This Morning's Dr Sara Kayat explained how a reformed diabetes drug can help people lose weight.
Holly and Phil returned to the This Morning studio following a presenter shake-up in honour of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Health expert Dr Sara Kayat joined today's show to discuss a drug that was previously intended to help with diabetes now being tested to prevent obesity.
Dr Kayat said: "This is a drug that used to be used as a Type 2 diabetic medication, Tirzepatide. It was found in a study with 2,500 people who were overweight or obese who didn't have Type 2 diabetes, they found those with the highest dose lost on average around three stone and in general 57% of participants lost 20% of their body weight."
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She added: Yeah, it's an exciting drug. It's being labelled a game-changer." Phillip followed the explanation by asking how it worked, leading Dr Kayat to confirm it acts by mimicking hormones in the body that help people feel full after eating which are often at low levels in people with obesity.
She said whilst not everyone will react to the drug, those who do will feel fuller for longer and reject larger portions of food come dinner time. Holly noted side effects included vomiting and diarrhoea which Dr Sara Kayat confirmed. She said: "Well, that's the case for a lot of these types of things. It has that natural reaction to the body which most drugs similar to this have."
The drug is currently in a trial phase for weight loss with test subjects self-administrating the medication. The injection is taken once a week over the 72 week test period.
