No bones about it — semaglutide keeps racking up new benefits.
A new, large-scale study finds that medications like Ozempic and Wegovy can seriously reduce knee pain for those with moderate to severe osteoarthritis.
The most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis is primarily caused by wear and tear on the protective layer of cartilage on the ends of our bones — similar to wearing down the tread on a tire.
Dr. Vinay K. Aggarwal, a hip and knee reconstruction specialist at NYU Langone, recently told The Post, “Osteoarthritis is most common in the hip joints, causing pain in the groin and sides of the hips, and the knee joints, leading to pain in the front, sides or back of the knees.”
Researchers in the latest study were hopeful that semaglutide medications, which mimic the body’s natural GLP-1 hormone and were initially developed to treat diabetes, could help alleviate pain in osteoarthritis patients.
The results proved even better than expected.
Dr. Bob Carter, deputy director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, told the New York Times this week, “The magnitude of the improvement is of a scope we haven’t seen before with a drug. They had an almost 50% reduction in their knee pain. That’s huge.”
Published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the 68-week study conducted by Wegovy and Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk tracked 407 obese patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis.
To be included, participants had to meet certain criteria, such as stiffness in the morning and knees that audibly clicked or creaked.
At the study’s onset, researchers used a 100-point pain scale to calculate functionality and stiffness. Participants reported an average pain level of 70.9 points.
“They were really in pain,” Dr. Henning Bliddal, the principal investigator for the study and a rheumatologist at Copenhagen University Hospital, told the Times. “They can’t exercise. You are trapped with knees like this.”
Participants were predominately female, with an average age of 56 and an average body mass index of 40.3.
A BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese, while a BMI of 40 or higher has been deemed severely obese.
All participants were subjected to exercise counseling and calorie restriction and randomly assigned either a placebo or Wegovy, which is prescribed for adult weight loss.
The semaglutide contingent lost an average of 13.7% of their starting weight, while the placebo group shed 3.2%.
While weight loss in the semaglutide group is consistent with the typical effects of these meds, the level of pain reduction surprised the researchers.
At the conclusion of the study, the placebo group reported a 27.5-point reduction in pain, while the semaglutide group reported a reduction of 41.7 points.
Experts note that short of knee surgery, this staggering reduction in pain bests other courses of treatment, including steroid injections or over-the-counter pain relievers, which can, over time, cause damage to internal organs.
“The good news is that surgery works for most people,” Carter said. “The bad news is that it is hugely expensive. We desperately need an effective way to treat knee pain.”
Certain factors that accelerate osteoarthritis, like age and genetic predisposition, are beyond our control, but others, like obesity and exercise, fall within it.
As The Post previously reported, research shows that people who cycle often have significantly less chance of developing osteoarthritis by the age of 65.
Obesity in particular exacerbates osteoarthritis and the pain associated with it. Studies show that every pound of excess body weight can increase pressure on knee joints, creating four to six times the force on those joints.
Semaglutide can be doubly effective as a treatment for osteoarthritis. It helps patients lose weight while decreasing inflammation. These meds activate specific T cells, white blood cells key to the immune system, which can have anti-inflammatory effects.
This latest development adds another potential benefit to the growing list of ways semaglutide may improve overall health.
Recent studies have shown drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic may help fight kidney disease and could be beneficial in preventing and treating substance abuse.
In a clinical trial, Wegovy use was linked to improved exercise ability in people with diabetes and heart failure. In March, Wegovy was approved to reduce the risk of stroke, heart attacks and other serious cardiovascular problems in patients who are overweight or obese.
Preliminary research has also suggested that semaglutide may protect against neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation, meaning drugs like Ozempic could potentially guard against Alzheimer’s.
