Liraglutide Diabetes Drug Helps Weight Loss
Boy, is this newer drug a tongue twister! Liraglutide (lee-rah-glue-tide) is actually a diabetes drug that is designed to help people control their blood sugar levels and keep them at more normal lows and keep the spikes down so that they can have a healthy blood sugar level. Now, new, more in depth studies, are showing the Liraglutide also helps people lose weight significantly more than the popular diet drugs called Alli and Orlistat.
Liraglutide, which was given to study participants once daily via injection, worked better in helping adults to lose weight than it’s actual weight loss counterparts of Orlistat (I believe this is also the same thing as Xenical, a popular prescription weight loss product) and Alli, however, it may not be marketed yet for the specific reason of weight loss until this can be further reviewed, and I’m sure FDA approved to be marketed as an actual weight loss drug instead of strictly as a diabetes drug.
The average weight loss per study participant on the Liraglutide drug was about ten pounds – not too shabby. This drug not only helped patients in the study lose weight more easily by regulating their blood sugar levels, but it also helped them to lower their blood pressure. Perhaps this was simply through the weight loss they achieved, as blood pressure typically goes down with weight loss, which is why doctors always recommend those that have extra pounds on them with high blood pressure lose as much weight as they can – it almost always helps with their blood pressure.
The only side effects that were reported using Liraglutide were occasional nausea and vomiting, however these side effects almost always subsided. The concern with this drug is really the injectable pice. Doctors and researchers aren’t so sure that an injectable medication would be the ideal answer to controlling weight long term, and the long term side effects aren’t known yet. For example, how do you know you may not be a prisoner to the drug after getting off it, without having sky high blood sugar afterwards because your body has grown accustomed to the benefits of having it lowered artificially?
Concerns like that will definitely need to be addressed before this can be considered for any sort of weight loss use, and also they will need to consider how they can give it without an injection I think, since it needs to be given every day. Currenlty the drug is available over in Europe to help patients with diabetes and prediabetes, no known date yet for US release.
