As more evidence emerges of the health benefits of new diabetes and weight loss medications, the FDA has approved Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide for heart disease and Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide for sleep apnea.
Meanwhile, ongoing trials by the companies are exploring the potential of these drugs to treat additional conditions. A new observational study from Washington University in St. Louis has provided further insights into both the advantages and risks of these treatments.
Published Monday in Nature Medicine, the study suggests that these new medications may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and substance abuse disorders but may increase the likelihood of digestive problems and arthritis.
The research team analyzed 175 health conditions and identified 42 potential benefits linked to the medications, along with 19 possible risks. The study used health data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, focusing on 215,970 diabetes patients taking these new drugs. For comparison, the researchers also looked at data from 2.4 million patients using other diabetes treatments.
This is the largest study conducted on this class of drugs, which includes Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 treatments Ozempic and Wegovy, as well as Eli Lilly’s dual-action GLP-1/GIP agonists Mounjaro and Zepbound.
Ziyad Al-Aly, M.D., the study’s lead researcher and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University, emphasized in a press conference last week that while the medications offer benefits, they are not without risks. Al-Aly’s team is well-known for their work on long COVID and their research linking air pollution to diabetes and certain heart and kidney diseases.
When it comes to Alzheimer’s and other neurocognitive conditions, the study found that the use of these drugs was associated with a 12% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s. However, Al-Aly noted that this number is likely higher, as Alzheimer’s symptoms tend to develop over a longer period than the study’s 3.5-year duration.
The study also found that the drugs were linked to a reduction in the use of alcohol, opioids, tobacco, and marijuana. Additionally, they helped lower the risk of schizophrenia episodes and seizures.
Other positive effects observed included a reduction in the risk of heart attacks, strokes, blood clotting, liver cancer, kidney disease, bacterial infections, pneumonia, and Parkinson’s disease.
On the downside, the research revealed that the medications were associated with increased risks of joint pain, inflammation of the pancreas, low blood pressure, fainting, headaches, kidney stones, and a range of digestive issues, including nausea, stomach inflammation, diverticulitis, and hemorrhoids.
“We aimed to create an atlas of associations,” Al-Aly explained. “Our future studies will focus on specific diseases, with controls, and examine how these risks and benefits vary across different populations and subgroups.”
Al-Aly also pointed out apparent contradictions in the findings, such as the increased risk of kidney stones alongside a reduced risk of kidney disease.
