Combined Military Hospital

THURSDAY, Jan. 2, 2024 -- Weight loss tops many folks’ list of New Years resolutions, and lots of people are turning to cutting-edge weight-loss drugs like Ozempic to help them drop excess pounds. These drugs, called glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), work in several different ways to help people lose weight, gain control over their blood sugar levels, and improve their heart health, a new study published in the journal Cureus says. GLP-1 drugs mimic a hormone secreted by the small intestine when people eat food. The drugs initially were approved as a treatment for type 2 diabetes because they help lower blood sugar levels. But subsequent studies found that GLP-1 drugs also help people lose weight. The new study noted the different means by which GLP-1 drugs act upon the body. Specifically, these drugs: “All these emerging benefits have made GLP-1 RAs an important pharmacological drug,” concluded the research team led by senior researcher Dr. Zahra Nazir with the Combined Military Hospital in Quetta, Pakistan. These emerging benefits have been discovered as a result of dozens of clinical trials and studies that have been conducted since the drug class was first discovered in the 1980s, researchers said. For example, prior studies found that GLP-1 drugs: “GLP-1 RAs’ distinct and unique mechanism of enhancing insulin release in response to glucose, increasing satiety, and slowing gastric emptying can be attributed to the previously mentioned benefits of weight management and glycemic control,” researchers wrote. “ Heart health benefits are even of interest; trials show that GLP-1 RAs decrease inflammatory markers, improve endothelial function, and decrease arterial stiffness,” they concluded. Ongoing studies are looking into whether GLP-1 drugs might also help patients with arthritis, headache, irritable bowel syndrome and neuropathic pain, researchers noted. Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.