Don’t Look Now, But Ozempic Might Help You Quit Smoking, Too

Semaglutide, the progressive constituent successful fashionable value nonaccomplishment drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, whitethorn assistance radical discontinue smoking, too. New probe published Monday has recovered grounds that semaglutide tin forestall oregon dainty people’s nicotine dependence. More survey volition beryllium needed to corroborate this imaginable benefit, however.

Semaglutide and different newer GLP-1 drugs person proven to beryllium substantially much effective astatine helping radical suffer value than fare and workout alone. But scientists astatine Case Western Reserve University, led by researcher Rong Xu, person been studying the imaginable effects of semaglutide and akin drugs that mightiness widen beyond treating value nonaccomplishment and benignant 2 diabetes. Earlier this month, for instance, they published a survey uncovering that GLP-1 drugs whitethorn beryllium capable to trim the wide hazard of obesity-related crab successful radical with diabetes. Their caller research, published successful the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked astatine the transportation betwixt semaglutide usage and nicotine usage disorder.

The researchers analyzed the wellness records of implicit 200,000 diabetes patients aft they were recently prescribed 1 of respective antidiabetes medications, including astir 6,000 radical who were prescribed semaglutide. They recovered that semaglutide users were noticeably little apt to beryllium diagnosed with baccy usage upset oregon to beryllium fixed treatments for it (i.e., drugs oregon counseling) implicit the pursuing year. This signifier held existent erstwhile the researchers lone looked astatine radical with oregon without obesity arsenic well.

“While determination are effectual medications to enactment radical if they privation to halt smoking, not everyone responds to them,” said Xu, a biomedical informatics prof astatine Case Western, successful a statement from the university. “As a effect of the precocious relapse rates, alternate medications to assistance radical halt smoking are needed.”

The team’s findings unsocial cannot beryllium that semaglutide and akin drugs tin assistance dainty baccy addiction. But anecdotes and immoderate studies (including 1 by the aforesaid scientists published successful May) person progressively suggested that GLP-1 drugs tin temper harmful cravings caused by different vices specified arsenic intoxicant and adjacent gambling. As a result, scientists elsewhere person begun to trial retired semaglutide for intoxicant usage upset successful objective trials (with early promising results truthful far)—a inclination that should beryllium followed with nicotine arsenic well, the authors say. “These findings suggest the request for objective trials to measure semaglutide’s imaginable for [tobacco usage disorder] treatment,” they wrote successful their paper.

From perchance preventing crab to perchance keeping our brains sharper arsenic we scope our aboriginal years, is determination thing that semaglutide can’t do?