2024-07-30 06:29:42
If you avoid smoking thanks to the obesity medication you took to lose weight, it’s like killing two birds with one stone.
A new study suggests that semaglutide, the active ingredient in diabetes medication Ozempic and obesity medication Wegovy, may help reduce smoking cravings. Semaglutide is heralded as a breakthrough in the treatment of diabetes and obesity. But some patients taking the drug have reported an unexpected benefit: reduced cravings for cigarettes and alcohol.
According to a recent study published on the 29th (local time) in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers at the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), type 2 diabetes patients taking Ozempic received fewer tobacco-related medical services and fewer smoking cessation interventions than patients taking other diabetes medications, Reuters and Yahoo News reported.
Users of Ozempic who had a previous diagnosis of nicotine use disorder due to their smoking habits were up to 32 percent less likely to discuss smoking with their healthcare provider than people taking other diabetes medications. This was also true compared with people taking a class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, the researchers reported in the paper.
Additionally, the likelihood of receiving a prescription for smoking cessation medication was up to 68% lower, and the likelihood of receiving smoking cessation counseling was up to 21% lower.
The study results came from health records of about 229,000 people who had recently started diabetes medication, including 6,000 who had been prescribed Ozempic. Semaglutide is a “GLP-1 analogue,” which mimics the hormone GLP-1, which promotes insulin secretion in the human body.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and worsening its complications. Smoking, diabetes, and obesity all significantly increase the risk of life-threatening diseases, including cancer and heart disease. Smoking and being overweight are two major preventable risk factors for cancer.
However, the researchers cautioned that the study does not provide enough evidence for doctors to prescribe semaglutide for smoking cessation. They urged clinical trials to support the findings of the NIH-sponsored study to evaluate whether the drug’s active ingredient, semaglutide, has potential as a smoking cessation treatment.
The research team noted in a previous report that patients treated with semaglutide had a reduced desire to smoke, which may be related to the brain’s weakening of the addictive reward effect of nicotine. The same active ingredient is also found in Novo Nordisk’s popular weight-loss drug Wegobi.
The study did not include data showing whether patients actually stopped or reduced their tobacco use after starting various medications.
The researchers acknowledged that the observed decline in smoking disorder-related incidence could suggest a decrease in tobacco use or relapse, but “it could also reflect other scenarios, such as a decreased willingness to seek help to quit.”
Antidiabetic medications examined in this study included insulin, metformin, DPP-4 inhibitors, SGLT-2 inhibitors, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones, and other GLP-1 class drugs other than Ozempic.
Reporter Park Hae-sik, Donga.com [email protected]
-
- great
- 0dog
-
- I’m so sad
- 0dog
-
- I’m angry
- 0dog
-
- I recommend it
- dog
Hot news right now
2024-07-30 06:29:42