Health Claims

People told to eat just enough to stay at their current weight often end up eating too little without meaning to, creating a calorie shortfall.

If you're someone who lifts weights regularly, cutting your calories by 10% helps you lose about twice as much fat as eating just enough to maintain your weight — and you’ll still gain the same amount of muscle and strength.

Fit people might be able to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, even if they're not eating more or less than they burn—especially over a 10-week period.

Some diabetes drugs like liraglutide and exenatide might help protect cartilage in arthritic joints by slowing down the breakdown of important joint components.

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 type 2 diabetes who took GLP-1 drugs for nearly 5 years had slower knee cartilage loss, even after accounting for weight loss or blood sugar changes — meaning these drugs might actually be helping protect the joints.

Obese people with knee arthritis who take semaglutide weekly for over a year report much less pain—about 14 points better on a standard pain scale—compared to those on placebo, and this might not just be from losing weight.

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.

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.

Some diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists might help people with knee arthritis move better, but we’re not sure yet because there haven’t been enough solid studies.

Some diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists might help ease knee pain in adults with osteoarthritis, but there’s only early hints from a couple of small studies — not enough proof yet to say for sure.

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.

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.

Taking a weekly shot of exenatide for six months doesn’t seem to change key inflammation and metabolism markers in people with alcohol use disorder, compared to a dummy shot.

People with alcohol use disorder tend to have lower levels of a gut hormone called GIP, which might mean alcohol messes with how the body regulates blood sugar and digestion.

People with long-term alcohol problems have way more of a protein called FGF-21 in their blood — over five times higher — than people without those issues, so it might help doctors spot chronic drinking.

People with alcohol use disorder tend to have much higher levels of a blood marker called CRP, which shows their body has more inflammation — a sign that could mean they're at greater risk for heart problems.

People with alcohol use disorder tend to have higher levels of a protein linked to inflammation in their blood compared to those without the disorder.

Semaglutide helps reduce knee pain in obese people with arthritis, but liraglutide didn't show the same benefit in other studies.

If you have knee arthritis and diabetes, taking GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic might help slow down the wearing away of knee cartilage, according to one study that watched people over time.

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.

In early animal studies of osteoarthritis, diabetes drugs called GLP-1 agonists seem to protect cartilage and reduce joint inflammation by turning off a key inflammation switch in cells.

Some diabetes drugs might help calm joint inflammation and protect cartilage in animals with osteoarthritis, especially when given in higher doses.

Some diabetes drugs called GLP-1RAs might help protect knee cartilage from breaking down in early lab studies, and this has been seen with drugs like liraglutide, dulaglutide, and exenatide.