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Why would Ozempic, a chemical affecting a specific receptor found in specific parts of the body, affect alzheimer's? I'm just asking questions here I don't unde
by KittenInABox 11mo ago
Why would Ozempic, a chemical affecting a specific receptor found in specific parts of the body, affect alzheimer's? I'm just asking questions here I don't understand what the mechanism of action is that this would be disappointing news.
- jfarina 11mo agoMaybe because poor diet has been linked to alzheimers?
- foobiekr 11mo ago"Type 3 diabetes" is one of the speculated causes of alzheimer's. The evidence there is not great.
- delichon 11mo agoFixing type 1 or 2 diabetes does not fix the damage they already did either.
- devmor 11mo agoIt was correlated to lower Dementia rates in a past study. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13872877251351329 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13872877251351329
- KittenInABox 11mo agoThanks, I wasn't aware of this. Do we know how?
- scarmig 11mo agoI don't think there's a confirmed mechanism (or even whether the fact that it does prevent dementia is a confirmed fact). But you could speculate that obesity -> cardiovascular issues -> neurological damage, and that could explain things.
- kaonwarb 11mo agoWe unfortunate know very little about how dementia / Alzheimer's develop in the first place.
- rtkwe 11mo agoGenerally this is the answer when there's an announcement like this. Some early paper or analysis showed some (often weak but potentially very interesting) correlation between $new_drug and $scary_disease/$scary_disorder. Doctors and scientists go off and study that in more depth with better controls or more data points and we learn a little more about the world, if you miss the initial paper(s) the follow up can seem a little random.
- devmor 11mo agoThis new study that did not find a causal link was part of the attempt to find out how. The original study was more of an observation than a deep dive. You could think of it similar to a study that shows something like "People who don't watch network TV have fewer strokes", which could be an interesting correlation, but the causal effect might be something more like "people who are more health conscious tend to avoid sitting down for extended waking periods" which ultimately has nothing to do with TV.
- SoftTalker 11mo agoWe don't know the "how" in a surprising number of medicines.
- clickety_clack 11mo agoI know we can tell that a chemical does a particular thing in the body, but can we tell that it does not do anything other than that thing? The body is ridiculously complex, and as far as I know we don’t know how every part (or combination of parts) works. Edit: I mean in the theoretical “this targets the x receptor” kind of way, not in “we tested this and found no causal link” way.
- KittenInABox 11mo agoThat's why I'm genuinely asking why this would be disappointing, like what was the evidence that this does affect Alzheimer's. You would expect by X does not affect Y by default, so clearly there had to be a theory why you'd spend 2 years on a study to rule it out.
- habinero 11mo agoOzempic is a diabetes drug, and there's a hypothesis that Alzheimer's is really a form of diabetes.
- bluesounddirect 11mo agoPersonally, living with two T1D ( type 1 insulin dependent diabetic, the autoimmune disease not to be confused with the i am old, fat and over eat disorder) when your blood sugar is too high or low , you act weird , you are in a fog . Long term effects of the swings and sustained levels cause brain damage, not necessarily traumatic brain injuries but damage nonetheless. So i can see the correlation for T1D and undiagnosed T2D cases Alzheimers. Now having a parent with both T2D and Alzheimers when they were taking rebelsis there was a change in their overall mood and activity , but i saw the change was "hey your sugar is under control, and no i am not your buddy from the army" . To be clear the difference is the fog of being unclear about what's going on like you're drunk , vs the grand delusions of seeing a different person that's not there . This should have been obvious for the researchers.
- habinero 11mo ago
- readthenotes1 11mo agoIt's disappointing to the manufacturers and consumers because many boomers are taking it already to treat 40+ years of poor and/or indulgent consumption (and more will now that they've negotiated a price reduction). Glp-1 drugs inhibit drinking and compulsive behaviors and I'm not sure the mechanism of action is known
- red_hare 11mo agoThe article describes data showing a correlation between Ozempic use and slowed progression of certain brain conditions. The study aimed to determine whether that effect came from Ozempic itself or simply from weight loss. Once researchers controlled for weight loss, the effect disappeared. In other words, correlation, not causation.
- cyberax 11mo agoSince Ozempic was the primary reason for the weight loss, it's still causation. Although indirect.
- francisofascii 11mo agoThat's an important caveat. But effectively it sounds like Ozempic typically results in a better diet, and a better diet typically results in slowed progression.
- JoshTriplett 11mo agoAs I understand it, one of the reasons GLP-1 agonists seem to affect so many different things is that evolutionarily, it does not seem at all surprising that a huge number of things are hooked on the hungry/full signal.
- monero-xmr 11mo ago[flagged]
- lghh 11mo ago> Notice the absurd number of young, frail people with canes and masks. I don't notice them. Do you have numbers to back this up? > that would be solved if they started an aerobic and strength training regimen. Source?
- zoklet-enjoyer 11mo agoYeah I have no idea what he's talking about either
- monero-xmr 11mo ago[flagged]
- temp0826 11mo ago"Alleged magic cure does not solve all our problems" just isn't as catchy.
- m463 11mo agoI kind of think if it fixes a fundamental issue - too much weight. Another problem it seems to help with is addictive/impulsive behavior. This might lead to wrong choices in diet or activity. I suspect that many many functions of the body are degraded or disabled by too much weight or wrong choices, and fixing those problems might let the body cure and maintain itself properly.
- Delk 11mo agoObesity may increase the risk of Alzheimer's but it's far from a requirement for the disease. I can't find a link between Alzheimer's and being overweight except in case of obesity. https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/managing-the-risk-of-dementia/reduce-your-risk-of-dementia/obesity https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/managing-the-ri...
- silveraxe93 11mo agoI read this[1] some time ago. Seems relevant now. - [1] https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/why-does-ozempic-cure-all-diseases https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/why-does-ozempic-cure-all-d...
- kens 11mo agoSemaglutide (Ozempic) has potential therapeutic effects in neurodegenerative disorders through "modulation of neuroinflammation, enhancement of mitochondrial function, and promotion of neurogenesis". It has shown benefits in animal models of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. So they're not just testing a random drug, but something that could work. For details, see: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38921025 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38921025 This diagram shows how Ozempic can produce these results, the various pathways from the GLP-1 receptor to reduce inflammation, protect neurons, and affect mitochondria: https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/blobs/87c0/11202139/72234dd736c8/cimb-46-00354-g003.jpg https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/blobs/87c0/11202139/72234dd...
- KittenInABox 11mo agoThank you, I really appreciate it, as I'm not educated in biochem at all.
- mzhaase 11mo agoA lot of medical research is "x is correlated with y and we have no idea why".
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]