Obesity was once the subject of Cinderella Medicine with some question whether the condition should be seen as a biological disorder. But the arrival of a new group of drugs that support appetite such as OzemPIC and Wegovy has transformed obesity into the most exciting and commercial health care field.
These drugs lead to a significant weight loss, and changes change, and according to a series of results announced at the European Conference on obesity (ECO) in Málaga this week, with health advantages that go beyond weight management.
“It was an extraordinary week,” said Professor Susan Jeep.
“It was obesity [in the background] She added: “For a long time and such anger was.
Gamechanger for more than just obesity
It was first developed to help reduce blood sugar levels as a treatment for diabetes, and soon Semaglutide in Novo Nordesque (active component in Jabs Ozmpic and Wegovy) it was clear It has a major effect on weight. The drug works by imitating a hormone, GLP-1, which is released in the intestine when we eat and act on receptors around the body, including the brain.
Partial Eli Lilly product, mounjaro, contains the active ingredient Tirzepatide. This simulates the GLP-1 in addition to a second hormone that produces more impressive results, according to The First A face -to -face trial I mentioned this week in which the participants lost 20 % of the body weight after 72 weeks of treatment.
Benefits of being in a large healthy weight, with One study was published in January The JABS suggestion of weight loss can reduce the risk of four diseases, including heart disease, cancer, clotting disorders, Alzheimer’s, chronic kidney disease, addiction, and a group of psychological states. There is early evidence that these benefits go beyond what can be expected due to the metabolic effects of drugs.
“We completely know that almost every aspect of health is better if you are a healthy weight,” JEBB said. “What we did not really have is whether these effects are independent of weight. There may be independent weight effects. My reading is that the jury is still outside.”
Others are already convinced. Results from the experiment of stage 3 of the semiconductide in patients with fatty hepatitis (medically known as lipopritis associated with metabolic or mash) found that the drug can stop and reflect the condition, which affects one in every five adults in the United Kingdom. Most of the experiment participants were obese or diabetes, but the data revealed the benefits of the liver even in those who suffered from weight loss or lack of weight.
“We have been able to prove that there is a contribution to losing weight, but there is an independent weight of weight,” said Professor Philip News, of Kings College in London, who presented the results this week. “This is interesting and very sexy.”
Another trial It can weaken the weight loss of almost half of the risk of obesity -related cancer, with the effects greater than expected to lose weight alone. Two studies He suggested that medications may have mental health benefits.
“It is clear that your weight is improving,” said Dr. Toby Bellinger, a psychiatrist and lecturer in King But given that medications seem to work on the bonus system in the brain, more direct neurological effects are also reasonable.
“They have been likened to the Swiss drug knife in the Swiss army,” said Bellinger. “We only started to understand its effects around the body. Nothing is more than the changes in how our brain works.”
Within a few years, the drugs transformed the white medicine scene. Bellinger sees a similar revolution on the horizon of psychiatry, indicating that addiction, erosion and schizophrenia are clear goals of future experiences.
What happens when you start from drugs?
The problem with meals, a reputation, is that once a person stops following a diet, he often restores weight. For drugs targeting GLP, data is incomplete because pharmaceutical companies usually stop tracking people as soon as they stop taking the drug.
JEBB and his colleagues are among the first to track this path. They found that rapid weight loss was followed by a rapid recovery. When people stop taking Semaglutide, they recovered all the lost weight within 10 months – much faster than behavioral interventions. “We must face what is happening when people stop taking these medications,” JEBB said.
Another obesity expert, Professor Alexander Miras, at Ulster University, said: “No one has already given us specific numbers about the number of people who happen, but we appreciate this by about 95 %,” said Obena, another of the Obesex Professor Alexander Miras, at Ulster University.
Dr. Martin White, a consultant in diabetes at Kings College Hospital, said it is a phenomenon that cautioned her from patients. He said: “I haven’t seen one person who retracted his weight on the GLP-1 drug, and stopped him, and their weight remained exactly the same as he got out of the medicine.”
Experts say the results do not undermine the effectiveness of medicines, but they need to be carefully considered by those who pay their price and patients who are thinking about their treatment options.
“We need to face lifelong treatment costs – these drugs are expensive.” “When we reach special recipes – and at the present time in the UK, most people do so separately – people need to understand the high risk of weight restoring quickly when they stop. We have to give people the facts.”
