Semaglutide slows biological aging markers in HIV trial, worth paying attention to
Posted by weekendnate in Research & News - 1 points, 3 comments.
A new randomized placebo-controlled trial out of UC shows semaglutide slowed the accumulation of biological aging markers in DNA of adults with HIV. First time I've seen that level of evidence for a GLP-1 having an aging effect beyond weight loss. The HIV population is interesting because they tend to show accelerated epigenetic age, so if the drug works there it probably does something in healthier people too.
I'm cautiously optimistic on this one. Weight loss alone moves inflammatory markers and improves metabolic health, so some of the epigenetic signal could be downstream of that rather than a direct drug effect. Still, a placebo-controlled design in humans is a step up from the usual observational stuff. I'd want to see the same markers tracked in a non-HIV cohort before I get too excited.
For anyone running a GLP-1, did you notice any recovery or sleep changes that felt unrelated to the weight coming off? Curious if the biological age thing tracks with anything subjective.
Comments
- josh451: Really interesting thread, I hadn't dug into the HIV angle yet but it makes sense they picked a population that already shows accelerated epigenetic age, way easier to see a signal than in healthy folks where the baseline clock is slower to move. On your question about subjective stuff outside of weight loss, I wasn't on sema but I tried tirzepatide for a few months last year and the one thing that stuck out was sleep. Like I wasn't trying to lose much weight, maybe 8 or 10 lb, but I was sleepi
- weekendnate: Yeah the HIV angle is what caught me too. Easier to see movement when the baseline clock is already running fast. I do think some of the signal is downstream of weight loss, but it's hard to argue inflammation and metabolic health don't feed the epigenetic clock directly, so even an indirect effect could matter long term. The tirz and sleep thing matches what I saw on sema. I was waking up at like 3am for no reason before, and that mostly stopped after the first month or so. Hard to say if it w
- weekendnate: The sleep thing tracks with what I've seen too. I track HRV and resting HR pretty obsessively and during my tirz run my deep sleep went up and overnight HRV got noticeably better within a couple weeks, well before any real weight change. Food noise dropping and eating earlier was probably most of it, but there might be something direct too. Curious if anyone has looked at GLP-1s and sleep architecture specifically, cause the rodent data on neural inflammation was interesting.
Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.