History has taught us to be shy of miracle drugs. But that hasn’t stopped weight-loss drugs being eagerly promoted by fans such as Boris Johnson, and even touted by Keir Starmer as a possible means of getting people back into the workforce. In the US, according to a survey by polling firm KFF earlier this year, one in eight adults has already taken a weight-loss drug. Grand claims have been made.
Could RFK Jnr be right in suggesting that weight-loss drugs are causing more harm than they are worth?
A trial of 17,600 overweight adults suffering from heart disease – sponsored by the manufacturer of Ozempic, Novo Nordisk – found that those who took it saw reduced deaths from all causes relative to a control group given a placebo. Professor Harlan Krumholz, of the Yale School of Medicine and editor of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, has even suggested that the drug could help to slow the ageing process.
Weight-loss drugs are rather less appreciated by the man who will soon be in charge of US healthcare policy. Robert Kennedy Jr, controversially appointed as health secretary last week, is no keener on them than he is on vaccines. He says he wants to restrict the use of Ozempic, telling a late-night show: ‘They make this drug in Denmark, and in Denmark they do not recommend it for diabetes or obesity. They recommend dietary or behavioural changes,’ adding that the manufacturer ‘are counting on selling it to Americans because we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs.’
But could RFK Jnr be right in suggesting that weight-loss drugs are causing more harm than they are worth? Support for his stance comes from a paper published in Krumholz’s journal, which reveals that laboratory mice administered with the drug semaglutide – the active ingredient of weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy – didn’t just lose fat. They also experienced mild sarcopenia – the loss of lean muscle, including from the heart.
A team from the University of Alberta caused mice to become obese by feeding them a diet high in sucrose over ten weeks. They were then put on semaglutide for 21 days, which resulted in them losing 35 per cent of their body weight, including 65 per cent of their fat. But there was also an unfortunate side effect: they lost mass in their heart muscle.
While the authors suggest that this was not severe enough to amount to atrophy of the heart, they do say that if the results were replicated in humans, it could lead to people becoming intolerant of physical exercise, undoing some of the good achieved by taking the drug.
The ‘if replicated in humans’ is a very important caveat, of course. Mice are not people; they are just convenient creatures on which scientists can experiment without running into too serious ethical problems. Nevertheless, it is a warning of possible long-term consequences of taking these novel drugs. The findings come in a week when the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency revealed that 68 people have been hospitalised after taking Wegovy or Ozempic, and that 7,228 people have reported suffering vomiting, nausea or diarrhoea (which certainly would help reduce someone’s weight, even if the drug doesn’t).
With a quarter of the UK adult population classified as obese, many will welcome weight-loss drugs in spite of the side effects. But this week’s news does rather back up what should be obvious: that when it comes to losing weight, there is no substitute for eating less and taking more exercise.
This article is free to read
To unlock more articles, subscribe to get 3 months of unlimited access for just $5
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in