Is there anything that GLP-1s cannot treat? These medications have been praised as one of the most significant medical advances in decades, proving to be an invaluable weight management tool and much more. The latest research shows that GLP-1s are also showing promise in increasing testosterone levels, lowering the risk of Alzheimer's disease, reducing cravings for drugs and alcohol, alleviating pain associated with osteoarthritis, and lowering the threat of major cardiovascular events.

Researchers are studying whether GLP-1 medications might also slow aging. Here’s what a new mouse study found, and what it does and doesn’t mean for people.

Could GLP-1s Affect How We Age?

A recent study published in the journal Nature is detailing how GLP-1s could be the key to longevity. According to Dr. Sohaib Imtiaz, chief medical officer at PEOPLE Inc. and a certified lifestyle medicine physician with an interest in longevity, “Your biological age is how old your body behaves, as opposed to the number on your birth certificate.”

Imtiaz explains that “a lower biological age is linked to a lower risk of dying from any cause, and to delaying many age-related diseases at once — heart disease, kidney disease, dementia and frailty.” There are a number of ways that you can slow down the natural aging process. In animal studies, calorie restriction has been one of the most consistently studied ways to extend lifespan. Imtiaz said that this strategy "is the most robustly proven way to slow aging in animals, and GLP-1s appear to tap into the same nutrient-sensing and longevity pathways.”

In the study published in Nature, older female mice were given semaglutide drugs for three months. These mice were the equivalent of a 60-year-old human. The mice who received semaglutide (a form of GLP-1 drugs) exhibited fewer signs of aging after the treatment. These mice also lived roughly 12% longer on average than the mice who did not receive the GLP-1s, coming in at a lifespan of 834 days compared to 742 days in the untreated mice.

Imtiaz is also excited about what the research found about the brain specifically. He details that "In the mouse study, the restoration of neural stem cells and new brain-cell growth was one of the most striking findings. ... The brain is the most exciting frontier.”

How Does the Research Apply to Humans?

The most pressing question now is how the study in mice translates to humans. Although GLP-1 medications have shown great promise in the treatment of various physical and mental health conditions, Imtiaz said that it is still too soon to say if these drugs will turn out to actually slow down the aging process.

As Imtiaz explains, “ ‘Slows aging’ is still a hypothesis. We see promising indirect signals — lower death rates, slower biological aging clocks, fewer age-related diseases — but no human trial has yet measured aging itself as a main goal of GLP-1 treatment.”

What GLP-1s Could Mean for Heart Health

In addition, scientists still need to research how these medications might impact the heart. Imtiaz warns that “GLP-1 receptor agonists consistently lower heart rate variability (HRV) while raising resting heart rate.” HRV is defined as the variation in time between heartbeats. In general, higher variability correlates with better heart health, as it is a sign that the calming side of the body's nervous system can adapt to changes quickly. Conversely, low variability means that this calming mechanism is weak and that stress is in control.

According to Imtiaz, these changes have not been shown to outweigh the reported benefits of lower blood pressure, decreased cholesterol, and an overall reduced risk of suffering a cardiac event. Imtiaz does concede that “GLP-1s reduce heart disease risk, [so] it hasn’t translated to real-world harm in the trials.”

Despite the research still needed to make GLP-1s a viable treatment to slow down aging, Imtiaz is hopeful that there is a “real possibility” that these medications may find a place in the longevity market in the future, particularly because they have been shown to potentially reduce low-grade inflammation, a hallmark sign of getting older. GLP-1 medications are not approved to slow aging, and anyone with questions about their treatment should talk to their doctor.

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