Peptides · research review
Does Ozempic protect your joints?
Semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy), liraglutide and their cousins are diabetes and obesity drugs that work through the GLP-1 receptor. For a few years now there have been reports that, on the side, they protect joint cartilage. Instead of repeating headlines, I took everything PubMed has on the subject and counted: how many papers say YES, how many NO, how many have doubts, and how strong the evidence is.
Thesis:
How strong is the evidence behind each answer?
How to read it: bar length = number of papers, colour = level of evidence from sage (strongest: randomised clinical trials in humans) to brown (weakest: cells in a dish). An answer with a lot of sage and blue is backed by human studies; an answer with only ochre and grey rests on animals, cells and reviews of other people's work.
A · RCT in humans (strongest)B · observational in humansC · animalsD · cells (weakest)R · review (secondary)
How strong are the journals behind the YES / NO / MIXED studies?
How to read it: each dot is one paper, the further right the more established the journal (OpenAlex h-index: how many of the journal's articles have at least that many citations). The vertical line = the group median, i.e. the typical journal for that answer. Hover over a dot to see the title. Caveat: the h-index favours big, old, broad titles (Science has 1750, a good specialist quarterly 60–250), and a commentary in Science is still just a commentary – the strength of evidence is shown by the chart above, not this one.
How often are the YES / NO / MIXED papers cited?
How to read it: each dot is one paper, the further right the more often it is cited by other papers (log scale: 0, 1, 3, 10, 30, 100). Line = group median. Caveat: citations grow with a paper's age, so a 2026 paper has a handful even if it is groundbreaking; compare dots from similar years (hover to see the year).
How have the findings shifted over the years?
How to read it: one bar = one publication year, split into YES, NO and MIXED ("not applicable" papers left out). It shows whether the topic is accelerating and whether new papers pull in one direction or the dispute is sharpening. Hover over a segment to see the count.
YESNOMIXED
All papers
Sorted by: stance → level of evidence → citations. "Not applicable" papers at the end. Links go to PubMed, DOI and, where available, the open-access full text.
| Stance | Level | Year | Journal · h | Cit. | Title |
|---|
A review of PubMed abstracts (as of ); the YES / NO / MIXED split was made by Claude (AI) from the authors' conclusions, full texts have not been read yet. This is not medical advice – make decisions about medication with your doctor.