An obesity drug administered in weekly injections reduces the risk of getting type 2 diabetes by more than half, according to a landmark study.
Patients can self-inject semaglutide, which suppresses appetite and reduces calorie intake by hijacking the brain.
The regular doses given to overweight and obese participants reduced the risk of developing the illness by up to 61%.
The drug has been licensed for use in England after it was demonstrated to assist patients in losing an average of 15% of their body weight, or 2st 7lb.
In England, around 4.5 million people have type 2 diabetes, costing the NHS over £10 billion annually.
Researchers reanalyzed data from two prior semaglutide clinical studies to determine the drug’s efficacy against the condition.
Dr. Timothy Garvey, the leader of the study, stated that a 15% average weight loss was “sufficient to treat or prevent a wide range of obesity-related problems that affect health and quality of life.” He said that this impact “is a game-changer in the treatment of obesity.”
In the first study, 2,4 mg of semaglutide or a placebo was injected weekly into 1,961 overweight and obese patients for 68 weeks.
In the second study, 803 overweight and obese patients got weekly semaglutide injections for twenty weeks. For the subsequent 48 weeks, these patients either continued on the drug or switched to a placebo. All participants got diet and exercise recommendations.
The frequent doses reduced the risk of acquiring the disease by as much as 61% in people who were overweight or obese.
Researchers from the University of Alabama in the United States utilized a method known as cardiometabolic disease staging to estimate the risk of developing type two diabetes within the next decade. This computation has been demonstrated to be a highly accurate risk assessment, taking into account sex, age, race, body mass index, blood pressure, blood glucose, and cholesterol levels.
The ten-year risk scores for patients receiving semaglutide in the first study decreased by 61%, from 18.2% at the beginning to 7.1% at week 68.
Those who received the placebo experienced a risk reduction of 13%, from 17.8% at the beginning of the study to 15.6% at week 68.
According to the results of the second study, continued medication is required to maintain the risk reduction for type 2 diabetes. Next week, the results will be presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes meeting in Stockholm, Sweden.
n According to the proverb, one should eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a poor. Researchers have revealed that the assumption that humans burn more calories after breakfast than after dinner is untrue.
Thirty overweight or obese individuals were placed on two four-week diets, one with a large breakfast and a modest dinner, and the other with the opposite proportions.
The study from the University of Aberdeen, which was published in the journal Cell Metabolism, discovered that the same number of calories were expended, but that large breakfasts increased a hormone that makes us feel full, which could help reduce hunger.