TODAY.com: GLP-1 Health Benefits May Go ‘Far Beyond’ Weight Loss
TODAY.com recently interviewed Nicolas Musi, MD, director of the Diabetes and Aging Center and the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Cedars-Sinai, about the potential benefits of GLP-1 drugs beyond treating diabetes and obesity.
GLP-1 medications mimic a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 that the small intestine produces after a meal. The drugs regulate blood sugar in people with Type 2 diabetes and improve metabolic health in patients who are overweight or obese, often leading to substantial weight loss.
Scientists have discovered that GLP-1 drugs also improve other downstream health issues related to obesity, such as fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, arthritis and inflammation.
Musi, vice chair of Translational Research in the Department of Medicine, told TODAY.com his team is studying whether GLP-1 drugs can also slow biological aging.
“I think there’s good potential because overweight and obesity are linked with aging, meaning it can reduce lifespan and health span, which is the time in which we’re healthy,” he said.
Despite excitement surrounding the drugs’ potentially profound benefits, Musi cautioned against healthy people using them.
“The real question is: In healthy people who don’t have any of these diseases, will it be helpful to them?” he told Today.com. “And that we don’t know. It’s very premature.”
Musi pointed to low-dose aspirin, which once was routinely recommended to help prevent a first heart attack or stroke before guidance changed based on updated research that found it did not benefit most healthy adults.
“We learned the hard way that we need evidence and not just assume things,” he told TODAY.com.
Read the complete article from TODAY.com.