If you take Ozempic or know someone who does, you have probably wondered where the limits of this drug go.
First it was diabetes. Then weight loss. Now scientists are asking whether it might also slow the aging process itself.
A new study in mice suggests the answer might be yes, at least in rodents.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley gave daily semaglutide to old female mice.
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The animals lived about 12 percent longer than untreated controls.
The finding, published in Nature in September 2026, is from a group led by Danica Chen, a professor of metabolic biology and nutrition at UC Berkeley.
Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy.
The team started the drug when the mice were 20 months old.
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That is roughly the equivalent of a human in their 60s.
The treated mice lived a median of 834 days, compared with 742 days in the control group.
But the finding is in animals only. No human trial has yet shown that semaglutide extends how long people live.
How the drug works
Semaglutide blunts appetite, so animals and people who take it usually eat less.
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Eating less on its own extends lifespan in many lab species.
So one obvious question was whether the drug is really just a form of calorie restriction in disguise.
To test that, the team ran a direct head-to-head.
One group of mice got semaglutide. Another group was fed only the amount of food the drug-treated mice chose to eat. A third group ate freely.
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In most measures, semaglutide matched the calorie-restricted group. But in a few, it did better.
The treated mice outperformed the calorie-restricted group on spatial memory tests, on exploratory behavior, and on blood sugar control.
Chen said the differences point to the possibility that GLP-1 drugs engage a biological pathway independent of calorie restriction.
Treated mice also showed better muscle function, improved coordination, and gene activity patterns consistent with lower inflammation.
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Why this does not translate directly to people
The authors are explicit that the data stops at mice.
The experiment used only female mice from a single laboratory strain.
Male mice were not tested, and the effect has not been checked in genetically diverse animals that better approximate humans.
Human studies on lifespan take years and are expensive.
None have been started for semaglutide. Shorter trials in older adults have measured changes in body composition and markers of aging.
They have not measured deaths or years of life.
Rafael de Cabo, a senior investigator at the National Institute on Aging, was not part of the study team but commented on the finding for the agency.
"Most chronic diseases are deeply rooted in the aging process.
If GLP-1 agonists do indeed slow it down, then a wide range of clinical benefits is exactly what you'd expect to see," he said.
For now, the researchers themselves warn that nobody taking a GLP-1 drug for weight or diabetes should change a dose based on these mouse results.
This article is made and published by Ida-Marie Palm Varbæk, who may have used AI in the preparation.