Patients taking diabetes drug Ozempic or the weight-loss drug Wegovy are reporting a curious, helpful aspect impact. The medicine appear to scale back folks’s cravings for alcohol, nicotine and even opioids.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Prescriptions for Ozempic have skyrocketed previously 12 months. The drug treats diabetes. It could cause dramatic weight reduction. But many individuals taking this treatment have seen an attention-grabbing aspect impact. Here’s Michaeleen Doucleff.
MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF, BYLINE: During the COVID pandemic, James Paul Grayson (ph) felt like his well being was crumbling. He gained almost 40 kilos, acquired recognized with hypertension, pre-diabetes and a coronary heart concern.
JAMES PAUL GRAYSON: Man, this sucks (laughter). You know, I acquired all these meds I by no means needed to take earlier than. So I used to be really fairly depressed about my well being.
DOUCLEFF: Grayson is 73 years previous. He’s retired and lives in Clayton, Okla. He did not need extra coronary heart troubles, so he began taking Ozempic. The treatment is extraordinarily costly, nevertheless it labored straight away.
GRAYSON: Basically, I began dropping pounds virtually instantly.
DOUCLEFF: Then he seen one thing else. He went out to dinner, ordered a beer, and…
GRAYSON: I might barely end it.
DOUCLEFF: It did not really feel or style good.
GRAYSON: Sometimes, you drink a beer, and it is, like, oh, my God, it tastes so good. Guzzle, guzzle, guzzle, guzzle. Well, I did not really feel like guzzling. I simply barely felt like sipping it.
DOUCLEFF: This wasn’t like Grayson. While he by no means thought he had an issue with alcohol, he did like ingesting beer and wine.
GRAYSON: You know, I might devour a complete bottle of wine in a night with out attempting actual onerous – together with a bag of goodies (laughter).
DOUCLEFF: But the treatment zapped his motivation for each the chocolate and the wine.
GRAYSON: I’d have wine within the fridge or no matter. I’m, like, possibly I ought to have some wine. And then I simply sort of neglect about it. I believe I simply watch extra TV.
DOUCLEFF: He may not have realized it, however Grayson was doubtless experiencing a change within the launch of dopamine inside his mind. Dopamine is a chemical that makes us need or crave issues. Christian Hendershot is a psychologist on the University of North Carolina. He says that many individuals taking Ozempic or one other model known as Wegovy have had related aversions to alcohol.
CHRISTIAN HENDERSHOT: There’s actually been a lot of scientific and anecdotal experiences coming in – it is actually from throughout the nation – simply suggesting that individuals’s ingesting behaviors are altering and in some cases, fairly considerably.
DOUCLEFF: He’s main considered one of six scientific trials taking a look at whether or not these weight reduction medicines can assist deal with alcohol use dysfunction.
HENDERSHOT: There appears to be virtually a satiety impact the place folks both resolve to not provoke ingesting or, in the event that they’ve began, that they do not really feel the necessity to proceed.
DOUCLEFF: And this is what’s much more stunning – it isn’t simply with alcohol.
HENDERSHOT: The identical issues have been reported for cigarette smoking.
DOUCLEFF: In different phrases, Ozempic could curb many various kinds of cravings, together with nicotine and opioids. Although there have been only some research in folks, scientists have been learning this impact in rats for greater than a decade.
ELISABET JERLHAG: So fairly a very long time now.
DOUCLEFF: That’s Elisabet Jerlhag. She’s a pharmacologist on the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. She and her colleagues have proven that Ozempic reduces binge ingesting in rats and prevents relapses in animals hooked on alcohol.
JERLHAG: We see a discount on alcohol consumption by over 50%, which is sort of dramatic.
DOUCLEFF: So how does a weight reduction treatment scale back alcohol cravings? Alexandra DiFeliceantonio is a neuroscientist at Virginia Tech. She says the mechanisms within the mind that trigger folks to overeat overlap with people who trigger dependancy. In specific, she says, meals with numerous sugar and fats enhance dopamine in a selected a part of the mind within the middle that causes motivation.
ALEXANDRA DIFELICEANTONIO: That enhance in dopamine is definitely actually just like one which we see after nicotine consumption or after alcohol consumption. All addictive medicine enhance dopamine. That actually is, like, the hallmark of an addictive drug.
DOUCLEFF: Here’s how that dopamine works. Imagine for a second taking a chew of a heat, gooey chocolate chip cookie. That chew triggers a spike of dopamine in your mind, and that spike tells you…
DIFELICEANTONIO: Oh, hey, go do that once more.
DOUCLEFF: Take one other chew. The identical factor occurs you probably have a gulp of beer. Dopamine spikes and tells you, take one other gulp. Have extra. But research in folks present that Ozempic-like medicine scale back the dopamine launched in each instances – makes the spikes a lot smaller. So you decelerate and find yourself sipping the beer and taking just one chew of a cookie.
This expertise has grow to be so frequent that some docs at the moment are prescribing Ozempic to deal with alcohol use dysfunction, despite the fact that it isn’t authorized for this. Dr. Lorenzo Leggio is the scientific director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. He says that is nice if an individual additionally has diabetes or weight problems.
LORENZO LEGGIO: Absolutely. Speak together with your physician. And if that may assist to additionally curb your ingesting, your craving, there can be an added worth.
DOUCLEFF: The drugmaker, Novo Nordisk, says it isn’t conducting any scientific trials to check these medicines for addiction-related sickness. But one small trial suggests Ozempic may not assist with alcohol use if you do not have weight problems.
LEGGIO: No medicines are going to work for everyone.
DOUCLEFF: Even although it is nonetheless early, some persons are utilizing these medicines with the hopes of curbing alcohol consumption. Meg Johnston (ph) is considered one of them. She’s an actual property agent in Washington, D.C., and he or she just lately began taking Ozempic each to drop some weight and to scale back her ingesting.
MEG JOHNSTON: I actually did lots of analysis earlier than entering into this, so I used to be totally anticipating that.
DOUCLEFF: She says the treatment has brought about lots of tough unwanted effects, that are frequent.
JOHNSON: Those first couple weeks have been very a lot centered on not vomiting, ensuring I proceed to have bowel actions.
DOUCLEFF: But however, the treatment instantly diminished her ingesting. She says many days, she would not even take into consideration having a glass of wine.
JOHNSON: It would not sound as appetizing. Additionally, you’re feeling it after quite a bit tougher, too. The hangover or normal uneasiness feeling comes quite a bit faster.
DOUCLEFF: Like you have misplaced the style for it, virtually.
JOHNSON: Yes, really.
DOUCLEFF: Now, she says, the large query is what is going to occur when she stops taking Ozempic. Many folks regain the load they’ve misplaced, nevertheless it’s nonetheless unknown in the event that they can even regain the will to drink. For NPR News, I’m Michaeleen Doucleff.
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