A drug that is currently used to plow diabetes has been found to contract body weight by up to 20 percent in people   who areobese . After receive a weekly STD of the discussion for 68 hebdomad , sketch participants throw an norm of 15.3 kilograms ( 33.7 lbs ) , with 35 pct losing more than a fifth of their body weightiness .

The report , which come along in theNew England Journal of Medicine , affect 1,961 multitude from 16 country across Europe , Asia , North America , and South America , with an modal eubstance exercising weight of 105 kilograms ( 231.5 lbs ) . Participants were give 2.4 milligrams of a drug forebode semaglutide once a week , delivered via hypodermic shot .

Semaglutide is presently approved at grim dosages as a treatment for type IIdiabetes , though none of the participants in this field of study were diabetic . By the 68thweek , 86.4 percent of participants had shed 5 percent of their physical structure weight , while 69.1 percent and 50.5 percent had lost 10 and 15 percentage of their eubstance weight severally .

give that people with corpulency are typically recommended to try and recede between 10 and 15 percent of theirbody weight , this outcome is extremely significant .

Commenting on these results , report author Rachel Batterham , who direct the Centre for Obesity Research at University College London , said “ The findings of this bailiwick lay out a major find for improving the health of people with corpulency . ”

“ No other drug has fare close to producing this horizontal surface of weightiness loss – this really is a game modifier . For the first fourth dimension , people can achieve through drug what was only possible through weight - passing surgery . "

Semalgutide mimics the activity of a hormone call glucagon - like peptide-1 ( GLP-1 ) , which the gut secretes into the bloodstream after a repast so as to shake a feeling of fullness and quash hunger . Alongside their hebdomadal dose of the drug , study participants received regular counseling from dietitian for avail them reduce their calorie consumption and increase their strong-arm activity .

In gain to experiencing an median consistence mass index decrease of 5.54 , participant exhibited reduction in risk factors for heart disease and diabetes , such as waistline perimeter , blood dinero , blood blubber , and lineage pressure .

base on these findings , semaglutide has now been submitted for approval as a treatment for obesity to the British , European , and North American drug regulatory authority .

Despite these staggeringly supporting finding , the study authors concede that the legal age of their participants were white and female , and more enquiry may be command in edict to find out its efficaciousness in other patient groups . They also note that semaglutide sometimes produces irregular side effects such as vomiting and looseness of the bowels .

A issue of medical expert have respondedto this extraordinary study for hail the findings while urge precaution . For Instance , Tom Sanders , Professor Emeritus of Nutrition and Dietetics at King ’s College London , said that “ while this study shows that patients on fighting treatment do lose a lot of weight it does not show what happens when discourse block . The challenge post system of weights loss is to forestall a regain in free weight . ”

He goes on to say that semaglutide should not be considered a “ magic fastball ” for obesity and that long - condition behavioural changes such as usage and improved diet will still be necessary for those undertake tolose weight .