- New research suggests GLP-1 agonists may help slow biological aging.
- This effect may be due to lowered inflammation, reduced body fat, or something else entirely.
- More research is needed to see if the results apply to people without underlying inflammatory health conditions.
GLP-1 agonist medications like Ozempic and Wegovy are designed to support weight loss and blood sugar management, but a growing body of research suggests they may have other benefits, such as reduced risk of heart disease and sleep apnea. Now, there’s one more perk to add to the list: These medications may help people live longer.
That’s the major takeaway from new research published in the journal Nature Communications. The study is the first randomized, placebo-controlled trial in humans to suggest that semaglutide—the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—may slow the buildup of DNA markers linked to biological aging in adults.
The clinical trial enrolled 108 adults with HIV and lipohypertrophy, a condition where excess fat builds up around the abdomen. (People with HIV tend to experience an accelerated aging process, even when their condition is controlled by antiviral medication.) About half of the participants were given weekly injections of semaglutide, while the rest took a placebo.
The researchers used a set of biological epigenetic clocks—models that estimate a person’s biological age—to track the participants’ cellular aging over the 32-week trial. Among other things, the clocks detected DNA methylation (chemical marks on DNA that help regulate how genes are turned on or off).
Meet the experts: Damian Folch, M.D., a family medicine physician affiliated with Lowell General Hospital; Mir Ali, M.D., medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center
The researchers discovered that the participants who took semaglutide had an overall pattern of slower biological aging, as well as slower aging in specific areas, such as the blood, brain, heart, kidney, liver, and overall metabolic measures. All in all, the medication slowed the pace of biological aging by 9%. However, the researchers said that more work is needed to see if GLP-1s could be used as gerotherapeutics, or medications designed to slow aging.
The findings raise a lot of questions about how GLP-1s may be used as a longevity drug—and what’s behind this effect in the first place. Here’s what doctors want you to know.
Why might semaglutide slow biological aging?
Experts believe there are likely a few factors at play. “The most important effect is in reducing inflammation,” says Damian Folch, M.D., a family medicine physician affiliated with Lowell General Hospital. “We know that fat cells are inflammatory, so reducing fat in your body—especially visceral fat, or deep belly fat—has a big impact on overall inflammation.”
Mir Ali, M.D., medical director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center, agrees. “Being overweight creates a chronic inflammatory state in the body,” he says. Chronic inflammation is linked to a slew of serious diseases that can accelerate aging and reduce lifespan, including heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. Theoretically, reducing that chronic inflammation should slow biological aging, he says.
Losing weight also encourages people to move more, which has its own benefits for longevity. “People become more active [and] they seem to be happier,” Dr. Folch says. “Both exercise and mental health are important in the aging process.”
In addition, GLP-1s help people maintain steadier blood sugar levels, which may also help reduce inflammation, Dr. Folch says. “It is also believed that it affects epigenetics—the genes that are up- or down-regulated based on environmental factors—in favor of less inflammation,” he explains.
Still, “it’s hard to say if it’s the weight loss or the medication that’s causing the decrease in inflammation,” Dr. Ali says.
This isn’t the only research to link GLP-1 medications to a slower pace of aging. A pilot study (which is largely considered a preliminary study) published in npj Aging in April found that people with HIV and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (aka fatty liver disease) who took semaglutide for 24 weeks had a 42% slower rate of biological aging.
What do these results mean for everyone else?
It’s not clear at this point. “That is a big question that should be answered by further studies in the general population,” Dr. Folch says.
For the most part, GLP-1 medications have been studied in people with type 2 diabetes, obesity, HIV, and other chronic diseases. People in those groups “already have higher inflammation than the patients without those conditions,” Dr. Folch says. It’s difficult to say if the benefits will extend to people without underlying inflammation.
Will GLP-1s eventually become an anti-aging drug?
It’s too soon to tell, Dr. Ali says. “I haven’t seen convincing evidence yet that shows GLP-1s can reduce inflammation and aging independent of weight loss,” he says. “Certainly improving diabetes and obesity can improve lifespan.”
Dr. Ali says that more research is needed to understand how GLP-1s affect the body outside of weight loss and blood sugar management. “The more research we do, the more understanding we’ll have of these broader implications,” he says.
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