We all know they’ll suppress urge for food, decrease blood sugar, and result in dramatic weight reduction. We additionally know that they arrive with uncomfortable side 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 in opposition to coronary heart failure, kidney illness, and doubtlessly even substance-use issues, neurodegenerative ailments, and most cancers.
However on the opposite, they seem like dangerous to some individuals. Their use has been linked to critical situations, being pregnant problems, and even some deaths. This week let’s check out what weight-loss medication can do.
Ozempic, Wegovy, and different comparable medication are often known 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 identified to be phenomenal at suppressing urge for food. One key trial, revealed in 2015, discovered that over the course of round a yr, individuals who took one explicit drug misplaced between round 4.7% and 6% of their physique weight, relying on the dose they took.
Newer variations of that drug have 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 examine that included 17,604 individuals in 41 nations discovered that semaglutide appeared to scale back coronary heart failure in individuals who have been obese or overweight and had heart problems. That very same yr, the US authorised Wegovy to “scale back the danger of cardiovascular loss of life, coronary heart assault, and stroke in [overweight] adults with heart problems.” This yr, Ozempic was authorised to scale back the danger of kidney illness.
And it doesn’t finish there. The various customers of GLP-1 agonists have been reporting some sudden constructive uncomfortable side effects. Not solely are they much less focused on meals, however they’re much less focused on alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and different addictive substances.
