Ozempic Could Be Much less Efficient for Emotional Eaters, Research Suggests

GLP-1 agonists—so-called “wonder medicine” like Ozempic or Wegovy that assist people decrease blood sugar ranges and drop extra pounds, amongst different issues—yield important outcomes for some sufferers, however not all. Folks’s motivations to overeat could play a task on this, in response to a brand new examine.

To analyze why some individuals don’t profit from GLP-1 agonists as a lot as others, researchers noticed 92 individuals with kind 2 diabetes in Japan throughout their first 12 months of taking GLP-1 medicine. Their results, revealed at this time in Frontiers in Medical Diabetes and Healthcare, counsel that individuals who overeat as a consequence of exterior causes—such because the sight or scent of scrumptious meals—had higher possibilities of responding nicely to the medicine in the long run than individuals who overeat for emotional causes.

Who will profit most from GLP-1 medicine?

“Pre-treatment evaluation of consuming conduct patterns could assist predict who will profit most from GLP-1 receptor agonist remedy,” Daisuke Yabe, senior writer of the examine and a professor of diabetes, endocrinology, and diet at Kyoto College, stated in a Frontiers assertion. “GLP-1 receptor agonists are efficient for people who expertise weight achieve or elevated blood glucose ranges as a consequence of overeating triggered by exterior stimuli. Nevertheless, their effectiveness is much less anticipated in instances the place emotional consuming is the first trigger.”

The workforce revealed this by gathering information on the individuals’ physique weight and composition, weight-reduction plan, and data equivalent to blood glucose, levels of cholesterol, and relationship with meals firstly of the remedy, three months after, and one 12 months after. They targeted on emotional consuming (consuming in response to detrimental feelings), exterior consuming (consuming as a result of the meals appears to be like good), and restrained consuming (controlling one’s weight-reduction plan to drop extra pounds). Whereas it might sound contradictory, extreme restrained consuming can truly lead to disordered consuming, in response to the researchers.

Over the 12 months, the individuals skilled a statistically important lack of physique weight and lowered levels of cholesterol and physique fats share with out altering skeletal muscle mass. Whereas blood glucose ranges ameliorated, the development wasn’t statistically important. There have been, nonetheless, some variations relying on consuming behaviors. Three months after the beginning of the remedy, individuals reported extra restrained consuming and fewer exterior or emotional consuming. By the top of the 12 months, although, individuals had returned to their unique restrained and emotional consuming habits.

“One doable rationalization is that emotional consuming is extra strongly influenced by psychological elements which is probably not immediately addressed by GLP-1 receptor agonist remedy,” stated Takehiro Kato, second writer of the article and a researcher from Gifu College, “People with outstanding emotional consuming tendencies could require extra behavioral or psychological help.”

Exterior consuming lessened over the 12 months of remedy

Individuals reported decreased exterior consuming all through the whole 12 months, and people that claimed excessive ranges of exterior consuming firstly of the remedy noticed the best advantages in blood glucose ranges and weight reduction. Alternatively, the workforce didn’t determine any affiliation between emotional or restrained consuming scores firstly and drug advantages by the 12-month mark.

“Whereas our examine suggests a possible affiliation between exterior consuming conduct and remedy response to GLP-1 receptor agonists, these findings stay preliminary,” defined Yabe. What’s extra, the workforce’s examine was observational, and individuals self-reported data, that means the researchers revealed a possible affiliation, not a causation.

“Additional proof is critical earlier than they are often applied in medical apply. Ought to future large-scale or randomized managed trials validate this relationship, incorporating easy behavioral assessments may turn into a worthwhile element in optimizing remedy methods,” Yabe concluded.