)
A fallen tree and collapsed wall partially obstruct Dee Street in east Belfast after Storm Isha passed through the area (Photo: David Young/PA Wire)
Heavy rainfall on soil which is still dry from the summer drought could cause flash flooding well into the autumn. Trees could be affected by “cavitation” – a condition whereby air bubbles stop water flow within the trunk and branches.
What to do
Primrose Hill in north London this week as Britain experiences the fourth heatwave of this year (Photo: Peter Nicholls/Getty)
Gardeners should keep an eye on trees and if worried, get an inspection.
Heat-loving Mediterranean plants should be moved indoors and drains cleared.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 20: Tourists on a walking tour of Central London carry umbrellas during a heavy rain shower next to Pall Mall on August 20, 2026 in London, England. Heavy rain is unlikely to break England’s widespread drought. Rain falling on the dry, baked soil could cause flash flooding rather than replenishing water supplies. With 71% of the country in drought, sustained rain over several months is required, meaning hosepipe bans will likely remain in place. (Photo by James D. Morgan/Getty Images)
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Copyright: 2026 James D. Morgan
Garden furniture – and even hot tubs – can be covered by your contents insurance (Photo: Pxhere)
Pack away patio furniture sooner rather than later.
health
The drugs found to slow ageing – you might already be taking them
Weight-loss jabs such as Wegovy may be slowing the ageing process as well as helping people to shed unwanted pounds, a study has found.
Research found that mice at a healthy weight who were given Wegovy lived 12 per cent longer – equivalent to a person living to 93 instead of 83.
What you need to know
Scientists looked at the effects of semaglutide – the active ingredient in Wegovy – on senescence, the process by which cells stop multiplying to regenerate tissues.
The findings suggest that as well as suppressing appetite, the drug reduces inflammation, DNA damage and senescence. More than 2m Britons are thought to be taking a weight-loss medication.
The result could be that the slimming drug will one day be used as an anti-ageing pill for everyone – regardless of weight.
The bad news
There are reasons for caution over the idea that the first true anti-ageing drugs have arrived. Most studies into the phenomenon have focused on small animals and scientists have reservations about the same findings applying to humans.
Caption: EMBARGOED TO 0001 WEDNESDAY MARCH 8
File photo dated 16/10/24 of Semaglutide (GLP-1) weight-loss drug Wegovy. Ads for an online pharmacy have been banned for promoting prescription-only weight-loss medication to the public and exploiting new mothers’ insecurities about body image. The Instagram and Facebook ads for Juniper also created an undue sense of urgency for those considering medicated weight-loss programmes while posts in weight-loss support groups on Facebook did not make clear that they were paid for by the advertiser, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) found. Issue date: Wednesday April 8, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: James Manning/PA Wire
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Caption: Obesity woman stretching before daily outdoor training
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Source: Moment RF
Research into calorie restriction – a radical anti-ageing strategy – has found that while the effects can be dramatic in creatures such as worms or flies, they are at best marginal in more complex animals such as monkeys. Scientists say more research is needed.
The bad news
There are reasons for caution over the idea the first true anti-ageing drugs have arrived. Most studies into the phenomenon have focused on small animals and scientists have reservations about the same findings applying to humans.
For the first time, weight-loss pills are available in pill form through UK pharmacies and online providers (Photo: Hannah Beier/Reuters)
Exclusive
3 min read
The bad news
There are reasons for caution over the idea that the first true anti-ageing drugs have arrived. Most studies into the phenomenon have focused on small animals and scientists have reservations about the same findings applying to humans.
3 min read
4 min read
Over two million people in Britain are thought to be taking weight-loss medication since their UK launch a few years ago – Wegovy in 2023 and Mounjaro the following year. The medicines work by mimicking hormones normally released after eating, making people fuller and blunting their appetite.
Reductions in inflammation, DNA damage
The drugs are supposed to be taken only by people over a certain weight. And research has so far mainly been in people or animals that are either overweight or have health conditions like heart or liver disease.
But in the new study, researchers gave injections of semaglutide – the same drug as in Wegovy – to female mice that were both healthy and a normal weight. Treatment was started when the animals were 20 months old, the equivalent of 60 years in humans.
As expected, the treated mice ate less food and ended up 19 per cent lighter than mice given placebo injections.
But the researchers found something more significant: the mice on Wegovy lived for about 27 months – three months longer than those in the control group.
The mice were also subjected to tests designed to probe how their cells and tissues were functioning.
The effects of Wegovy were consistent with it having a true anti-ageing effect, including reductions in inflammation, DNA damage and a process called cell senescence.
Senescence is when individual cells within an organ stop multiplying to regenerate tissues – as happens when we are younger – but instead enter a dormant state and release harmful chemicals. Other experimental drugs that target senescence are being investigated as a new class of anti-ageing drugs.
“We can potentially use this drug to slow down the ageing process and make healthy individuals live longer,” said Professor Danica Chen, a biologist at University of California, Berkeley, who led the study.
Radical anti-ageing strategy
Chen began the study hoping to find out if Wegovy could achieve similar results to a different radical anti-ageing strategy called calorie restriction.
This is when people go on a permanent lower-calorie diet – for women that might be about 1,500 calories a day instead of the usual 2,000 – not for weight loss but in the hope it will make them live longer.
Calorie restriction has been found to work at extending lifespan in many small animals – from two to three weeks in tiny worms, for instance. The theory is that when energy is scarce, the body prioritises repair and regeneration processes.
Some people manage to follow calorie restriction long term, but it is a challenging lifestyle to maintain.
As Wegovy suppresses appetite, it could be the key to achieving calorie restriction in an easier way, said Chen.
The bad news
But before we assume weight-loss jabs really are the first anti-ageing drugs, there are reasons for caution.
Even before the arrival of weight-loss drugs, anti-ageing researchers had some reservations about calorie restriction. While studies in small animals like worms and flies yielded impressive effects, when the strategy is tried in monkeys, one study found a much smaller benefit and another none.
Just because an anti-ageing strategy works in mice, that doesn’t mean it will work in people, said Dr Saul Newman, a longevity researcher at the University of Oxford who has a book coming out called Morbid: Debunking Modern Longevity Science.
What’s more, even when weight-loss jabs are used in their intended target – on people who are overweight – they are no panacea. They cause mild side effects like nausea and diarrhoea in most people, especially when they start off or the dose is increased. Some find these so unpleasant they stop the jabs.
The drugs can also cause rare but more serious side effects, like pancreatitis and gall stones. Anyone at risk of these conditions may not be able to use them.
The study only looked at Wegovy injections, so we can’t assume the results would be the same with the medicine in pill form, or Mounjaro, which mimics two gut hormones as opposed to Wegovy’s one.
Not to mention the fact that the research was only carried out in female mice – so, bad luck for any men wanting the secret to longevity.
“We know that there are significant biological differences in tissues between mice and humans, such as our fat tissue, and between male and females,” said Dr Laura Sinclair, healthcare lecturer at the University of Exeter.
More research is needed to establish whether weight-loss drugs could work for anti-ageing, she said.
Despite the caveats, the results are making obesity and longevity researchers sit up – but it is probably too soon to get excited yet.
And that’s probably fortunate, because for now, weight-loss drugs are priced out of reach for most people, at £200 to £300 a month – although the cost is likely to plunge dramatically within the next decade, once the patent expires on Wegovy.