The Dr. Tyna Show
GLP1s and Dementia: What the Latest Science Shows | Quick + Dirty
Thu, 01 May 2025
EP. 210: In this episode, I’m covering the groundbreaking new data showing a jaw-dropping 45% reduction in dementia risk—and no, it’s not from a new Alzheimer’s drug or expensive intervention. It's from good old GLP-1 medications. I'm walking you through the data, the mechanisms, and what this could mean for your future health. Topics Discussed: Recent study: Can GLP-1 medications reduce the risk of dementia? What are the neurocognitive benefits of GLP-1 peptides? Are GLP-1 receptor agonists effective for brain health and memory protection? How do GLP-1s work to prevent cognitive decline or Alzheimer's disease? What does the data show? On This Episode We Cover: 00:00:00 – Introduction 00:03:49 – Neurocognitive benefits of GLP-1s 00:07:35 – Other benefits of GLP-1s 00:13:33 – Biomechanisms of GLP-1s 00:15:06 – Alternative options and final thoughts Show Links: Cardioprotective Glucose-Lowering Agents and Dementia Risk Further LIstening GLP1 Uncovered FREE 4 Part Video Series EP. 207 | Tirzepatide + Metabolic Health: What the Latest Study Really Shows | Solo EP. 208 | This Natural GLP-1 Stimulator Actually Works | Calocurb with Sarah Kennedy Sponsored By: Puori | Go to Puori.com/drtyna and use code DRTYNA to get 20% off LMNT | Get your free Sample Pack with any LMNT purchase at drinkLMNT.com/drtyna Liver Love | Go to https://store.drtyna.com/products/liverlove Use code DRTYNASHOW at checkout to save. Disclaimer: Information provided in this podcast is for informational purposes only. This information is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional, or any information contained on or in any product. Do not use the information provided in this podcast for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing medication or other treatment. Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before taking any medication or nutritional, herbal or other supplement, or using any treatment for a health problem. Information provided in this blog/podcast and the use of any products or services related to this podcast by you does not create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Dr. Tyna Moore. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent ANY disease.
Chapter 1: What groundbreaking data shows a reduction in dementia risk?
You are tuned into The Dr. Tina Show with Dr. Tina Moore. For more, visit drtina.com. On this episode of The Dr. Tina Show, I'm going to be sharing this study with you that showed a jaw-dropping 45% reduction in dementia risk. Not from some new Alzheimer's drug, not from some fancy intervention, but from good old GLP-1s. And I'm so excited to share the data with you. So let's jump in.
Chapter 2: What are the neurocognitive benefits of GLP-1 medications?
All right, so this was a very interesting study. They basically, it was done by two undergrad students, so that right there is very cool. They looked at 26 randomized control clinical trials, over 164,000 participants. And this study included patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors and or actually.
And they looked at different types of blood sugar-lowering drugs like metformin, GLP-1s, SGLT-2s, SGLT-2 inhibitors, I'm sorry. And they compared them all and then they sorted out what cardiovascular benefits were happening and dementia risk. So the mean age participant was about 65 years old, 64.4 years, I guess 64 years old. 35% were women and the average duration follow-up was 31.4 months.
I will say that's a limitation of the study. They didn't follow up with them very long. And as we know, dementia takes decades to... So there's that. But overall, what they found, the key findings were that the cardioprotective glucose lowering therapies did not significantly reduce the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment overall. This is important and I want to reiterate what this means.
Whenever I talk about GLP-1s and their benefits, everybody wants to argue, well, wouldn't reducing your blood sugar, wouldn't optimizing your metabolic health, wouldn't weight loss already improve outcomes with X, Y, or Z? And yes, I would say yes. This showed that with other medications designed specifically to be cardioprotective and lower glucose, they did not see the dementia risk reduction.
Chapter 3: How do GLP-1 receptor agonists compare to other treatments?
So it's not as obvious as one would think it is. It's not just, oh, well, they lost weight, so of course their brain health improved. Or they lowered their blood sugar, so of course their brain health improved. Those things should indeed improve diabetes. brain health, but not like the GLP-1 did.
GLP-1 receptor agonists specifically were associated with a 45% relative reduction in dementia risk compared to controls. SGLT2 inhibitors showed no significant effect on dementia risk. Metformin had no eligible trials and the other drug, I cannot pronounce, pioglitazone showed no significant benefit.
Secondary findings, no statistically significant reduction in vascular dementia or Alzheimer's disease separately for any drug class. GLP-1 receptor agonist showed signals toward benefit across several cognitive measures, but no cognitive score improvements were consistently demonstrated across all included trials and no significant impact was seen on Lewy body dementia or frontotemporal dementia.
I get asked about that a lot, actually, about specific types of dementia. They had too few cases to really determine, so I'm not sure. The reason I got interested in GLP-1s, and for those who don't know what GLP-1 receptor agonists are, these are the drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, Manjaro, Zepbound. These are all GLP-1 receptor agonists.
Chapter 4: What mechanisms do GLP-1s use to protect brain health?
Chapter 5: What are the limitations of the current dementia studies?
