We all know they will suppress urge for food, decrease blood sugar, and result in dramatic weight reduction. We additionally know that they arrive with unwanted effects, which may embody nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. However we’re nonetheless studying about a few of their different results.
On the one hand, these seemingly miraculous medication seem to enhance well being in different methods, serving to to guard towards coronary heart failure, kidney illness, and probably even substance-use problems, neurodegenerative illnesses, and most cancers.
However on the opposite, they seem like dangerous to some individuals. Their use has been linked to severe circumstances, being pregnant problems, and even some deaths. This week let’s check out what weight-loss medication can do.
Ozempic, Wegovy, and different related medication are referred to as GLP-1 agonists; they mimic a chemical made within the gut, GLP-1, that will increase insulin and lowers blood ranges of glucose. Initially developed to deal with diabetes, they’re now recognized to be phenomenal at suppressing urge for food. One key trial, printed in 2015, discovered that over the course of round a 12 months, individuals who took one specific drug misplaced between round 4.7% and 6% of their physique weight, relying on the dose they took.
Newer variations of that drug had been proven to have even greater results. A 2021 trial of semaglutide—the energetic ingredient in each Ozempic and Wegovy—discovered that individuals who took it for 68 weeks misplaced round 15% of their physique weight—equal to round 15 kilograms.
However there look like different advantages, too. In 2024, an unlimited research that included 17,604 individuals in 41 nations discovered that semaglutide appeared to cut back coronary heart failure in individuals who had been obese or overweight and had heart problems. That very same 12 months, the US accredited Wegovy to “scale back the danger of cardiovascular dying, coronary heart assault, and stroke in [overweight] adults with heart problems.” This 12 months, Ozempic was accredited to cut back the danger of kidney illness.
And it doesn’t finish there. The various customers of GLP-1 agonists have been reporting some surprising constructive unwanted effects. Not solely are they much less serious about meals, however they’re much less serious about alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and different addictive substances.
