Is there anything Ozempic can’t do? Now slimming drugs are said to lower the risk of MS and may help sleep apnea – despite 100 US deaths linked to the injections

Ozempic, already famous for helping thousands of Americans lose excess weight, is now being tipped as a treatment for a host of other serious health problems.

In a new study, doctors found that the hit drug could reduce the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) by as much as 80 percent.

Meanwhile, researchers are also launching research projects to determine whether the drug can alleviate sleep apnea.

The researchers behind the MS study urged immediate research to see if Ozempic could be a potential treatment for the neurodegenerative condition.

The findings could be of even more financial benefit to the pharmaceutical company behind the drug, Novo Nordisk, as the obesity drug market is worth $80 billion this year.

The latest discoveries add to previous claims of a range of benefits, such as reducing the risk of heart and kidney disease and liver problems. There are also suggestions that they might reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease,

In the MS study, researchers at the University of Nebraska compared reports of MS in patients who had taken 15 weight loss medications, including semaglutide (the generic name for Ozempic).

The results showed that those taking semaglutide had a 76 percent lower risk of developing MS compared to patients taking the other 14 drugs in the database, while for those taking dulgaglutide or Trulicity this was 83.5 percent.

A separate report also revealed that Eli Lilly, the drug company working on tirzepatide, has launched a trial investigating how the drug affects people with the common sleep disorder, sleep apnea.

The condition, which affects about 39 million adults, causes patients to temporarily stop breathing while they sleep.

The study recruited nearly 500 patients who took the drug Mounjaro once a week. The trial was due to end last month and results are expected to be published in the coming months.

The drug-induced weight loss is expected to improve the condition – which can be exacerbated by excess fat in the neck area, increasing pressure on the upper airways.

Dr. Angela Fitch, current chair of the Obesity Medicine Association, said: ‘We already know it will work, it’s just a question of how well.

‘It will be interesting to see whether those who lose more weight during the study have better remission of sleep apnea and how much weight loss is needed to put it into remission.’

It comes amid a gold rush in weight loss treatments, with prescriptions for Ozempic and similar drugs rising 300 percent between 2019 and 2022 alone.

They work by stimulating GLP-1 receptors in the brain, making a person feel full even after a long period of time without eating anything.

This promise – of weight loss with just one injection per week – has fueled their popularity.

However, there are concerns that the risks are being overlooked as an analysis of FDA data from DailyMail.com has found 117 fatalities linked to the drugs since their release.

They included a woman in her 20s who was diagnosed with an ‘intestinal mass’ and another patient who was pregnant.

None of the deaths have been confirmed to be caused by the drugs, but associations have been reported by patients.

In many cases, the purported benefits are directly related to the drug’s ability to help people lose weight quickly.

Over time, obesity can damage a variety of tissues in the body, increasing the risk of developing a wide range of diseases.

However, there is some research to suggest that some of the extended benefits may be due to reasons other than weight loss.

The drug stimulated GLP-1 receptors found in other parts of the body, including the blood-brain barrier.

Scientists have suggested that this may have a range of other effects, including protecting nerve cells from damage.

In the MS study, scientists analyzed medical data from more than 600,000 patients who had used fifteen weight-loss medications since 2003.

They analyzed data from popular medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, as well as others linked to weight loss, including metformin and bupropion.

Writing in the newspaper, published in Therapeutic advances in neurological disorderswrote the University of Nebraska team: ‘Our findings suggest a potential consideration for repurposing anti-diabetic medications that cause weight loss, including semaglutide… for MS.

‘This warrants validation through rigorous methodologies and prospective studies.’

The study was funded by the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Estimates show that the weight loss drug market has increased from $3 billion in 2022 to more than $80 billion today.

Novo Nordisk, behind Ozempic, was the first on the market. But Eli Lilly is catching up with its own weight-loss drug tirzepatide, available as Mounjaro. Reports last month suggested that the weight-loss drug Zepbound had already overtaken Wegovy in prescriptions.

Ozempic has so far only been approved for type 2 diabetics, but is often prescribed off-label for weight loss.

Its sister drug Wegovy – which uses the same drug semaglutide, but in a lower dose – is approved for the treatment of weight loss and was also given the green light for heart disease patients earlier this year.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the US, with more than 120 million adults estimated to suffer from the condition.