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A ‘gamechanging’ diabetes drug could help obese people shed up to 20 per cent of their body weight, a trial suggests.
A study of 2,539 overweight and obese participants without diabetes found a weekly dose of tirzepatide could lead to weight loss when used alongside diet and exercise.
The international research team split the volunteers into four groups and over a 72-week period they were given either three different doses of tirzepatide or a placebo.
The group on the highest dose – 15mg – lost 3st 10lb on average, according to the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A ‘gamechanging’ diabetes drug could help obese people shed up to 20 per cent of their body weight, a trial suggests (stock image)
Volunteers who took the highest does of tirzepatide, 15mg, lost an average of 3st 10lb
WHAT SHOULD A BALANCED DIET LOOK LIKE?
Meals should be based on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain, according to the NHS
• Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day. All fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruit and vegetables count
• Base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain
• 30 grams of fibre a day: This is the same as eating all of the following: 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, 2 whole-wheat cereal biscuits, 2 thick slices of wholemeal bread and large baked potato with the skin on
• Have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks) choosing lower fat and lower sugar options
• Eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish every week, one of which should be oily)
• Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and consuming in small amounts
• Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of water a day
• Adults should have less than 6g of salt and 20g of saturated fat for women or 30g for men a day
Source: NHS Eatwell Guide
Fifty-seven per cent of them lost 20 per cent of their body weight.
Obesity experts told The Guardian tirzepatide was ‘gamechanging’, but warned of side effects such as vomiting and diarrhoea, and said weight could be regained once people stop taking it.
Yale University’s Dr Ania Jastreboff, lead author of the research, said obesity needed to be treated like any other serious health condition.
‘We should treat obesity as we treat any chronic disease – with effective and safe approaches which target underlying disease mechanisms – and these results underscore that tirzepatide may be doing just that,’ she said.
But Professor Tom Sanders, an expert in nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, said there are also concerns about the drug’s effects on the pancreas.
He added: ‘This class of drugs only works providing the participants stick to the reduced calorie diet prescribed with the drug so it is not a magic bullet.’
Tirzepatide combines a type of medication called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, and another similar drug, known as a glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide, or GIP.
GLP-1 receptor agonists have been in use for about a decade and have transformed type 2 diabetes treatment.
Given alongside other diabetes medicine, such as metformin, they work by mimicking naturally occurring hormones involved in digestion and help patients who find they can’t lose weight through diet and exercise alone.
The drugs send signals to the brain, helping curb the appetite, stimulate the body to use up glucose in the blood and lower the amount of sugar that’s digested and absorbed from food.
A number of GLP-1 receptor agonists are now available, including exenatide, liraglutide and semaglutide, which is available in both injection and tablet form.
However, the inclusion of a second active ingredient, GIP, is what some experts say makes tirzepatide more effective.
GIP works in a similar way to GLP-1 receptor agonists, mimicking a naturally occurring digestive hormone, helping both stimulate insulin release and absorption of sugar from the blood.
Other studies have shown tirzepatide, given as once-a-week jab, has also had some success in combating type 2 diabetes.
There are currently two weight loss drugs available on the NHS, orlistat and liraglutide.
More than 42million adults in the UK will be overweight or obese by 2040, according to projections by Cancer Research UK
Orlistat works by preventing fat being absorbed during digestion, while liraglutide works by tricking the body into feeling full.
Both drugs are usually only prescribed if a person has already made ‘significant’ effort into losing weight through diet and exercise.
Obesity is one of Britain’s biggest health issues with the latest data showing 64 per cent of adults were either overweight or obese in 2019.
However, an analysis by Cancer Research UK last released last month predicted more than 42million adults in the UK will be overweight by 2040, about 71 per cent of the country.
This includes 36 per cent who are likely to be obese — meaning they will outnumber people in the less severe category for the first time.
In the US an estimated 73.6 per cent of adults are considered either overweight or obese.
Being overweight or obese is known to increase the risk of at least 13 different types of cancer and also causes other dangerous health conditions such as high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
Treating obesity-related illness is estimated to cost the NHS £6 billion a year.
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