Study shows semaglutide has ‘far-reaching benefits’ and potential to protect against a ‘broad spectrum’ of health threats.
A new study exploring the impact of semaglutide on mortality has led a leading cardiologist to suggest that weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy may delay the aging process. The research, published last week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), assessed the impact of semaglutide treatment on cardiovascular deaths, non-cardiovascular deaths and death from COVID-19.
The study produce an unexpected outcome: a notable reduction in non-cardiovascular deaths, particularly those caused by infection. The reduction was attributed to the surge in non-cardiovascular deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing researchers to observe the drug’s protective effects more clearly. The researchers suggest that the results show semaglutide’s benefits extend to mitigating the wider risks associated with obesity, which is linked to increased mortality across various health conditions.
“This groundbreaking study demonstrates that semaglutide, perhaps by improving cardiometabolic health, has far-reaching benefits beyond what we initially imagined,” said cardiologist and Yale University professor Harlan Krumholz. “The ability of semaglutide to significantly lower cardiovascular and COVID-19-related adverse events underscores the transformative potential of targeting obesity and improving cardiometabolic health as a strategy to protect against a broad spectrum of health threats.”
We first suggested last year that semaglutide could be a potential longevity drug due to its effects beyond weight loss and diabetes prevention. And Krumholz appears to concur, having been widely quoted as saying, “It wouldn’t surprise me that improving people’s health in this way actually slows down the aging process.”
This also backs up what University of Copenhagen professor and semaglutide research pioneer Jens Juul Holst told us earlier this year, when he suggested it was “more probable than not” that the drugs will have an effect on longevity.
The new study was based on the recent SELECT trial, which demonstrated that treatment with semaglutide resulted in a 20% reduction in the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events. The researchers adapted the SELECT trial results to account for the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the researchers were able to document the epidemiological impact of the virus on patients with cardiovascular disease and obesity. This provided insights into the nature of infectious disease mortality, as well as the role of weight and cardiometabolic health in determining outcomes from COVID-19 and other infections.
The study’s lead author, Dr Benjamin Scirica, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Harvard Medical School, admitted that the “robust reduction” in non-cardiovascular deaths was surprising.
“However, these findings reinforce that overweight and obesity increases the risk of death due to many etiologies, which can be modified with potent incretin-based therapies like semaglutide,” he said.
