It’s official: we are fully in the Ozempic era. Once a novel concept in scientific research, GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro have transcended their original use in diabetes management to become sought-after tools for weight loss. As researchers uncover more about the capabilities of GLP-1 drugs, a new study published on MedRxiv reveals promising evidence that Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs may offer significant anti-aging benefits too.
How Semaglutide Can Help Slow Aging
MedRxiv’s new research is not the first to investigate GLP-1’s impact on aging, but the publication’s findings have majorly built upon what we know about Ozempic and anti-aging, finding that the drug could reverse your biological age by around three years. To test semaglutide’s impact on biological age, the scientists on the study conducted a controlled trial with 108 people with HIV-associated lipohypertrophy for 32 weeks, with half of the patients receiving Ozempic treatments and the other half receiving a placebo. The scientists then analyzed what they refer to as the “epigenetic clocks” that change with age within the trial patients to see if there were any significant chemical shifts.
The results of the study—though not entirely surprising to many—were exciting to most. “Semaglutide may not only slow the rate of aging, but in some individuals partially reverse it,” said Varun Dwaraka, the director of bioinformatics at TruDiagnostic and lead author of the study, to New Scientist. “Those on semaglutide became, on average, 3.1 years biologically younger by the end of the study.” While the findings are promising, MedRxiv’s study has not yet been peer-reviewed, so the real-life implications of how GLP-1s can impact biological aging across HIV-associated lipohypertrophy patients and beyond is yet to be seen.
