GLP-1 drugs are not approved to treat MS; they can’t and should not replace MS therapies. However, people with MS who also have obesity or type 2 diabetes may be candidates for GLP-1 therapy, says Alan David Kaye, MD, PhD, a professor and the vice chair of research in the anesthesiology department at LSU Health in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dr. Kaye has published research on GLP-1s in people with MS.
GLP-1s may help manage obesity, known to affect MS, when used alongside standard MS therapies, he says.
Side effects of GLP-1 drugs commonly include gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. GLP-1 drugs can also lead to less common but more serious side effects, including pancreatitis, gastroparesis (slowed movement of food out of the stomach), bowel obstruction, and gallstone attacks.
“While weight loss doesn’t replace MS drugs, managing weight through diet, exercise, and medications like GLP-1 agonists may lead to fewer relapses, less disability, and better responses to standard drug treatments by reducing systemic inflammation,” he says.
Anyone considering a GLP-1 drug should talk with both their primary care or obesity medicine doctor and their neurologist, says Ali.
Your primary care provider can help you decide if you are a good candidate for a GLP-1 and explain how the medication will fit into your overall care plan. At the same time, your neurologist can evaluate how GLP-1 therapy might fit into your MS care.
“This includes considering the stage of MS, current disease-modifying therapies, potential interactions, and whether any changes in symptoms, relapses, or MRI findings should be monitored more closely,” says Ali.
Future studies are needed to identify which people with MS are most likely to benefit from taking a GLP-1, the safest dosing strategies, and whether these medications have long-term disease-modifying effects in MS, she says. For now, close follow-up and collaboration between primary care and neurology are essential, says Ali.
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