From dementia to heart disease: could weight-loss jabs transform chronic conditions?

--:--

They were developed as diabetes drugs, then their potential for promoting significant weight loss became apparent. And now study after study seems to suggest that drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy could have all sorts of health benefits, leading some scientists to hail them a breakthrough that could transform many chronic diseases of ageing. But what’s the mechanism for these effects and is it caused by more than weight loss? The Guardian’s science correspondent Nicola Davis tells Madeleine Finlay what is known so far. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod

16 Sep English United Kingdom Science · Nature

Other recent episodes

Everything you need to know about Covid this autumn

Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, the Guardian’s science editor and Science Weekly co-host, to answer the questions we are all asking about Covid this autumn, from what is going on with the new variant XEC to how to get a vaccine and what scientists think the government should…

2 Oct 16 min

End of an era: Britain finally says goodbye to coal

Just before Britain’s last coal fired power station Ratcliffe-on-Soar powered down for the final time, Madeleine Finlay travelled to Nottinghamshire with energy correspondent Jillian Ambrose for a last tour of the site. Britain is the first major economy to move away from coal entirely as it strives to meet the…

30 Sep 17 min

Is the ocean becoming too acidic to sustain life?

Industrial civilisation is close to breaching a seventh planetary boundary, and may already have crossed it, according to scientists who have compiled the latest report on the state of the world’s life-support systems. They say ocean acidification is close to critical threshold, posing a threat to marine ecosystems and global…

25 Sep 14 min

Are the world’s oldest people really that old?

Madeleine Finlay speaks to Dr Saul Newman, an interdisciplinary researcher at University College London and the University of Oxford, who has just won an Ig Nobel prize – given to scientific research that ‘first makes people laugh, and then makes them think’ – for his work showing that many claims…

23 Sep 16 min

Live episode: will AI make a good companion?

In a special episode recorded live at the British Science Festival, Madeleine Finlay and guests explore the question: will AI make a good companion? AI could give us new ways to tackle difficult problems, from young people’s mental health issues to isolation in care homes. It also raises challenging questions…

20 Sep 36 min

All episodes