Ozempic May Lower Risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia – ryan

Ozempic and similar novel diabetes treatments may lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

This is the conclusion of a pair of studies by research teams from the U.S. and Ireland, respectively, which analyzed the impact of various forms of glucose-lowering drugs.

These included GLP-1 receptor agonists like Ozempic (which promote insulin production and feelings of fullness); SGLT2 inhibitors (which prevent the kidneys from reabsorbing glucose, forcing its excretion via urine); pioglitazone (which improves insulin sensitivity); and metformin (which also reduces glucose production by the liver.)

Diabetes—which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates to affect nearly 12 percent of the U.S. population—is a chronic condition that occurs when the body is unable to properly regulate its blood glucose (sugar) levels.

While independent experts have called the findings encouraging, further studies will be needed to confirm the results and determine the mechanism underlying any effect on dementia risk.

Conducted by pharmacoepidemiologist Huilin Tang of the University of Florida and colleagues, the first study analyzed the health records of thousands of patients treated for type 2 diabetes to compare the impact of different types of glucose-lowering medications.

“Both GLP-1 receptor agonists and SGLT2 inhibitors were statistically significantly associated with decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias compared with other glucose-lowering drugs, and no difference was observed between both drugs,” the team reported in the paper.

In the second study, a team led by Allie Seminer of the University of Galway, Ireland, analyzed the results of 26 previous randomized clinical trials comparing cardioprotective glucose-lowering therapies with controls that also noted dementia incidences or changes in cognitive test scores.

“This meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials found that glucose lowering with GLP-1RAs was associated with a statistically significant reduction in all-cause dementia,” the researchers wrote in their paper.

Unlike in the first study, however, no significant effect on dementia cases was noted for subjects treated with SGLT2 inhibitors.

The studies have been met with cautious optimism by other researchers.

“These two papers on potential for GLP-1 receptor agonist medicines to lower dementia risk are somewhat encouraging, but they are FAR from definitive,” said metabolic medicine professor Naveed Sattar of the University of Glasgow, Scotland, who was not involved in either of the two studies.

Sattar added: “The design of one (study) is observational and the numbers of people with dementia in the trial meta-analyses were incredibly small, leading to limited power.

“Hence, we need to await the results of ongoing randomized trials in this area before drawing sensible conclusions.”

In particular, Sattar said, it is unclear whether GLP-1 receptor agonists could be directly lowering dementia risk, or whether such is merely a side effect of how they can favorably affect multiple diseases, not only diabetes but also cardiovascular issues, hypertension and kidney problems.

Neuroscientist professor Tara Spires-Jones of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland—who was also not involved in the new research—concurred, saying: “These data are encouraging for the potential of using GLP-1 receptor agonists to lower dementia risk in people with diabetes.”

However, Spires-Jones added, “even within these two strong studies, there are slightly conflicting results over SGLT2 inhibitors highlighting the need for further research.”

She said: “It is important to note that these drugs do have side effects and that they are not guaranteed to prevent dementia.”

Newsweek has contacted Ozempic manufacturer Novo Nordisk for comment.

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References

Seminer, A., Mulihano, A., O’Brien, C., Krewer, F., Costello, M., Judge, C., O’Donnell, M., & Reddin, C. (2025). Cardioprotective Glucose-Lowering Agents and Dementia Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. JAMA Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.0360

Tang, H., Donahoo, WT, Dekosky, St, Lee, ya, Kotecha, P., Svensson, M., Bian, J., & Guo, J. (2025). GLP-1RA and Sglt2i medication for type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias. JAMA Neurology.