Ozempic, Wegovy Have 'Eye-Opening' Effects on Health

Once we crossed the Rubicon to use diabetes drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, and Mounjaro for weight loss, it seemed inevitable that scientists would investigate what else these apparent wonder drugs might tackle. Now, the first study to look at how the medications affect overall health is done, and it's an "eye-opening" one, per the BBC. The new research published Monday in Nature looked at medical records of 2 million VA patients with Type 2 diabetes to see how the drugs would affect about 175 other conditions.

• Findings: The scientists tracked subjects for 3 1/2 years or so and found that those who took so-called GLP-1 drugs instead of other diabetes medications saw a decreased risk of dozens of conditions, including infections, psychotic disorders, heart and kidney disease, stroke, addiction, and dementia. "We tend to think of drugs as surgically designed to do only one thing. But the reality is almost never like this," study co-author Ziyad Al-Aly of Washington University tells the Washington Post.

• How it works: A patient taking Ozempic, say, would see its active ingredient, semaglutide, mimic the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1, traveling through the blood and to the brain, where it then adheres to tiny cell receptors there and informs them that the patient isn't hungry, per the BBC. However, similar receptors that grab onto GLP-1 are also found in other parts of the body. "It is very clear this class of drugs seem to suppress reward mechanisms [in the brain so it] inhibits that urge to seek out alcohol, to seek out tobacco, to seek out gambling," Al-Aly tells the BBC.
• Caveats: The study notes these meds aren't without risk, however, per Nature, which notes that patients who took the GLP-1 drugs had more chance of developing such conditions as arthritis (a surprising find, as scientists figured weight loss would ease arthritis symptoms), low blood pressure, kidney stones, and digestive issues, including possibly fatal pancreatitis. Also, because the subjects were pulled from the VA, most were white men, meaning there's not much data on how the drugs affect women or other ethnicities.
• Going forward: The researchers are optimistic their findings will extrapolate beyond this particular sample group (ie, it could be used by patients who don't have diabetes, per the Guardian), and Al-Aly is confident they've hit on something big with these meds—and it all comes back to weight loss. "Obesity is bad for the brain," he tells the BBC. "Obesity is bad for mental health. Obesity is bad for the heart. Obesity could be the mother of all ills."

(More weight loss stories.)