Recent research, published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at Obesity Week 2022, discovered that Semaglutide aids teen weight loss and improves heart health.
An international phase 3a clinical study proved teenagers who took semaglutide lost weight and thats it aids heart wellness as well. The study reported a 16.1% drop in their body mass index (BMI), whereas those who took a placebo saw a 0.6% increase in their BMI.
Semaglutide is already licensed for use in people who are obese or overweight.
Obesity affects about one in every five children and adolescents globally.
This chronic condition is associated with a lower life expectancy. It causes type 2 diabetes, heart disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, and some malignancies.
Also, obese teenagers are also more prone to suffer from despair, anxiety, low self-esteem, and other psychological difficulties.
“Rates of obesity are increasing, not just in the U.S., but all over the world,†said senior author Silva Arslanian, M.D., at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Importance of Semaglutide:
Typically, the lifestyle recommendations are eat more vegetables; don’t eat fried food or avoid soda.
Unfortunately, it can be very hard to make those changes. So there is a real need for safe and effective medications to treat obesity.
Researchers included 201 obese or overweight adolescents. They were aged 12 to 18 years across several sites to see if semaglutide is likewise useful in youths.
Throughout the experiment, participants received either weekly SQ injections of semaglutide 2.4 mg or placebo. Also, a lifestyle intervention coaching on good eating and physical exercise was provided.
Semaglutide is effective:
After 68 weeks, 72.5% of semaglutide individuals had lost at least 5% of their body weight. This was compared to 17% of placebo participants.
When compared to the placebo group, semaglutide participants improved in cardiovascular risk markers. This included waist circumference, HbA1c level , low-density, and very low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and liver enzymes.
However, there was no statistically difference between the two groups in blood pressure or high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
When compared to their placebo group, participants who took semaglutide had superior weight-related quality-of-life measures. This was mostly due to an increase in physical comfort ratings.
According to the researchers, this is the first obesity medicine to be related to significant quality-of-life gains in teenagers.
Parvathy Sukumaran 
