A new study from Washington University, in St Louis, Missouri, analysed health records of more than 2.4 million people, including 215,000 taking the jabs, to see how the drugs affect the risk of developing 175 different health outcomes.
Data show that the medications reduced the risk of cardiac arrest by 22 per cent, pneumonia by 16 per cent, Alzheimer’s by 12 per cent, bacterial infections by 12 per cent, and alcohol use disorder by 11 per cent.
In total there were 42 health outcomes which were shown to have a lower likelihood in a person who was prescribed a GLP-1 drug.
However, 19 health outcomes were also shown to become more likely, including nausea and vomiting (30 per cent), headaches (10 per cent) and abdominal pain (12 per cent).
The study also uncovered the medications are linked to an increased risk of haemorrhoids, low blood pressure, tendonitis and osteoarthritis.
...“The general message here is that there are two key mechanisms. One is probably related to obesity and the second pathway is reduced inflammation, and things related to reward signalling and impulse control in the brain.”
The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, found that there was a reduced risk of kidney disease in people taking weight loss jabs, but a higher risk of kidney stones.
“It may be related to the possibility that when people take GLP-1 they eat a whole lot less to lose weight, but they also hydrate themselves less. They drink less water because their stomach shrinks, and they feel full very quickly.
“And maybe, I’m theorising here, perhaps chronic dehydration leads to increased risk of kidney stones.”
Other surprising findings from the study are how GLP-1 drugs make arthritis more likely when a person is lighter and bearing less weight, and also how they could be responsible for making a person less prone to bacterial infections, including sepsis and pneumonia.