A type of medication that was originally intended for the treatment of diabetes because it reduces blood sugar levels and improves insulin sensitivity came as a surprise when it was found that patients who used them lost weight. These drugs, marketed as Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, have also been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, and even that of developing colon cancer. All these benefits have led the prestigious Science magazine to choose them as the ‘Scientific Breakthrough of the Year’.
These medications, called GLP-1 receptor agonists, mimic the gut hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which naturally makes us feel full after eating, thereby reducing food intake. Semaglutide (Ozempic or Wegovy), for example, can achieve a 15% reduction in total weight.
Nature magazine has also included biochemist Svetlana Mojsov, a key figure in the discovery of GLP-1, among its 10 scientists of the year, to recognize her contribution to the development of these new weight loss therapies that are expected to reduce rates. of obesity and chronic diseases associated with overweight.
New trials are underway to test whether GLP-1 drugs could be useful in combating drug addiction because patients with obesity and diabetes reported a reduced desire to consume wine or tobacco during treatment, so scientists believe that there is a possibility that they bind to receptors in the brain that are involved in impulse control. Other clinical trials are aimed at determining their effectiveness in treating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s based in part on evidence that they reduce brain inflammation.
Disadvantages of new anti-obesity drugs
Regarding its possible drawbacks, the potential need to take them indefinitely stands out, since obesity is a chronic disease, and a study has shown that obese patients regain a lot of weight when they abandon treatment. On the other hand, doctors are concerned that people who are not obese or overweight are using them to lose weight quickly and consider that they should be a means to improve health, not aesthetics. In addition, it is an expensive treatment and it is not yet known what its long-term side effects would be if it is necessary to take it for life.
“The development of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists has allowed the design of drugs that offer us a clinical approach in particular cases where overweight must be treated urgently to reduce risks related to cardiovascular morbidity. However, pharmacological treatment is not a solution for the population problem of obesity, which can only be addressed from a multifactorial framework that improves people’s living conditions,” explains Luis Cereijo, researcher in social and cardiovascular epidemiology at the University of Alcalá, in statements to SMC Spain.
“Pharmacological treatment is not a solution to the population problem of obesity, which can only be addressed from a multifactorial framework that improves people’s living conditions”
“Embracing pharmacological treatment as the only solution means making obesity chronic by refusing to modify the causes that worsen people’s health. This means giving up the idea that an improvement in living conditions will allow them to improve their physical activity, eating and rest habits. Therefore, it is urgent to focus on the fundamental causes and address social inequalities in health as a population problem derived from living conditions. Excess weight should not be conceived as the problem, but as a symptom of what is reducing people’s quality and life expectancy.”
“In addition, the way in which we have received this drug as a kind of ‘silver bullet’ to eliminate obesity should make us reflect on the way in which we relate to overweight and obesity. That we reduce the approach to reducing people’s body weight while ignoring the remaining elements that worsen people’s quality of life deserves reflection from those who have responsibility for the public debate. Because the development of GLP-1 will not solve the serious problem of stigmatization of people who live with excess weight either,” concludes the expert.
