Hi there,
If Ozempic could help you live longer, would you take it even if you didn’t need to lose weight?
A year ago, I wrote about people trying microdoses of GLP-1 drugs for longevity. There was plenty of enthusiasm and very little evidence at the time.
Now there’s something more interesting: a study in which old mice given semaglutide, the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy, lived longer. The researchers also asked whether the benefit came from simply eating less.
The human studies, meanwhile, have revealed a few surprises: heart benefits, a failed Alzheimer’s trial, and fitness gains the drug alone didn’t deliver.
Would any of that persuade me to recommend one to a healthy person?
TL;DR
Old female mice lived longer on semaglutide. Eating less may explain some of the benefit.
In people with existing cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity, semaglutide reduced serious cardiovascular events.
Human aging-marker findings are promising, but the Alzheimer’s trials disappointed. We still don’t have evidence that microdosing extends healthy people’s lives.
First, what happened to the mice?
This Nature study measured lifespan. No biological-age calculator required.
Researchers started semaglutide in 20-month-old female mice. The animals in the lifespan experiment stayed on treatment for the rest of their lives and outlived controls. Separate groups showed improvements in memory and physical function.
But the real question is: did semaglutide help because the mice ate less?
