Ozempic’s Newest Miracle: Dramatically Cutting Dementia Risk

A new study published on Tuesday in Alzheimer’s magazine They followed nearly 1.7 million Americans with type 2 diabetes for three years, revealing that people taking semaglutide-active ingredient in popular fat burning drugs on Sampic and Wegovy-IMALI have their risk of developing dementia associated with Alzheimer’s pressure by 40 to 70% compared to diabetes.

“We show that semaglutide is associated with a significantly reduced risk of the total incidence of ADRD (Alzheimer’s disease related to the disease) with a danger ratio of 0.54 (0.49–0.59) compared to insulin, 0.67 (0.61 to 0.74), with metformin, to Metformin, study reads.

“These findings provide evidence that supports the protective effects of semaglutide on dementia in patients with T2D (type 2 diabetes).”

Numbers become more interesting when you dig deeper.

Against vascular dementia – the second most common form after Alzheimer’s – semaglutide has shown particularly strong protective effects. But it failed for everyone. Frontotemporal dementia and Lewy dementia of the body have shown small changes in the effects of the drug.

This is not a happy coincidence. Scientists believe that semaglutide achieves this effect of brain protection through multiple pathways.

In addition to blood sugar control and promoting weight loss, the drug seems to reduce inflammation throughout the body, including the brain.

Some preclinical studies suggest that it could even help remove toxic proteins that gum neurons in Alzheimer’s disease.

“In addition, the glp-1 (like semaglutide) receptor agonists have shown neuroprotective effects,” said Manisha Parulekar of the Hackensack University Medical Center Medical news today. “Pre-clinical studies (in animals) have shown that GLP-1 receptor agonists can protect neurons, reduce inflammation in the brain and improve cognitive functions.”

In other words, semaglutide basically deals with multiple risk factors of dementia, such as a Swiss army knife for metabolic health.

Of course, there is a catch. These are based on observation data from medical documentation, to be sophisticated people who watch, not controlled experiments, researchers pointed out that this is a note.

“Future works are needed to determine causal relationships through randomized clinical trials and characterized by fundamental mechanisms.”

Thus, the medical institution is still not ready to prescribe the ground as a prevention of dementia.

Dr. Abraham Snaiderman warned that he used it for irresponsible conditions until clinical trials prove the relationship. “This is a great study, but don’t buy medication yet,” for conditions other than diabetes and obesity, he said CBC.

The usual side effects such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea remain, and long -term safety for brain protection needs more studies.

But a miracle or not, the news comes as a breath of fresh air for the new Nordisk shares, which bounced off the bear correction that dropped its price 15%last week.

With more 55 million people Living with dementia around the world – a number expected to reach 78 million by 2030 – any intervention that reduces the risk of half would transform public health.

About 50% of dementia cases are considered to be prevented from targeting known risk factors, each contributing only 1-7% with total risk.

One drug that at the same time affects multiple goals could dramatically change that math.

Xu’s team does not stop semaglutide. They are already planning to explore whether Tirzepatide – an ingredient in the newer drugs of Zepbound and Mounjaro – can work even better.

Economic analyzes are also ongoing to determine if the prescribing of these expensive prevention medicines can actually save money compared to the treatment of full dementia later.

Edited Sebastian Sinclair