I will say that's a limitation of the study. They didn't follow up with them very long. And as we know, dementia takes decades to... So there's that. But overall, what they found, the key findings were that the cardioprotective glucose lowering therapies did not significantly reduce the risk of dementia or cognitive impairment overall. This is important and I want to reiterate what this means.
Whenever I talk about GLP-1s and their benefits, everybody wants to argue, well, wouldn't reducing your blood sugar, wouldn't optimizing your metabolic health, wouldn't weight loss already improve outcomes with X, Y, or Z? And yes, I would say yes. This showed that with other medications designed specifically to be cardioprotective and lower glucose, they did not see the dementia risk reduction.
So it's not as obvious as one would think it is. It's not just, oh, well, they lost weight, so of course their brain health improved. Or they lowered their blood sugar, so of course their brain health improved. Those things should indeed improve diabetes. brain health, but not like the GLP-1 did.
GLP-1 receptor agonists specifically were associated with a 45% relative reduction in dementia risk compared to controls. SGLT2 inhibitors showed no significant effect on dementia risk. Metformin had no eligible trials and the other drug, I cannot pronounce, pioglitazone showed no significant benefit.
Secondary findings, no statistically significant reduction in vascular dementia or Alzheimer's disease separately for any drug class. GLP-1 receptor agonist showed signals toward benefit across several cognitive measures, but no cognitive score improvements were consistently demonstrated across all included trials and no significant impact was seen on Lewy body dementia or frontotemporal dementia.
I get asked about that a lot, actually, about specific types of dementia. They had too few cases to really determine, so I'm not sure. The reason I got interested in GLP-1s, and for those who don't know what GLP-1 receptor agonists are, these are the drugs like Wegovy, Ozempic, Manjaro, Zepbound. These are all GLP-1 receptor agonists.
And the reason I got interested in them originally was because of their neuroprotective benefits. That was what got me looking at them. And when I started finding the data in both rodents and humans, I was like, what? This is not what we're being told. And beyond that, yes, they have a very incredible...
I believe if you break down the mechanisms, I just did a podcast about TERS appetite and metabolic health overall. They look to be protective of metabolic health. They definitely induce weight loss. I don't think it's just because they get you to eat less. I think it's because they actually improve your insulin signaling, your insulin reception. There's a lot of different mechanisms going on here.
They impact the immune system directly and indirectly. They lower inflammation in the brain and throughout the body. All of these things will help with overall cardioprotective benefits, weight loss, neurologic benefits. I mean, they're pretty profound.
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Chapter 6: What alternative options are there for cognitive health?
Importantly, while observational studies suggested possible benefits, this meta-analysis only showed a statistically significant dementia reduction for GLP-1 receptor agonists, not the other drugs that they looked at. The conclusion was only the GLP-1 receptor agonists demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in risk for all-cause dementia. This is really exciting.
It's not entirely that groundbreaking if you've been looking at the data though. I get a lot of hate for talking about this peptide and I don't understand why because its neurocognitive impacts are profound. I did a whole podcast episode with Max Lugavere on his Genius Life podcast and we talked specifically about the neurocognitive benefits and I shared some pretty great data there.
Oh, gosh, an eight-page lesson inside my GLP-1 Done Right University. It's an educational program. It's my big course. I have a free four-part video series where you can check out if this is new to you and you're like, wait, what? Ozempic may potentially have these other impacts on the body. getting away from brand name drugs, just GLP-1 agonists in general.
I share with you what the data is looking like around those. So it's a four-part video series and you'll get a new video each day. On the third day, you'll be invited at a discount to participate in my big program, which is for clinicians, but as of right now and for a very short time, it's open to the public too. So it's been open to the public since its inception.
I am shutting the whole thing down. I'm revamping it. And when I relaunch it, only clinicians will be able to gain access to the clinical components of the course. Right now the general public has access to everything as well and it's a beefy course. But I've got a multitude of lessons in there from tip to toe
Beyond that, I talk about why you need all the other treatment components to go along with your GLP-1 agonist journey. It's not just about taking a GLP-1 agonist. You have to have your hormones in order. You have to have your gut health in order. You have to be leading an insulin sensitive lifestyle. You have to be strength training. I have modules on each section of those.
I have a module on how to find a doctor to work with, a good doctor to work with. It's a beefy course, but inside one of the particular modules where I go tip to toe about the benefits of GLP-1s and provide you all the most recent data, we've got a bone health lesson, a brain lesson, a cancer in GLP-1s, interesting information in there, cardiovascular... in GLP-1 lesson.
COVID and long COVID and GLP-1. Gastrointestinal, immune and inflammation, fascinating lesson there. Liver, gallbladder, pancreas, a whole pancreatitis in GLP-1. I'll just let you know on that one, no increased risk of pancreatitis has been seen in virtually any study. So long term, it's just not there. So you can put those rumors to rest.
Musculoskeletal, you'd be fascinated by what it does to your muscles and your bones and it's regenerative. News flash, it's not actually dissolving your muscles and bones, regardless of what you're hearing out there, regardless of what some of these huge influencers who should know better, who seem to have a good handle on literature are saying to you. It does not turn your bones to dust.
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