Weight loss drugs may ease migraines and cut asthma flare-ups, scientists say

Weight-loss drugs could help ease migraine pain and reduce asthma symptoms, as people using the drugs report a reduction in asthma flare-ups and inhaler use.

And another study has linked Wegovy to fewer prescriptions for migraine medication among women taking the drugs for weight loss.

The studies, presented to the European Congress on Obesity in Turkey, add to a body of evidence which suggest glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) drugs may have benefits beyond weight loss.

In England, they are already being prescribed to help cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Now, a new study has linked Wegovy to a reduction in prescriptions for a type of migraine medication.

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 per cent reduction in the use of triptan-class drugs for treatment of migraine one year after they started weight-loss treatment.

The authors said that after women started taking 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.

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They found that GLP-1 use was linked with a 26 per cent fall in the number of asthma exacerbations and a 14 per cent drop in the use of asthma inhaler reliever.

“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 increases, researchers are finding an increasing number of effects outside of weight loss.”