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<\/div>In a ginormous new study, researchers have begun mapping the manifold health benefits of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy beyond weight loss.<\/p>
Published in the journal Nature Medicine<\/em>, this new study led by Ziyad Al-Aly<\/a> of the Veteran's Affairs health system in St. Louis tracked millions of diabetes patient outcomes over a period of 3.5 years.<\/p> Of those, over 215,000 had been prescribed a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist receptor — the class of drugs that includes Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound, and others — and 1.7 million were on another form of blood sugar-lowering medicine.<\/p> Looking at other disorders in the data ranging from Parkinson's disease<\/a> and Alzheimer's<\/a> to kidney disease<\/a> and opiate addiction<\/a>, Al-Aly and his team found that those who were on GLP-1 medications saw significant improvement across a staggering range of health concerns — and far beyond anything clearly linked to weight or blood sugar.<\/p> Though many studies have found that these blockbuster drugs seem to be beneficial for specific disorders, \"no one had comprehensively investigated the effectiveness and risks of GLP-1 receptor agonists across all possible health outcomes,\" the physician-scientist told Nature<\/em>.<\/p> In particular, Al-Aly said that the drugs' impact on addiction disorders \"stood out\" to him, with 13 percent of the GLP-1 cohort who had issues with addiction seeing improvement — a finding that dovetails with other studies about these drugs<\/a> and their effect on addiction<\/a>.<\/p> Other apparent benefits were even harder to make sense of. Al-Aly and his team also discovered that psychotic disorder risk was lowered by 18 percent for the GLP-1 cohort, and the Alzheimer's risk was cut by 12 percent.<\/p> \"Interestingly, GLP-1RA drugs act on receptors that are expressed in brain areas involved in impulse control, reward and addiction — potentially explaining their effectiveness in curbing appetite and addiction disorders,\" Al-Aly said in a statement published by the University of Washington<\/a>, which was also involved in the study. \"These drugs also reduce inflammation in the brain and result in weight loss; both these factors may improve brain health and explain the reduced risk of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.\"<\/p> While those findings are indeed incredible, the researchers also found that other issues seemed to be exacerbated by taking GLP-1s. Along with an 11 percent increase in arthritis risk, the team found a whopping 146 percent increase in cases of pancreatitis — another discovery that complements prior research<\/a> into the drugs' dark side<\/a>.<\/p> Though that figure is pretty jarring, Al-Aly seemed to take it in stride.<\/p> \"Given the drugs’ newness and skyrocketing popularity, it is important to systematically examine their effects on all body systems — leaving no stone unturned — to understand what they do and what they don’t do,\" he said in the UWash press release.<\/p> By looking so deeply into the drugs, these scientists are, as Al-Aly puts it, drawing a \"comprehensive atlas mapping the associations\" of GLP-1 drugs that looks into all of their effects on the body — an important quest as they continue to rise in popularity and usage<\/a>.<\/p> More on GLP-1s:<\/strong> Woman Annoyed When She Gets on Wegovy and It Does Nothing<\/em><\/a><\/p> The post Huge Study Finds Constellation of Health Benefits for Ozempic Beyond Weight Loss<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p> See more here: In a ginormous new study, researchers have begun mapping the manifold health benefits of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy beyond weight loss. Published in the journal\u00a0 Nature Medicine , this new study led by Ziyad Al-Aly of the Veteran's Affairs health system in St. Louis tracked millions of diabetes patient outcomes over a period of 3.5 years. Continue reading
Huge Study Finds Constellation of Health Benefits for Ozempic Beyond Weight Loss<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"