Worry about weight loss? Study finds THIS obesity drug to help you

Overweight and obese people often worry about losing weight, even with a good diet and physical workout schedule. The amount of regular exercise, which is required for weight loss, becomes a task for overweight or obese people as compared to those who do not have excess body weight. To make this process easier for overweight or obese people , a new study revealed that a drug called ‘Semaglutide’ helps adolescents shed pounds and have healthier hearts.

It also informed that the drug is approved for adults with obesity or overweight, according to the news agency ANI. TRENDING STORIES See All Premium IMD shares update on movement of Cyclone ‘Sitrang’ in n . .

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. In an international phase 3a clinical trial, adolescents with obesity who received once-weekly semaglutide compared to placebo had a 16. 1percentt decrease in their body mass index (BMI) while the BMI of those who took placebo rose by 0.

6 percent. Silva Arslanian, senior author, M. D.

, professor of pediatrics and clinical and translational science who holds the Richard L. Day Endowed Chair in Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine said that the rate of obesity is increasing, not just in the US, but all over the world, as per ANI reports. “Typically, we make lifestyle recommendations: Eat more vegetables; don’t eat fried food; don’t drink soda.

But unfortunately, we live in a very obesogenic environment, so it can be very hard to make those changes. There is a real need for safe and effective medications to treat obesity,” the senior author stated. Obesity affects almost one in five children and adolescents worldwide.

This chronic disease is linked with decreased life expectancy and a higher risk of developing serious health problems such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, and certain cancers. Teenagers with obesity are also more likely to have depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, and other psychological issues. How does Semaglutide work? Semaglutide is an obesity drug that mimics a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 to target areas of the brain that decrease appetite and improve control of eating.

This drug was approved in 2021 for chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight. MORE FROM THIS SECTION See All Premium Premium NASA’s Artemis moon rocket is ready for another launch . .

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. Premium Premium ‘Artificial tears’ to be available over the counter To assess whether semaglutide is also effective in youths, researchers enrolled 201 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years with obesity or overweight across multiple centers. Participants received either once-weekly subcutaneous injections of semaglutide 2.

4 mg or placebo, and all received concurrent lifestyle intervention — counseling on healthy nutrition and physical activity — throughout the trial. After 68 weeks, 72. 5% of semaglutide participants had achieved at least 5% weight loss compared to just 17% of those on placebo.

“The results are amazing,” said Arslanian, who is also director of the Pediatric Clinical and Translational Research Center and scientific director of the Center for Pediatric Research in Obesity and Metabolism at Pitt and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. “For a person who is 5 foot, 5 inches tall and weighs 240 pounds, the average reduction in BMI equates to shedding about 40 pounds,” Arslanian added. What are the results of semaglutide drug? The analysis showed that semaglutide participants had improvements in cardiovascular risk factors, including waist circumference, a blood sugar metric called HbA1c, total, low-density and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides and liver enzymes compared with the placebo group, according to the study as quoted by ANI.

However, there was no statistically significant difference in blood pressure or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol between the two groups. Participants who took semaglutide also had better weight-related quality of life measures, mostly due to a boost in physical comfort scores, compared with their placebo peers. The researchers note that this is the first obesity drug to be linked with such quality-of-life improvements in adolescents.

(With ANI inputs) Catch all the Business News , Market News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates. More Less OPEN IN APP.