In the fifties and sixties amphetamine-based diet pills It was quite common, but in addition to being addictive, it produced serious side effects that lost popularity. In 1997, the same types of drugs were banned because of the damage they caused to the heart valve.

okay but to combat obesity Is it necessary to use these drugs? Is there a way to get around this? Jens Juul Holst and Joel Habener, the scientists who pioneered Wegovy, which is known in our country as the “wonder drug for weight loss”, gave their opinion on the subject.

Obesity drugs are seen as “a bottomless pit into which people invest money and time”.

previously produced and little known formula The new version of weight loss drugs looks very different. These drugs work by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), which regulates blood sugar levels and keeps people feeling full longer by slowing the rate at which food leaves the stomach. Drugs that mimic GLP-1 also seem to be a very powerful weight loss aid.

Some people in the US are approved for type 2 diabetes. They lost at least 15% of their body weight after 68 weeks of taking semaglutide for weight loss. they explain. The name of the drug is Ozempic, which is about to be approved in the UK.

But GLP-1 dates back more than 40 years, before obesity became the current health crisis.

Two scientists, who played an important role in drug development by working on the hormone GLP-1, provide some information about the future of these drugs. One of them is Professor Jens Juul Holst from the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen; the other is Professor Joel Habener of the Mass General Research Institute in Massachusetts. In 2021, Habener, Holst and Daniel Drucker received the Warren Alpert Foundation Award for their work in discovering and developing treatments based on the hormone GLP-1.

GLP-1 hormone her story actually goes somewhere other than diabetes and obesity. Holst discovered this with duodenal ulcers.

This disease looks at the hormones that people secrete while eating.

GLP-1 not only stimulates insulin secretion.; Holst, who found that it also inhibits glucagon secretion, cites the presence of too much glucagon in people with diabetes and this causes high blood sugar.

The scientist, who has always been friends with Ozempic and Wegovy manufacturer Novo Nordisk, adds that he was intrigued by talking about things that could boost insulin secretion. However Novo Nordisk When they saw it didn’t stimulate insulin secretion in people with diabetes, they withdrew the support, saying the drug wouldn’t work.

The real turning point was a study by Michael Nauck in 1993.

As a result of this study with type 2 diabetes People were vaccinated with GLP-1 and their blood sugar levels returned to normal within four hours. This is something that shows that the drugs work in people with type 2 diabetes. It stimulated glucagon secretion while stimulating insulin secretion. Later, these drugs were found to inhibit food intake.

Joel Habener says they think it could be a potential treatment for diabetes, type 2 diabetes.

Drucker, Habener and Holst

But he adds that you have to be very careful to keep the dose low when trying these drugs. Because many patients felt nauseated while eating. After their meal How effective in 30 minutes To check this, blood insulin was measured

Most subjects stated that they could not finish their meals. Today, there are 10 to 15 percent of people in the world with a body mass index of 30 or higher. In the US, this number is around 40%. This too Obesity is a serious metabolic problem. shows.

In fact, it was already known in humans that the effect of the dose of GLP-1 on food intake would be determined and that it would work. The problem was the side effects.

The main challenge during the development of these GLP-1 drugs was to find a balance between the two. One of the really important observations was that Novo Nordisk created a fixed combination of long-acting insulin and GLP-1 called Xultophy. This drug has been given to people with severe diabetes and has been shown to work very well for them. But to achieve a fixed dose with the drug It turned out that the dose was administered gradually over 14 weeks.

The more carefully these drugs are used, the more few side effects is seen.

One of the problems is that these drugs are not always used by the people who need them most.

Ozempic has become quite popular among celebrities. Derek Thompson of The Atlantic says these drugs could revolutionize public health by early 2023 “a distinguished cultural make-up instead of a medical procedure” It should be noted that they represent

The most satisfying thing about drugs right now is They are very effective in controlling type 2 diabetes.

Obesity is still seen worldwide as a cosmetic problem, and people are thought to be obese because they eat too much or don’t exercise enough, or because they don’t have the willpower.

However, there is something we should know about obesity; It is not an eating disorder, but a metabolic disease with genetic and environmental factors. According to Holst, people are just like any drug. They will take GLP-1s for a while after they realize they have stopped eating and they will leave. But there is a lot to know about using these drugs with caution.

Underlining that this is not a money issue, scientists say the reason is only the continued instability. Like other drugs, one of these drugs for weight loss Wegovy, It won’t happen again for the rest of their lives. The professors who saw this photo reiterated that the same is true for other drugs.