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 negative effects, which might embody nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. However we’re nonetheless studying about a few of their different results.
On the one hand, these seemingly miraculous medicine seem to enhance well being in different methods, serving to to guard in opposition to coronary heart failure, kidney illness, and probably even substance-use problems, neurodegenerative ailments, and most cancers.
However on the opposite, they seem like dangerous to some folks. Their use has been linked to severe situations, being pregnant issues, and even some deaths. This week let’s check out what weight-loss medicine can do.
Ozempic, Wegovy, and different related medicine are often called 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 yr, 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 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 seem like different advantages, too. In 2024, an unlimited research that included 17,604 folks in 41 international locations discovered that semaglutide appeared to scale back coronary heart failure in individuals who have been chubby or overweight and had heart problems. That very same yr, the US accredited Wegovy to “cut back the danger of cardiovascular demise, coronary heart assault, and stroke in [overweight] adults with heart problems.” This yr, Ozempic was accredited 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 negative effects. Not solely are they much less concerned with meals, however they’re much less concerned with alcohol, tobacco, opioids, and different addictive substances.
