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• Semaglutide has proven promise as an weight problems remedy, inflicting dramatic and efficient weight reduction.
• However it’s a lifelong dedication — these stopping the drug will finally put the burden again on.
• It ought to solely be taken with a physician’s recommendation and for a medical cause, an skilled mentioned. 

Those that shed extra pounds utilizing semaglutide are prone to put it again on in the event that they ever cease taking the drug, analysis exhibits. 

Whereas the drug is a possible sport changer for people who find themselves sick from weight problems, it’s a lifelong dedication, Francesco Rubino, chair of metabolic surgical procedure at King’s Faculty London, informed Insider.

“There isn’t a query that if the drug is taken and stopped, it is only a matter of time — and generally even brief time — the place you get again to the burden you began from,” he mentioned. 

Semaglutide, offered underneath the model names Wegovy, Ozempic, and Rybelsus, has surged in reputation because it was permitted by the FDA as a remedy for weight problems in 2022. 

It was first meant as a remedy for kind 2 diabetes, however proved to be a strong software for the remedy of weight problems and weight reduction. Current research confirmed that sufferers taking the drug misplaced 15% to twenty% of their physique weight over 68 weeks, Insider’s Gabby Landsverk beforehand reported.

However there’s a threat that individuals begin seeing this drug as a fast weight-loss technique, Rubino mentioned. In his skilled opinion, it ought to solely be taken if the burden loss supplies a transparent medical profit. 

Accounts of individuals knocking off the kilos utilizing the drug have contributed to a spiking demand and shortages.

“The query is, do you truly have to shed extra pounds? Usually, weight reduction is an efficient factor, however not all people must chase weight reduction in any respect prices or at the price of taking treatment,” mentioned Rubino. 

Going off the drug will trigger weight rebound

Analysis exhibits that individuals who go off of semaglutide will regain most of their unique weight. 

A examine of virtually 2,000 adults, revealed within the peer-reviewed journal Diabetes, Weight problems and Metabolism in April 2022, confirmed that sufferers who went off the drug regained two-thirds of the misplaced weight inside a yr.

The outcomes of that trial could be seen within the graph under. 

“You would need to decide to a lifelong taking of this drug, which is one thing you’d ponder provided that the advantages outweigh the dangers, as little as this threat might be,” Rubino mentioned. 

Semaglutide is considered typically protected, nevertheless it does include unwanted effects.

Sufferers typically report feeling extremely nauseated and having diarrhea within the first weeks of remedy, and for some that by no means actually goes away, Rubino mentioned. 

As with every drug, it is possible that some individuals will get unusual however severe unwanted effects, Rubino mentioned.  

Semaglutide is a promising remedy for a medical situation

The chance is value it in case your various is a life-threatening illness. For sufferers with weight problems, it is sensible to take semaglutide ceaselessly. 

It’s a widespread false impression that weight problems is barely about being obese and sufferers want solely eating regimen and train to get higher. Current analysis clearly exhibits that weight problems is a persistent illness in its personal proper. 

Which means sufferers with weight problems cannot simply depend on altering their life-style to get higher — they want therapies to deal with the life-threatening penalties of their illness.

For many who had been sick with weight problems, however do not qualify for bariatric surgical procedure, semaglutide supplies lots of hope, Rubino mentioned.