GLP-1 Drugs vs Arthritis?

First introduced as a diabetes medication, GLP-1 drugs quickly took hold for off-label use as weight loss aids, even when the science was still very young.

Here’s one of our first articles on that, back in the day: Semaglutide’s Surprisingly Big Research Gap

As for that popularity? Check out: 1 in 5 US Women Aged 50–64 Has Used GLP-1 RAs: What We’ve Learned

Spoiler, one of the things we’ve learned is: Most People Who Start GLP-1 RAs Quit Them Within A Year (Here’s Why)

One of the main things in their favor is, of course, that (for most people, anyway), they work (except when they don’t: Why Intermittent Fasting (& GLP-1 Drugs!) Might Not Work For You).

In other words, a rocky road with pros and cons. But today, let’s talk about a newly-identified benefit…

Arthritis relief beyond weight loss

It has previously been assumed that GLP-1 drugs help vs arthritis because of weight loss—by the simple mechanism that if you have less weight, then less weight will be stressing your knee joints, for example (knee osteoarthritis being perhaps the most well-studied form of arthritis).

However! Researchers (Dr. Amalie Dyrelund Broksø et al.) detected very small amounts of the hormone GLP-1 in the joint fluid of people with inflammatory arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis, suggesting that high-dose GLP-1 drugs directly reduce inflammation inside joints.

In particular, GLP-1 levels in joint fluid closely mirrored GLP-1 levels in the bloodstream, suggesting that increasing circulating GLP-1 with medication will indeed also increase how much reaches arthritic joints (something that wouldn’t otherwise be a given).

Nevertheless, while this much is established, what’s not yet tested (and thus not yet proven) is that this apparent cause and effect is indeed cause and effect, and not just a case of a correlation being caused by some third thing:

❝Our findings provide a biological basis for investigating whether GLP-1-based medication may have direct effects in the joints — beyond the known effects on weight and metabolism. However, we have not demonstrated that the treatment works against arthritis. This will require a number of clinical studies❞

~ Dr. Tue Wenzel Kragstrup, one of the researchers involved in this study

The good news, of course, is that if future trials confirm the effect, GLP-1 drugs could then offer a “double benefit” for many arthritis patients by both promoting weight loss and directly reducing inflammation in joints.

You can find this paper itself, here: Detection of GLP-1 and DPP-4 in synovial fluid: implications for therapeutical strategies in arthritis

If you’d like to enjoy at least the anti-inflammatory effects without GLP-1 drugs, then do check out:

• Five Supplements That Actually Work Vs Arthritis
• How to Prevent (or Reduce) Inflammation

And for arthritis care in general, consider:

• Avoiding/Managing Osteoarthritis
• Avoiding/Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis

Want to learn more?

You might also like this book that we reviewed a little while back:

Magic Pill: The Extraordinary Benefits and Disturbing Risks of the New Weight-Loss Drugs – by Johann Hari

Take care!