Type 2 diabetics may have a chance to significantly lower their risk of Alzheimer’s disease if they take Ozempic instead of other diabetes medications, a new study finds.
Semaglutide – the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy – is part of a class of drugs that mimic the body’s natural GLP-1 hormone, making users feel fuller for longer.
“Preclinical research has suggested that semaglutide may protect against neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation,” said Case Western Reserve University biomedical informatics professor Rong Xu, “this new study provides real-world evidence for its impact on Alzheimer’s disease.”
Chronic inflammation is when your immune system remains activated long after an injury or threat of disease has passed.
Neuroinflammation – inflammation of nerve tissue – is often seen in Alzheimer’s patients.
Diabetics tend to be at greater risk for Alzheimer’s because high blood sugar can damage blood vessels in the brain and promote inflammation. Obesity has also been linked to chronic inflammation.
GLP-1 drugs indirectly reduce inflammation through weight loss. The drugs can also activate certain T cells, white blood cells key to the immune system, which can have anti-inflammatory effects.
Xu’s team analyzed three years of electronic data on about 1 million Americans with type 2 diabetes without Alzheimer’s at the start of the study. Researchers compared semaglutide with other GLP-1 drugs and antidiabetic medications, insulin, metformin, DPP-4 inhibitors, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, sulfonylureas, and thiazolidinediones.
Semaglutide was associated with a 40% to 70% reduced risk of a first-time diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, especially against insulin and even compared to other GLP-1 drugs.
The findings — which were consistent across gender, age and obesity subgroups — were published Thursday in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.,
Nearly 7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s, which gradually destroys memory and thinking skills and the ability to perform everyday tasks. About 120,000 Americans die from the brain disorder each year.
“Our results indicate that further research into the use of semaglutide will need to be further investigated through randomized clinical trials so that alternative drugs can be tested as potential treatments for this debilitating disease,” Xu said.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Ozempic in 2017 to treat type 2 diabetes in adults and Wegovy in 2021 for adult weight loss.
A spokesman for Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, told The Post that it “welcomes independent research investigating the safety, efficacy and clinical utility of our products.”
The Danish pharmaceutical company is conducting its own clinical trials on semaglutide for early Alzheimer’s with expected completion next year.
Meanwhile, researchers have tested Ozempic’s effect on a variety of other diseases, including opioid and alcohol use disorder, heart disease and skin disease.
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