Diabetes Drug May Help in Losing Fat

According to a recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a drug originally meant for treating diabetics may actually help obese individuals (without diabetes) shed weight. A little more than one year of treatment with the drug named Liraglutide was found to reduce at least five percent of body weight in over 60 percent of study participants."It is a very effective drug. It seems to be as good as any of the others on the market, so it adds another possibility for doctors to treat patients who are having trouble either losing weight or maintaining weight loss once they get the weight off," said Xavier Pi-Sunyer, professor of medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, New York City. The researchers conducted a 56-week trial involving 3,731 patients who did not have Type-2 diabetes and who had a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 or a BMI of at least 27 if they also had high cholesterol or high blood pressure.
Liraglutide, developed by the company Novo Nordisk, mimics a naturally occurring hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1, which is released in the human intestine and reduces hunger, increases satiety and slows the rate at which the stomach empties its contents into the small intestine. The US Food and Drug Administration approved liraglutide (at a higher dose than is used for diabetes) for treating obesity in December 2014.About 2,500 patients in the study were given liraglutide, and close to 1,200 were on the placebo injections, After 56 weeks, the participants on liraglutide reported losing an average of 18.5 pounds (8.3 kg), compared to 6.4 pounds (2.9 kg) for those on placebo.Among the patients on liraglutide, 33 per cent lost at least 10 per cent of their body weight, whereas just 11 per cent of the placebo group managed to lose that much. The participants received counselling on ways to change their lifestyle to promote weight loss.The most common side effects of the drug were nausea and diarrhea. Patients on the medication were also at increased risk of gallbladder-related problems, which, the researchers noted, could have been due to their above-average weight loss.Drawbacks to the medication include its high cost about USD 1,000 for a month of treatment and the fact that it must be given by injection. Also, Pi-Sunyer said, patients will probably have to be
on the drug indefinitely to maintain weight loss.Inputs from PTI and IANS