Diabetes medication may help prevent obesity, says study

July 06, 2015 13:32
Diabetes medication may help prevent obesity, says study

According to a new study performed by the Columbia University Medical Centre scientists, it was revealed that ‘a drug to treat diabetes can help obese individuals to shed weight’. With the recent research, a drug called Liraglutide was found to reduce at least five percent of body weight in over 60 percent of study participants.

To prove this, the researchers randomly assigned 3,731 men and women with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 30, or a BMI of at least 27 if they also had high cholesterol or high blood pressure, to receive a 3.0-milligram dose of liraglutide daily, or a placebo shot.

After 56 weeks, the participants on liraglutide lost an average of 8.3 kg, compared with 2.9 kg for the people on the placebo. Among the patients on liraglutide, 33% lost at least 10% of their body weight, whereas just 11% of the placebo group lost that much.

Nausea, diarrhoea and gall bladder related problems are the common side effects seen in the patients with medication. But the researchers noted that these could have been due to their above-average weight loss.

The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

By Lizitha

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Tagged Under :
health  diabetes  Liraglutide