The diabetes and weight loss drug Ozempic could lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease among people with Type 2 diabetes, according to a new study published Thursday.
Alzheimer’s disease is the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States, with roughly 120,000 people dying from the disease each year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are about 7 million people in the U.S. who live with Alzheimer’s, and that number is expected to nearly double by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine looked at three years’ worth of electronic records of almost 1 million people with Type 2 diabetes.
The research group found that people who were prescribed semaglutide — the main ingredient in Ozempic — had a 40 percent to 70 percent reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s compared to Type 2 diabetics who took one of another seven types of antidiabetic medications, including insulin.
Researchers also compared semaglutide with the use of other GLP-1s like lixisenatide, dulaglutide and liraglutide.
Semaglutide’s possible risk reduction for Alzheimer’s was seen across gender identities, age and weight groups, the study notes.
The study’s findings add to the research showing that GLP-1s, a group of diabetes and weight loss medications, may have more health benefits than boosting weight loss or regulating blood sugar levels.
One study published earlier this month suggests that the main ingredients in Ozempic and Mounjaro may help some people overcome drug and alcohol addictions. Another study published in May suggests that semaglutide may help protect Type 2 diabetics from kidney failure and chronic kidney disease.
It also supports research presented earlier this year suggesting a connection between GLP-1s and reduced Alzheimer’s risk among Type 2 diabetics.
But the Thursday study has limitations because it relies on data gathered from digital health records and requires further investigation, researchers said.
“Our results indicate that further research into semaglutide’s use will need to be further investigated through randomized clinical trials so alternative drugs can be tested as a potential treatment for this debilitating illness,” said Rong Xu, a biomedical informatics professor at Case Western and lead author of the study.
