Quitting smoking is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions, but many people do not keep it or return to this habit after a few weeks because they gain weight. Gaining weight by quitting tobacco could no longer be a handicap if the results of a study are confirmed that have found that dulaglutide (Trulicity), a drug to treat type 2 diabetes, can significantly reduce the risk of women experiencing a significant weight gain after quitting smoking.
The research has been published in BMJ Nutrition Prevention & Health and indicates that women seem to have more difficulties quitting smoking than men, which constitutes a public health problem because they are also at greater risk of developing diseases associated with smoking. It has been suggested that this could be because they are more concerned about gaining weight when they no longer smoke, although researchers indicate that there is no scientific evidence that this is the reason.
Results from a previously published clinical trial showed that dulaglutide administration, compared to placebo treatment, significantly decreased weight gain in those who had quit smoking, although “it is unclear whether this weight loss is gender specific.” ”, have specified the researchers from the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetology and Metabolism of the University Hospital of Basel and the Department of Clinical Research of the University of Basel, both in Switzerland.
They then decided to analyze the data from this trial to see if there were gender differences in weight loss or gain in the 12 weeks after quitting smoking. The new trial included 255 adults, 155 of whom were women, and who had an average age of 42 to 44 years. The number of cigarettes they smoked daily was 20 on average over a period of between 19 and 22 years.
Dulaglutide helps regulate glucose and control weight
Dulaglutide mimics the action of the hormone GLP-1 that is produced naturally in the intestine when we eat food, helping to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood and weight gain. It belongs to the same group of drugs as Ozempic or Wegovy (semaglutide), which were initially developed to combat type 2 diabetes and have shown their ability to reduce weight in obese and overweight people.
At the beginning of the test, the average weight was just over 72 kilos among women (BMI of 26) and just over 92.5 kilos among men (BMI 29). Participants received dulaglutide (1.5 mg) or placebo (0.9% sodium chloride) weekly in addition to standard smoking cessation treatment (varenicline 2 mg/day plus behavioral counseling) for 12 weeks.
Women who stopped smoking and took dulaglutide lost between 1 and 2 kilos, compared to a weight gain of between 2 and 2.5 kilos for women in the placebo group
After this period of time, dulaglutide was found to have reduced the risk of weight gain in both sexes compared to sham treatment. Women taking dulaglutide lost between 1 and 2 kilos, compared to a weight gain of between 2 and 2.5 kilos for women in the placebo group. Men taking dulaglutide lost just over half a kilo compared to weight gain of about 2 kilos among those in the sham treatment group.
Although weight change generally did not differ between the sexes, women were more likely to gain a lot of weight. Dulaglutide was associated with a significantly lower risk of substantial weight gain, defined as an increase of more than 6% among women.
Substantial weight gain was almost five times more common in women than men in the placebo treatment group: 24% vs. 5%. Similarly, substantial weight gain in women taking dulaglutide was significantly less common than among those taking dummy treatment: 1% (1 of 83) versus 24% (17 of 72). These effects were not observed among men: 0% (0/44) versus 5% (3/56).
The researchers conclude that “dulaglutide reduced post-cessation weight gain in both sexes and was highly effective in preventing substantial weight gain, which appears to be a specific observation in women.”
