{"id":12813,"date":"2025-07-15T23:35:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T23:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/12813\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T23:35:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T23:35:06","slug":"ozempic-found-to-slash-risk-of-disease-affecting-6-7m-americans-each-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/12813\/","title":{"rendered":"Ozempic found to slash risk of disease affecting 6.7m Americans each year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blockbuster weight loss<\/a> drugs could slash the risk of developing memory-robbing dementia, a major study suggests.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers in Ireland analyzed clinical trials of nearly 165,000 taking drugs to lower their glucose (blood sugar) and treat diabetes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team found most glucose-lowering treatments had no significant impact on dementia risk.<\/p>\n

However, people taking GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic and Wegovy were 45 percent less likely to develop dementia at some point in their lives than people on other drugs.<\/p>\n

While it’s unclear exactly how the active ingredients in these drugs – most often semaglutide and tirzepatide – reduce the likelihood of dementia, the researchers believe they may lower inflammation in the brain.<\/p>\n

Neuroinflammation is thought to damage neurons and disrupt communications to part of the brain responsible for memory, triggering dementia symptoms.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

GLP-1 agonists may also reduce toxic amyloid and tau proteins, hallmarks of dementia.<\/p>\n

The team suspects GLP-1 agonists like Ozempic may help prevent both diabetes and dementia, both of which are on the rise in the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Semaglutide <\/p>\n

Semaglutide and tirzepatide \u2014 the powerful ingredients behind Wegovy, Ozempic and Mounjaro \u2014 have long been hailed a monumental breakthrough in the war on obesity and type 2 diabetes\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n

Dr Catriona Reddin, senior study author and researcher at the University of Galway, said: ‘This research represents a significant contribution to our understanding of how some diabetes medications may impact brain health.<\/p>\n

‘Diabetes is a known risk factor for dementia, but whether glucose-lowering therapies can help prevent cognitive decline has remained unclear.<\/p>\n

‘Our findings suggest that GLP-1 receptor agonists, in particular, may have a protective effect on brain health.’<\/p>\n

The study comes after a similar experiment from the University of Florida, which tracked 400,000 Americans on glucose-lowering drugs and found dementia risk was 33 percent lower for GLP-1 users compared to other interventions.<\/p>\n

Around 8million adults in the US have some form of dementia, and 500,000 are diagnosed every year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, one in eight US adults has reported taking Ozempic or similar medications at least once for diabetes or weight loss.<\/p>\n

In the new study, published in JAMA Neurology<\/a>, researchers identified 26 studies that explored the relationship between GLP-1 agonist use and dementia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These included a total of 164,531 participants, most of whom (65 percent) were men. The average age was 64 with a follow-up time of 31 months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Wendy Williams, pictured here, is one of the most famous faces of dementia. She was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023 at age 59<\/p>\n

\"Bruce <\/p>\n

Bruce Willis (pictured here) was also diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023\u00a0<\/p>\n

Studies included in the analysis were published between 2015 and 2024.\u00a0Of the 26 in the review, 10 looked at the impact of GLP-1 agonists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The team suspected GLP-1 agonists may lower inflammation, which is a major driver of dementia. It’s thought to activate the immune cells microglia and astrocytes in the brain, which damage neurons and disrupt the blood-brain barrier, the brain’s protective layer.<\/p>\n

GLP-1 agonists have also been shown to lower blood pressure and protect blood vessels, reducing the risk of vascular dementia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A study published in April<\/a>\u00a0also found GLP-1s may stimulate neural growth in the hippocampus, an area of the brain responsible for learning and memory formation. However, this research is early.<\/p>\n

Professor Martin O’Donnell, Dean of the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at University of Galway: ‘Given the increasing prevalence of both diabetes and dementia, findings from this study have important public health implications for prevention of dementia.’<\/p>\n

Recent reports from the Alzheimer’s Association report rates of Alzheimer’s disease – the most common form of dementia – have risen 25 years in a row in the US<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diabetes, meanwhile, affects 12 percent of Americans – 38million. Reports published in 2022 suggest rates in the Americas have tripled in the last 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were several limitations to the new study, mainly including a lack of data on subtypes of dementia like vascular and Lewy body dementia.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blockbuster weight loss drugs could slash the risk of developing memory-robbing dementia, a major study suggests.\u00a0 Researchers in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12814,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[98,97,249],"class_list":["post-12813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-dailymail","tag-health","tag-ozempic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12813"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12813\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}