If you have knee arthritis, taking certain diabetes weight-loss drugs like semaglutide or liraglutide can help you lose around 7.5 kilograms on average, mostly because they help control your hunger and energy use, which might also take some pressure off your joints.

A diabetes drug called semaglutide might help people with knee arthritis lose weight and feel less pain, according to a recent study.

For adults with knee arthritis and either obesity or type 2 diabetes, taking certain diabetes weight-loss drugs like semaglutide for 6 to 12 months can lead to noticeable weight loss—sometimes over 10% of body weight—with the best results seen using the 2.4 mg weekly dose of semaglutide. This weight loss might also help ease knee pain by improving metabolism.

If someone with knee or joint pain loses more weight using GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, they might feel less pain — and this could mean that getting healthier on a metabolic level helps ease joint symptoms.

Those diabetes weight-loss drugs might help knee arthritis, but it's probably because people lose weight — not because the drug calms inflammation in the joint itself.

People with knee arthritis and diabetes who take GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic seem to need knee surgery less often — 1.7% of them did over 6 years, compared to 5.9% who didn’t take the drugs — and some of this benefit comes from losing weight.