Staggering new research has found a correlation between some injectable weight loss medications and a reduced risk of developing as many as 42 health conditions.
More specifically, as part of the most extensive investigation of its kind, it was found that regular use of the popular drugs, which have skyrocketed specifically in the celebrity realm in recent years, was reportedly found to lessen a person's chances of being diagnosed with disorders affecting the mind.
Furthermore, this was especially found to be the case in conditions related to psychosis and dementia. But how?
According to health leads at Washington University in St. Louis, the use of GLP-1RAs, found in the ingredients of jabs like Saxenda, Wegovy, and Mounjaro, is the key factor.
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As part of the study, which was published in the Nature Medicine journal this week, the health outcomes for individuals with diabetes, the condition for which semaglutide was initially manufactured to treat, were compared to those of individuals with diabetes who received conventional care for the disease, versus those who also took weight-loss medications.
The records belonged to US Department of Veterans Affairs databases, which included over 1,203,097 individuals from the former category, who received only usual care, and 215,970 individuals from the latter category, who also relied on GLP-1RA injections.
It was found that in the latter group, the risk of developing 42 secondary conditions out of 175 total was greatly reduced.
Not only did this include brain-affecting conditions, but also physical ailments, like clotting disorders and chronic kidney disease.
The study also said that the risk of the weight-loss drug users developing opioid-use disorders was down by 13 per cent, as well as 19 per cent for bulimia, 18 per cent for schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and 10 per cent for suicidal ideation, attempt or intentional self-harm.
The latter group also had a 12 per cent lower chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and a 12 per cent lower chance of developing bacterial infections.
Interestingly, however, researchers don't believe these findings are limited to diabetes cases; instead, they think that the results could be applied to people using jabs for non-health-related reasons, including those taking them for weight loss.
"We only studied people with diabetes, but there is no biological or clinical reason to think that the beneficial and risk profiles would be very different in people without diabetes," the co-author of the study, Dr Ziyad Al-Aly, explained.
As such, scientists have predicted that the latest findings could help pave the way for these drugs to be used as a means of treating, if not potentially eliminating, a range of different health issues, as well as understanding the long-term impacts of using the medication.
That said, however, the experts also predicted that individuals not suffering from medical obesity before starting to use the medication might not see the same benefits, as some of the positive results may be linked to the process of weight loss itself.
The study also reported an increased risk of other conditions, such as gastrointestinal issues and arthritic disorders.
Professor Naveed Sattar of the University of Glasgow suggested that randomised trials should be implemented to investigate the associations mentioned in greater detail.
"As more larger trials report, we will learn more about these classes of medicines, especially those that also give big weight loss, allowing us to better understand their net benefits and safety and potential widening their indications," he said (via The Guardian).
Rhianna Benson