It is an familiar experience for Anita*, 41, and is a Cambridge consultant. I started in Mountjaro in April 2024 and continued to take the medicine until December, as it decreased from 87 kg (13.7) to 70 kg.
She said, “The food was always in the foreground and the middle for me.” “But when I was taking mounjaro, my appetite was completely different. It was almost to the point where I could not believe how changed it. I thought:” Oh, that is what ordinary people should feel when they don’t want to eat all the time. “
Immediately before Christmas, Anita came out of the strikes because the monthly cost of 225 pounds was very expensive. Three weeks after January, her famous and appetite returned. I put 7 kg again within two months.
She said: “My appetite has returned as not to stop as before.” “I couldn’t help eating unwanted. I tightened chocolate and cheese, which I felt exactly before I started tremors. It was as if I had never.”
Anita decided to return to Mounjaro and started Jabs six weeks ago. This time she was shopping around her and now paid 150 pounds per month.
“I feel as if I could carry it, then perhaps keep it as a canal. If you have a drug that will help you achieve what you need, and it has low side effects, and it works well and safe, so why don’t you use it?” She said.
Experts say instead of being an acute treatment, as it will be used for something like infection, these medications that lose weight as a treatment for a chronic condition-like the way the statin is used.
White said: “If you have someone on statin for cholesterol, and statin stops, which is inevitably cholesterol,” White said. “If you have someone on the blood pressure disk, you are stopping the tablet, and the blood pressure rises almost. So it is not different from it.”
However, the questions, including the reason why a small part of the patients are not restored when they stopped medications.
“Nobody knows who these people are, and do not know what makes them different,” Miras said, although he added that there are two main theories. The first is that these patients may have gained weight due to the events of a specific life such as pregnancy or a stressful period – this means that when the event is resolved, as well as weight gain.
Miras said that the other possibility is that the “specific point” that was genetically identified for the weight of the body had a broader range for some people more than others, which means that their body did not resist efforts to deviate from this weight as much as for other people.
White said that the research was now looking at how to reduce weight spreading, noting that in addition to maintaining muscle mass and making lifestyle changes, research suggested that the doses help dose.
Since patients are tracked longer and in the real world settings, it is also clear that these medications are not the solution to everyone. Some find that the side effects are unpleasant, and enjoy the enjoyment of food or simply do not want to take medications constantly, and although it turns out that they are effective in early experiences of children, this is whether this is the right approach very early in life.
With medications known to reduce muscle mass, White said an important question was whether this was overweight from weight loss alone.
However, with the use of GLP-1 drugs for diabetes for nearly 20 years, White said the data generally indicates that the drugs were safe.
“There was a preliminary concern [about]It may lead to a higher risk of pancreatitis, even pancreatic cancer or thyroid gland [cancer]. This has not been proven in any of the follow -up data. “
“The treatment revolution that will only improve”
Medicines critics tend to lose weight as a medical problem that can be solved better by policies to address the causes behind the obesity crisis. However, according to Prof. Naveed Sattar, from the University of Glasgow, there is no sign that high -calorie foods become less widespread. And since successive policies have failed to cause sufficient effect, he argues that the drugs themselves may provide a new incentive for change in the food market.
“When Eli Lily informed for the first time about its results, stock prices decreased to some fast food places,” Satar said. “Ultimately, the engineer may reflect towards a better diet.”
The weight -loss medications now dominate the conversation about obesity. But their success may also pay medical attention to alternative paths of treatment.
Jeep said: “What the success of these drugs is explained completely is that obesity is a biological phenomenon,” Jeep said. “Some people have a genetic sensitivity that makes it a struggle to manage their appetite, which has become incredibly difficult in a world where food is everywhere.”
“Part of what I hope these drugs will do is to reformulate medical situations about obesity. It is easier to involve doctors in talking about drug treatments, but I hope they will attract them to talk about other options as well.”
Miras was also excited. He said: “When you do not understand this disease, it is almost a tendon in medicine, we start to blame the patient because we feel uncomfortable.” “We now understood the disease, not better but much better. Now, as a result, there is a revolution in the treatment of obesity that will only improve.”
*The name has been changed.
