Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
weight loss medications such as Ozempic and Vegovy Not only can it help with weight loss, researchers now say it may also help reduce alcohol intoxication.
Virginia Tech academics reported that the drugs could slow the rate at which alcohol enters the bloodstream, which affects the brain.
A standard serving of these contains 0.6 ounces of alcohol, but the shot causes a rapid increase in blood-alcohol content. It feels different because of the way the body handles alcohol over time.
“People who drink wine know there’s a difference between drinking a glass of wine and drinking a glass of whiskey,” said Alex DiFelicantonio, an assistant professor at the school. statement,
“Why would this matter? Faster-acting drugs have a higher potential for abuse,” DiFelicantonio said. “They have different effects on the brain. So if GLP-1 slows down the entry of alcohol into the bloodstream, they could reduce the effects of alcohol and help people drink less.”
The findings are based on years previous research I am seeing what Medicines can treat addictions Such as alcohol use disorderwith A study published in February Showing that the drugs helped reduce the amount of alcohol patients drank and the frequency of days they drank heavily.
Most studies have found that medications fight the urge to drink more in the same way they help reduce food cravings.
73-year-old Oklahoman J. Paul Grayson said, “I ordered a beer, took a sip and I couldn’t finish it.” NPR mentioned earlier“You know how sometimes you taste beer, and it’s like, ‘Oh my God, this tastes so good I want to gulp it down.’ Well, I didn’t feel like filling my stomach. “I really felt like drinking it.”
Smaller new pilot studies reached similar conclusions.
The researchers found that despite consuming the amount of alcohol needed to raise breath alcohol levels to about 0.08 percent (the legal driving limit), people taking the weight-loss drugs semaglutide, tirazepate or liraglutide saw their levels rise more slowly and said they felt less intoxicated.
Semaglutide is the active ingredient for Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 class of drugs Ozempic and Vegovy.
Researchers at Virginia Tech came to these findings by giving 20 obese participants in the Roaneke, Virginia area an alcoholic beverage that they had to drink within 10 minutes. Then, they measured the alcohol level in their breath and asked them questions about how they felt.
This was repeated three times over the course of an hour and they measured the level of alcohol in their breath every 30 minutes, as well as measuring their blood sugar.
“Other medications designed to help reduce alcohol intake” — naltrexone and acamprosate — “act on the central nervous system,” DiFelicantonio said. “Our preliminary data suggest that GLP-1s suppress intake through a different mechanism.”
The findings are promising for approximately 49 million Americans Those who struggle with alcohol use disorders.
More than half of U.S. adults drink alcohol, although University of Southern California researchers — authors of the February study — also pointed out that medications not currently approved to treat alcohol use disorder are not widely used.
Long-term alcohol consumption is linked to cancer, liver and heart disease.
About 178,000 people die each year from excessive alcohol drinking, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,