Diabetes drug may aid women's weight loss after quitting smoking

The diabetes drug dulaglutide Trulicity may significantly lower a womans risk of substantial weight gain after she has given up smoking according to a studyDulaglutide is known to mimic the effects of the hormone GLP1 which is naturally produced in the gut in response to food helping to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood and weight gainWomen seem to be five times as likely as men to put on a lot of weight after they quit smoking suggests the data published in the open access journal BMJ Nutrition Prevention and HealthWomen also seem to have higher smoking relapse rates than men And its been suggested that one of the possible explanations for this is that they may be more concerned about the risk of major weight gain in the wake of quitting although theres no solid evidence for this said researchers from the University Hospital Basel in SwitzerlandOur data suggest that an adjunct dulaglutide treatment could be particularly useful for patients facing a high risk of substantial weight gain after smoking cessation such as womenrdquo said Fabienne Baur from the Department of Endocrinology Diabetology and Metabolism at the UniversityAnother target group could be individuals of both genders who failed several cessation attempts due to weight gain Baur addedA previously published clinical trial showed that compared with dummy treatment dulaglutide significantly reduced weight gain in those who had given up smoking But its not clear if this weight loss is gender specificTherefore the researchers reanalysed the data from this trial to see if there were any gender differences in weight lost or gained in the 12 weeks after trying to quit smokingThe new trial included 255 adults 155 of whom were women The average age ranged from 42 to 44 and the number of cigarettes smoked daily averaged 20 for a period of between 19 and 22 yearsTrial participants were randomly assigned to receive either once weekly jabs of 15 mg05 ml dulaglutide or 05 ml dummy treatment plus the smoking cessation drug varenicline 2 mgday and behavioural counselling for a period of 12 weeksAfter 12 weeks women on dulaglutide lost around 12 kilos compared with weight gain of around 225 kilos for women in the dummy treatment groupMen taking dulaglutide shed just over half a kilo compared with weight gain of around 2 kilos among those in the dummy treatment groupBut surprisingly the positive effects of dulaglutide on weight had no impact on short term quit rates in either men or women which were relatively high in both 98 63 per cent in women and 65 65 per cent in men 65 per cent the researchers saidThe risk of weight gain after stopping smoking may change over time or depend on other factors such as the degree of nicotine dependence or age the researchers cautionedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever