Do the new weight-loss drugs improve your health?

Q. The holidays made me think of my family, my faith… and those new breakthrough weight-loss drugs. Do they actually improve your health?

A. Boy, do they! The GLP-1 receptor agonist drugs you’re referring to lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes and powerfully reduce weight in people with obesity. The FDA-approved formulations for weight loss are semaglutide (Wegovy), liraglutide (Saxenda), and tirzepatide (Zepbound). They are given by injections.

The drugs lower blood sugar and weight in multiple ways: they release insulin from your pancreas, which lowers sugar levels; they block the action of a hormone that raises your blood sugar; they slow the digestion of sugars from the food you eat; and they act on the brain to reduce your appetite. Not only that, the GLP-1 drugs also quiet inflammation, stimulate the production of antioxidants, help repair damaged DNA, and slow the aging of the body’s cells.

But do these drugs actually protect you against disease? Among people who use the drugs for diabetes and obesity, evidence suggests the drugs reduce the risks of kidney disease progression, heart attack, death from heart disease, death from COVID-19, and death from all causes by 15% to 35%! They also may slow the brain inflammation that has been found in Alzheimer’s disease (see “Are some cases of Alzheimer’s disease caused by infection?”), reduce the number of flare-ups of chronic obstructive lung disease, and even reduce addictive behavior.