Trendy slimming injections could also reduce the risk of dementia

Semaglutide , the active ingredient in the popular weight-loss and diabetes injections Ozempic and Wegovy, is showing increasing evidence in other diseases. Researchers at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine have found that the popular weight-loss drug may reduce the risk of dementia in people with type 2 diabetes .

Dementia , a condition that progressively impairs the ability to remember and think clearly, occurs when neurons are damaged and their connections stop working properly. This damage, which worsens over time, can be caused by a variety of modifiable factors, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, head trauma, and stroke .

Research suggests that 45% of dementia cases could be prevented by addressing modifiable risk factors. In the U.S. alone, more than 6 million people are diagnosed with dementia, which causes more than 100,000 deaths each year, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The study, published Tuesday in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, suggests that patients with type 2 diabetes taking semaglutide had a significantly lower risk of developing dementia compared to other antidiabetic medications. These results were more pronounced in women and older adults.

Semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide receptor (GLP-1R) molecule that decreases hunger and helps regulate blood sugar in type 2 diabetes, has demonstrated a wide range of benefits, including reducing cardiovascular disease .

The research team, led by biomedical informatics professor Rong Xu, analyzed three years of electronic medical records from nearly 1.7 million patients with type 2 diabetes nationwide. The researchers used a statistical approach similar to a randomized clinical trial.

They found that patients prescribed semaglutide had a significantly lower risk of Alzheimer's-related dementia compared with those who had taken any of seven other anti-diabetic medications, including other types of GLP-1R-targeting drugs.

“There is no cure or effective treatment for dementia, so this new study provides real-world evidence of its potential impact in preventing or slowing the development of dementia among high-risk populations,” said Xu, who also directs the School of Medicine’s Center for AI in Drug Discovery and is a member of the Cancer Epigenomics Program at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Although their findings potentially support the idea that semaglutide could prevent dementia, the study's limitations prevent researchers from drawing firm causal conclusions, she cautions. "Our results indicate that the use of semaglutide for dementia prevention will need to be further investigated in randomized clinical trials," Xu concludes.