The effect of the agonist drugs of the GLP-1 receptor such as Ozempic persists even if, for reasons of force majeure, they are taken with interruptions.
People in therapy with antidiabetic drugs and with antiobesity effect of the same class as the Ozempic lose weight even iffor reasons that do not depend on their will, they have to stop treatment for a few weeks. Although assuming drugs continuously remains preferable, a forced break does not put weight loss at risk, as evidenced by a recently presented study at the annual Meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Francisco.
Ozempic & Co.: Mechanism of action and interruptions
Ozempic, a commercial name of the traffic light, is an injectable drug used for ten years against type 2 diabetes. The second version, with the Wegovy brand, contains a higher dosage of traffic lights and is instead used in the management of obesity. The traffic semaglutide is A synthetic analogue of the GLP-1 (Glucagon-like Peptide 1), an hormone produced by the intestine with the task of stimulating the production of insulin and inhibiting that of glucagon (another hormone that increases the level of sugar in the blood) when the blood sugar is high. While helping to lower blood sugar, it reports to the brain the sense of satiety and turn off the appetite.
The high cost of these drugs – not always covered by insurance in the United States, where intake is high – and some unwanted effects, such as nausea, can be at the origin of a certain discontinuity of the treatments. Normally these drugs are taken by an injection once a week.
Continuing weight loss
A New York company that provides medicines and digital support to people who want to lose weight, the calibrated, has analyzed the most data of 6,000 US who had joined the program for a year between 2021 and 2024, 90% affected by obesity. As part of the program, the participants had access to an app that every two weeks gave advice on lifestyle and nutrition to optimize weight loss, and offered consultations with a health expert coach to support the treatment.
By paying a supplement, patients could access drugs such as Ozempic on a weekly basis. At the end of the annual program, 73% of patients had met at least one interruption in taking the medicine, defined as a period of At least 13 weeks without treatment. On average, these people had continued the ozempic injections for eight months on a period of 12; Yet – he ascertained the analysis – they had lost 14% of their weight on averageagainst 17% lost by those who had continued without interruption. Similar results were observed for those who were in the second year of the program.
The support also counts
Even if the experts consider reassuring conclusions, the study did not consider the impact, on the success of the treatment, of the psychological support provided to userswhich may have contributed to the results observed. In addition, some participants in the study were also taking on another antidiabetic medicine, metformin, which contributes in part less to weight loss and which may have had a role in weight loss.
In any case, The theme of how to manage dosages and frequency of administration of these drugsand what happens when stopping definitively remains a warm topic and far from exhausted.
