The researchers said the study challenges the simple narrative of how Ozempic and similar drugs work and suggests that more is being done to the body.
Ozempic has become a well-known ‘wonder drug’ for weight loss, but a new Irish study suggests it has a larger impact on the body than simply reducing cravings.
Ozempic – and similar weight loss drugs – work by mimicking naturally occurring hormones in the body that regulate satiety and metabolism. By taking Ozempic, users feel more full and eat less, losing weight as a result.
But a new trial carried out in St Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin challenges this simple narrative and suggests these drugs also increase metabolic activity in their users. Prof Donal O’Shea of University College Dublin led the study and said the results challenge the “main narrative” that the drug’s impact on energy burn is “minimal”.
“The strength of the association is surprising given the relatively small numbers studied and suggests this increase in metabolic activity is a significant contributor to how these drugs work,” O’Shea said.
The trial involved 30 patients and examined the hormone Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which is used in drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Monjaro. The 30 patients had the fat within their abdomen imaged using a PET-CT scanner. These scans were carried out before GLP-1 treatment and six months after to see the results.
The researchers found that GLP-1 does more than just delay gastric emptying and promote satiety. The trial also found that GLP-1 increases visceral adipose tissue metabolic activity in humans.
The study found a strong relationship between the increase in metabolic activity caused by the treatment and the amount of weight lost. The trial also suggests that people with low metabolic activity benefitted the most from the treatment.
O’Shea said safe medical treatment for obesity is “still in its infancy” and that it is important to understand how these treatments increase energy burn.
“It always seemed oversimplistic to me that these new treatments were just making people eat less,” O’Shea said. “So this study finding is an exciting step forward in our understanding of how these new medicines for obesity work.
“The findings also provide science to support the fact that the treatment of obesity is not simply to eat less and move more – that’s the prevention piece – treatment is more complex than that.”
Novo Nordisk, the pharma company behind Ozempic, is being sued by dozens of patients who claim they suffered digestive side effects after taking the drug.
More than five dozen lawsuits accuse Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly – which makes similar weight loss drugs – of failing to notify patients about certain side effects, USA Today reports. Meanwhile, some plastic surgeons claim Ozempic is having an impact on people’s skin.
Previous research suggests that the weight-loss medication is also able to restore the body’s ability to defend itself from cancer.
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