As medicine like Wegovy and Ozempic have change into fashionable weight reduction instruments, some medical doctors and sufferers are additionally seeing a stunning facet impact: diminished cravings for alcohol.
Megan Johnston began taking semaglutide, the lively ingredient in a number of manufacturers of weight reduction medicine, final 12 months to attempt to drop a few pounds. The 38-year-old Arlington, Virginia, actual property agent stated she gained 30 kilos through the pandemic, and was ingesting extra too.
“At my check-up final 12 months I keep in mind telling my physician I used to be ingesting upwards of 15 drinks per week,” Johnston advised CBS Information.
She’s severely in the reduction of since then.
“Some weeks, none,” she stated of her ingesting habits today. “Final week was one. Perhaps common three.”
Johnston is amongst many sufferers who’ve reported fewer cravings for alcohol whereas taking semaglutide for weight reduction.
“If it seems that this remedy is protected and efficient for treating dependancy, simply by dint of how many individuals are already taking these drugs for different functions, this is able to change into actually the biggest and most generally used pharmacotherapy for dependancy drugs that is ever been developed,” stated Kyle Simmons, the director of Oklahoma State College’s Biomedical Imaging Middle and a professor of pharmacology and physiology.
Simmons is operating one in all a number of scientific trials at the moment underway to look at whether or not semaglutide reduces cravings for alcohol.
He says the drug impacts the mind and seems to take away the pleasure acquired from ingesting alcohol. However he additionally made it clear, “We simply do not know but whether or not or not the remedy is protected and efficient for the therapy of alcohol use dysfunction.”
As with most drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic additionally include the danger of negative effects. The commonest, based on Ozempic’s web site, are nausea, abdomen ache, constipation, diarrhea and vomiting.
“Continual stomach ache and unpredictable digestive signs equivalent to nausea, diarrhea, fullness or constipation can take a big toll in your temper and power ranges,” Laurie A. Keefer, an educational well being psychologist and the Director for Psychobehavioral Analysis at Mount Sinai’s Division of Gastroenterology, beforehand advised CBS Information.
Rarer however extra severe negative effects of Ozempic could embrace thyroid tumors, pancreatitis, adjustments in imaginative and prescient, hypoglycemia, gallbladder points, kidney failure and most cancers.
It is also unclear how these medicine would possibly have an effect on individuals after long-term use.
The medicine are additionally not low cost. In 2023, Wegovy was briefly provide and price round $1,300 a month.
Johnston, nonetheless, has been proud of the outcomes.
“I went into it optimistic. Low expectations, and it actually panned out for me,” she stated.
Johnston stated she misplaced 45 kilos over seven months and reduce her ingesting by 75%.
Sara Moniuszko and Cara Korte contributed reporting.