Weight loss jab Wegovy 'helps people cut down on alcohol'

Weight loss jabs can help people cut down on alcohol, research shows. A study of alcoholics showed the appetite-suppressing injection Wegovy reduced their heavy drinking days each month by more than two-thirds. The research in Denmark saw those on the jabs reported fewer alcohol cravings and consumed less booze. They assessed semaglutide - sold under the brand name Wegovy for weight loss treatment and Ozempic for patients with type 2 diabetes - on 108 obese participants seeking treatment for alcohol use disorder. The jabs slow digestion by mimicking the glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) hormone which regulates hunger and make users feel full sooner. Semaglutide, made by drugmaker Novo Nordisk, is the most common weight loss jab along with Mounjaro. Some 2.4 million Brits are on some form of the weekly injections with the vast majority paying for them via private prescriptions. Principal investigator Professor Anders Fink-Jensen said: "The results suggest that semaglutide not only affects appetite but also influences the biological mechanisms underlying addiction. This opens the door to complementing existing treatments for alcohol use disorder with a GLP-1 receptor-targeted approach." The trial took place at a health centre in Denmark led by experts from the Mental Health Centre Copenhagen and Frederiksberg Hospital there. At the start, participants had an average of 17 days of heavy drinking over the 30 days before the start of the trial. People who were given semaglutide for six months saw the number of heavy drinking days reduce to roughly five over the previous 30 days, compared to nine days among those who had the placebo. First author Dr Mette Kruse Klausen added: "This is a patient group with a high disease burden and a substantial risk of both physical and mental complications. Reducing the most harmful drinking patterns could make a meaningful difference for patients." Previous research has suggested that GLP-1 drugs might reduce reward processes associated with food intake as well as reduce harmful inflammation in the body. The weekly injections, known as GLP-1 agonists, can also lower blood sugar levels in people living with type 2 diabetes, for which they were originally designed. Some users have reported having to stop taking them due to side effects, particularly nausea, or because they cannot keep up with the cost of provate prescriptions. Authorised sellers must also provider monitoring and personalised counselling support to ensure users make diet and lifestyle changes so that healthy weight loss can be maintained. Some research has shown that without sustained lifestyle changes users put the fat back on in a year after stopping the drugs, however they can also lose muscle and bone density which does not return.