Ozempic hailed as ‘fountain of youth’ drug that could slow down ageing

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Professor Harlan M Krumholz Responding to research published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, Professor Harlan M Krumholz from the Yale School of Medicine, said: “Semaglutide, perhaps by improving cardiometabolic health, has far-reaching benefits beyond what we initially imagined.” He added: “These ground-breaking medications are poised to revolutionise cardiovascular care and could dramatically enhance cardiovascular health.” Multiple reports also quoted Professor Krumholz saying: “Is it a fountain of youth?” He said: “I would say if you’re improving someone’s cardiometabolic health substantially, then you are putting them in a position to live longer and better. It wouldn’t surprise me that improving people’s health this way actually slows down the ageing process.” The studies, presented at the European Society of Cardiology Conference 2024 in London, were produced from the Select trial which studied 17,604 people aged 45 or older who were overweight or obese and had established cardiovascular disease but not diabetes. Researchers found women experienced fewer major adverse cardiovascular events, but semaglutide “consistently reduced the risk” of adverse cardiovascular outcomes regardless of sex. He said the findings that the weight-loss drug to reduce Covid-19 mortality rates were “akin to a vaccine against the indirect effects of a pathogen.” He said: “People with coronary artery disease who had fatal myocardial infarctions precipitated by the physiological stress inflammatory response induced by Covid-19 could have averted those outcomes, were their risk profiles lower when infected.