The rise of medications such as Ozempic, wegovy o Mounjaru has completely transformed the clinical and social landscape of the weight lossmaking many people do not hesitate to ask their family doctor to prescribe it in order to lose weight and also regulate blood sugar. The results during treatment are undeniable, but the big question it raises about medical consultations is what exactly happens when the medication is stopped.
What we know. One of the most feared points of this type of treatment is the ‘rebound effect’ which causes that, at the time of stopping the treatment and if eating habits have not been adjusted, a large weight gain will be seen. This is something that causes many people to see that this treatment only gives a few months of ‘thinness’, but science is now trying to avoid this effect.
The rebound. An exhaustive analysis published in The BMJ finally put exact figures on this phenomenon so that you can speak appropriately to patients. And what has been seen after analyzing 9,300 participants is that patients recover an average of 0.4 kilos per month after stopping treatment.
At this rate, the return to the initial weight before starting therapy occurs in just 1.7 years. But this is also accompanied by a loss of cardiovascular shield at 1.4 years.
The solution. one of them it involves taking a pill daily known as orforglipronwhich is nothing more than a non-peptide GLP-1 receptor agonistwhich means that it can be taken orally and not through subcutaneous injections. The idea here is to use the injectable treatment, which is more powerful, for the first few weeks and then transition to this daily pill to consolidate the results without the rebound effect.
This not only greatly improves patient comfort, but facilitates mass production by not relying on problematic ‘pens’ containing semaglutide, and helps maintain satiety signaling at the brain level without the invasive impact of the needle.
A bacteria. The second line of research points to the intestinal microbiome, by analyzing supplementation with the bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila MucT pasteurized as a tool to avoid the rebound effect after a low-calorie diet. A bacteria that is long known in the field of nutrition for its role in the integrity of the intestinal barrier.
After doing the analysisit was seen that the group of patients who received the bacterial supplement recorded a weight recovery of only 13.6%, compared to 32.9% in the control group. But beyond the scale, it has been seen that this bacteria shows a notable preservation of insulin sensitivity, a crucial factor to avoid the development of type 2 diabetes and keep lipid metabolism under control.
The future. We are undoubtedly at the beginning of a paradigm shift, since the medical narrative is moving from the short-term “war against kilos” to chronic and sustainable management. But logically, for this to reach the market, we must wait (and not a little) for better results and above all for it to be tested in humans.
Images | stefamerpik in Magnific
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