With alarmingly high rates of obesity among children and adolescents in many countries today, with a significant impact on the lives of young people, the World Health Organization has declared childhood obesity to be the most serious public health problem of the 21st century. one of the challenges.”
The authors of a new peer-reviewed study published Wednesday Published in the magazine “obesity”found that semaglutide was “very effective” in lowering BMI in teens.
The weight of 134 clinically obese adolescents was monitored for 68 weeks, and participants were injected with 2.4 mg of semaglutide weekly. By the end of the study, 45 percent of the group recorded a decrease in BMI, below clinical thresholds for obesity.
Only 12% of participants in a separate placebo group were no longer considered obese at the end of the study. Both groups also received lifestyle counseling and set his daily goal for him to do 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity.
Aaron Kelly, a co-author of the study and an expert in childhood obesity at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, who presented the findings at the European Obesity Conference on Thursday, said the findings suggest the drug is an effective treatment. said to show.
“This makes eating easier intuitively, fills you up faster, and doesn’t leave you feeling hungry all the time,” Kelly said in an interview. “He is 23 times more likely to be below the clinical baseline for obesity when given semaglutide compared to when he is given a placebo.”
The study found that weekly self-administration of Wegobee or Ozempic, made by Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, may be more effective than older generation diet pills in helping you lose weight and lose some of it. It is in addition to existing research that there is Health risks associated with obesity.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the first to approve Ozempic for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. The agency approved Wegovy for use as a treatment for chronic weight management in adults in 2021, and for use in teenagers late last year. This action caused a dramatic increase in demand for the drug, fueled in part by celebrities touting its benefits on social media, causing shortages at certain doses. According to FDA.
The latest report is based on data from a trial that led to a study published in December. New England Journal of Medicine. However, the researchers used this result to focus on the drug’s effect on obesity classification rather than simple BMI results.
“This is another way to explain the results in a more clinically relevant way,” said Kelly, who also co-authored the December paper.
Semaglutide works by mimicking the naturally occurring hormone GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide 1, to target receptors in the brain, reducing the patient’s appetite and slowing the passage of food through the intestine. .
It “helps normalize the body’s systems related to diet and energy regulation. It essentially removes the advantage,” Kelly said.
Doctors tout the drug as the latest in a new generation of weight-loss drugs that could help patients who struggle with chronic weight management. According to the latest data released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, About 22 percent of Americans ages 12 to 19 are obese. In adults the rate rises to 42 percent. Being overweight or obese increases your lifetime risk of many health conditions and diseases, including type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, stroke, and heart disease.
The use of BMI based on a person’s weight and height has been criticized by some obesity experts and nutritionists as being overused as a marker. They claim they don’t take into account racial, ethnic differences in body type, or other factors.
Despite the efficacy of semaglutide in the trial, Kelly cautioned that semaglutide should not be considered a quick fix for obesity. Many doctors expect patients to have to take the drug indefinitely to continue to benefit from the treatment, but clinical trials have yet to prove this.
Kelly pointed out that obesity is a chronic disease that requires ongoing treatment. “Especially if you become obese as a child, you are very likely to be obese for the rest of your life,” says Kelly. “If you have any treatment to treat obesity, that treatment is going to be long-term.”
