United States: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that is associated with diabetes and obesity is, unfortunately, very quick to turn into liver cirrhosis but Ozempic medication for diabetes can prevent that.
As reported by HealthDay, In a more modern two-decade follow-up study, diabetics with veterans and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) were almost 14 percent less likely to develop cirrhosis if they had taken an GLP-1 than other diabetes medication.
Among all the GLP-1 meds, semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) appeared to be very much effective in this regard, wrote a team that included Dr. Fasiha Kanwal, a professor of gastroenterology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
but Kanwal’s team concluded that the use of GLP-1 meds was related to a decreased risk of progression of the disease, including cirrhosis and death.
They noted that the medicine must be taken early in the course of MASLD: MASLD sufferers who had liver cirrhosis did not benefit from GLP-1s.
Normal liver is up to 5% of our body weight but in MASLD the fat accumulates and reaches dangerous levels of risk of cirrhosis, liver cancer and even liver transplant. Lifestyle diseases such as obesity and diabetes are among the risk factors most having links with the disease referred to as fatty liver disease.
In the new study, the Houston team focused on data from more than 32,000 patients with diabetes and MASLD all of which were being treated at the VA facilities.
The participants’ age was approximately being 67 and it was agreed that all participants sign a consent form before participating in the research. Half of them took a GLP-1 drug as diabetes medication including semaglutide, liraglutide or dulaglutide, while the other half had a similar condition but were given a different class of diabetes medication known as DPP-4s instead. Assessment of the outcomes was made from the year 2006 to the end of year 2022.
The researchers also opined that the use of GLP-1 reduced a patient’s overall risk of developing cirrhosis by 14 percent than people who were using a DPP-4. The risk of death during the study period reduced by 11% among the users of GLP-1.
These healthy effects were often seen to have occurred within 18-24 months of starting on a GLP-1.
In particular, the protective association was not detected among patients with underlying cirrhosis at enrollment — suggesting that treatment should be initiated earlier in the disease course of MASLD, Kanwal’s group concluded.
It is relevant also to know how these GLP-1s are exerting these effects to the liver?
In the view of the researchers these drugs “affect body weight, glycemia and inflammation which could slow down the progression of MASLD.”
Indeed, previous trials have shown that GLP-1 meds can not only save but also fully resolve fatty liver diseases on its own, according to Kanwal and his team.
In severe cases of the fatty liver disease and the cirrhosis it can result in liver cancer. But, according to the researchers, the amounts of liver cancer cases in the study were not sufficient to point whether they extend that GLP-1s could reduce risks of liver cancer too.