If you're an adult with knee arthritis and take GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic or Wegovy, you might get an upset stomach — including nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea — which is the most common side effect these medicines tend to cause, based on what we've seen in other studies.

Some diabetes and weight-loss drugs like liraglutide and dulaglutide can cause nasty stomach side effects like nausea and vomiting, and because of that, more people stop taking them—especially if they also have knee pain from osteoarthritis and other metabolic issues.

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.

If you're obese but don't have diabetes, taking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic for five years doesn't seem to raise your risk of joint problems like arthritis or needing joint surgery — so if joint issues show up in people with diabetes on these drugs, it might be because of their diabetes, not the drug itself.

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

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.