Three new studies have explored an exciting possibility: could medications like Ozempic, which are normally used to treat diabetes and obesity, also help reduce the risk of stroke or make strokes less dangerous?
These findings were shared at the Society of NeuroInterventional Surgery’s 22nd Annual Meeting and offer a hopeful look at how GLP-1 inhibitors might play a role in brain health.
Ozempic, the brand name for semaglutide, is part of a group of medications called GLP-1 inhibitors. These drugs help lower blood sugar and often lead to weight loss.
They’re widely used to manage type 2 diabetes and are becoming more common for treating obesity. Researchers wanted to find out if these drugs could also help protect the brain during a stroke or even reduce the chance of having one in the first place.
In the first study, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at data from their own hospital and from a large global health database. They compared stroke outcomes in people who were taking Ozempic with those who weren’t.
Across the global dataset of more than two million stroke patients, those using Ozempic had much better survival rates. Only 5.26% of Ozempic users died from their strokes, compared to over 21% of people who were not using the drug.
Even more impressively, long-term survival after a stroke was 77.5% for Ozempic users, compared to just under 31% for non-users. Their local university data showed similar results.
The second study, also from the University of Wisconsin, looked at emergency department records from across the country. Researchers tried to identify people who were likely using Ozempic and found they had much lower odds of experiencing a stroke in the first place.
While this study didn’t confirm medication use directly, the researchers plan to use more specific pharmacy data in the future to confirm the link between Ozempic and stroke prevention.
The third study came from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. This team looked at a range of brain conditions, including strokes and bleeding in the brain (such as brain hemorrhages and aneurysms).
They studied how people did after these events and whether taking GLP-1 inhibitors made a difference. The results were promising: patients who took these medications were less likely to have memory problems, seizures, another brain bleed, or die in the months and years after their brain injury or stroke.
Dr. Ahmed Elbayomy, one of the lead researchers from the University of Wisconsin, said the findings are very encouraging. “More research is certainly needed, but seeing the potential protection offered by these medications is a fascinating finding,” he said.
Dr. Matias Costa from the University of Texas added that this research might change the way we think about preventing and treating stroke and other brain injuries. These early results suggest that drugs like Ozempic could do more than help with diabetes—they might also become part of a broader strategy for protecting brain health.
If you care about stroke, please read research about Stronger high blood pressure treatment may help prevent stroke in older people and findings of Stroke death risk increases again after falling for 40 years.
For more about stroke, please read research about Research finds a better high blood pressure treatment for stroke patients and findings of Scientists find a better drug than statins for stroke patients.
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