Weight-loss medications could alleviate migraine pain and reducing asthma symptoms, according to new research.
Experts have noted that individuals using these drugs reported a decrease in asthma flare-ups and a reduced reliance on inhalers.
Separately, a study has drawn a connection between the drug Wegovy and a decline in prescriptions for migraine medication among women taking it for weight management.
These findings, unveiled at the European Congress On Obesity in Turkey, contribute to a growing body of evidence suggesting that glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) drugs may offer advantages beyond their primary use for weight loss.
In England, these medications are already prescribed to mitigate the risk of heart attacks and strokes. The latest research further strengthens the understanding of these drugs’ potential therapeutic scope.
Experts examined Danish health registries between 2022 and 2024, including data on 150,000 people who started Wegovy.
Of these, some 6,800 had a prescription for migraine medicine in the year before they started weight-loss treatment.
They found that among women with a history of migraine, use of Wegovy for weight management was linked to a 7% reduction in the use of triptan-class drugs for treatment in migraine one year after they started weight-loss treatment.
The authors said that after women started Wegovy, the use of migraine medicines started to gradually decrease.
But the finding was only observed among women.
The authors concluded: “The study suggests that initiation of semaglutide is associated with a gradual reduction in triptan use during the first year after initiation among women.”
Meanwhile, in a separate study, experts from Denmark examined data from Danish health registries to look at data on 27,523 people prescribed both GLP-1 medicines for either obesity or type 2 diabetes and asthma inhalers.
They found that GLP-1 use was linked with a 26% fall in the number of asthma exacerbations and a 14% drop in the use of asthma inhaler reliever use.
“In this nationwide cohort of over 27,000 individuals with asthma and also overweight, obesity or type 2 diabetes, use of GLP-1 drugs was associated with significant reductions in exacerbation burden as well as reliever use, exposure to inhaled corticosteroids and pneumonia events, irrespective of whether the drugs were being used to treat obesity or type 2 diabetes,” the authors concluded.
Dr Kjell Erik Julius Hakansson, one of the authors from Copenhagen University Hospital, said: “There is a high chance that the weight loss is a major contributor to these results.
“A common symptom in both asthma and obesity is shortness of breath, and the presence of excess fatty tissue creates a pro-inflammatory state in the body in general.
“There’s also evidence from other studies suggesting that the inflammation caused by excess adipose tissue is distinct from the ‘classic’ asthma inflammation which often is driven by allergies or cells called eosinophils.
“As the use of GLP-1 therapies increase, researchers are finding an increasing number of effects outside of weight loss.”
