{"id":797291,"date":"2026-10-09T18:46:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/797291\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T18:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T18:46:36","slug":"drugs-like-ozempic-and-wegovy-are-linked-to-a-lower-risk-of-alzheimers-disease-new-study-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/797291\/","title":{"rendered":"Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are linked to a lower risk of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, new study says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Semaglutide\u2014the diabetes<\/a> and weight-loss<\/a> drug known by brand names like Ozempic<\/a> and Wegovy<\/a>\u2014is continuing to show its potential to treat a wide range of other conditions.<\/p>\n

While recent studies have revealed that these drugs may help stop opioid addiction<\/a>, smoking<\/a>, and even help people live longer<\/a>, a new study published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association<\/a> now also links semaglutide to a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.<\/p>\n

In the study, researchers at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine analyzed three years of electronic records of nearly one million Americans with type 2 diabetes. They compared patients using semaglutide programs<\/a>\u2014a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1<\/a>) receptor agonist\u2014to those prescribed one of seven other anti-diabetic drugs, including metformin, dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors (DPP-4i), and other GLP-1RAs (which mimic the effects of GLP-1s). Patients prescribed semaglutide had a 40% to 70% reduced risk of first-time Alzheimer’s diagnosis, compared to other antidiabetic medications.<\/p>\n

“The result is what we expected,” Rong Xu, biomedical informatics professor at Case Western Reserve University and lead researcher on the study, tells Fortune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given other studies that show semaglutide can help\u00a0reduce inflammation<\/a>\u00a0in the body,\u00a0prevent neuron damage<\/a>, promote\u00a0weight loss<\/a>, control\u00a0diabetes<\/a>, and prevent\u00a0cardiovascular disease<\/a>\u2014in addition to helping curb the urge to smoke and drink\u2014Xu says the drug is already lowering risk factors for Alzheimer’s.<\/p>\n

“If we can target these risk factors\u2026semaglutide can be beneficial in preventing or slowing down Alzheimer’s disease symptoms or development,” Xu says.<\/p>\n

Xu makes it clear that this study wasn’t meant to examine whether semaglutide lowers the risk for Alzheimer’s in people without diabetes.<\/p>\n

“Diabetes itself is a risk factor [for Alzheimer’s],” she says. Because of that, Xu and her team wanted to see if people at heightened risk\u2014those who have diabetes\u2014would have better outcomes with semaglutide versus other diabetes medications.<\/p>\n

Researchers can’t say that semaglutide does lower Alzheimer’s risk, only that there is a link. More research is needed.<\/p>\n

But Xu is also optimistic for what these study findings might mean for people currently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. She’d like to see if semaglutide could improve outcomes or have a therapeutic effect on those currently managing Alzheimer’s symptoms.<\/p>\n

A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on Oct. 24, 2024.<\/p>\n

For more on Alzheimer’s:<\/p>\n

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Semaglutide\u2014the diabetes and weight-loss drug known by brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy\u2014is continuing to show its potential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[915,262146,102,6591,262145,16839,15037,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-797291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-alzheimers-disease","tag-alzheimers-diagnosis","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-rong-xu","tag-semaglutide","tag-type-2-diabetes","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}