Once-a-day diet jab lets a woman drop two dress sizes

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Revolutionary: The jab, which shaved two inches of waistlines of women during experiments, also helped control blood sugar levels and cut the risk of Alzheimer's

A dieting jab that can help women drop two dress sizes could be available within a year.
Those taking the drug liraglutide before breakfast each day lost an average of 19lb over 12 months. And a third of women shed 23lb – more than a stone and a half.
Such levels of weight loss can cut the risk of heart disease and other illnesses, as well as improve sleep and quality of life.
The once-a-day jab, which tricks the brain into feeling full, also lowers blood pressure, raises ‘good cholesterol’ and staves off diabetes.
And if that wasn’t enough, there are also tantalising hints that the drug slows the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
With just one diet drug already approved for use and Britons among the fattest people in Europe, experts say that diet and exercise alone won’t solve the obesity crisis.
However, the new jab will have to be proved to be extremely safe before it is cleared for use. Price will also be a crucial factor if it is to be prescribed on the NHS.
The impressive potential benefits of liraglutide were unveiled at the European Congress on Obesity in Sofia, as concern mounts that Britain is losing the fight against flab.
Around two-thirds of women are overweight or obese and, shockingly, a study this week showed British girls are the fattest in Europe.
Being obese can knock up to nine years off a person’s life and raise the risk of a host of health problems including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and some cancers.

The treatment of obesity-related illnesses costs the NHS more than £5billion a year, with millions more lost to the economy in sick leave.
Researchers in 27 countries, including the UK, tested liraglutide on almost 4,000 overweight and obese men and women.

Necessary: Experts warn the obesity epidemic cannot be beaten with diets and exercise alone

They injected themselves once a day for a year – with some subjects taking a placebo – and all those taking part watched what they ate and exercised. Some two-thirds of those taking liraglutide lost at least 5 per cent of their weight, while a third shed at least 10 per cent.
For a 14st woman, this would equate to around a stone and a half – or two dress sizes.
Waists shrank by an average of two inches, levels of harmful blood fats also fell and the body found it easier to process sugar.

There was also a drop in blood pressure, while some of the patients on the cusp of diabetes will be tracked for three years to see if the medicine cuts their odds of developing the full-blown disease.
Liraglutide’s maker, Danish firm Novo Nordisk, already sells the drug to treat diabetes and is wasting no time in trying to get it approved as a weight-loss medicine.
It works by acting like an appetite hormone, known as GLP1, which is made by the gut and tells the brain when we have eaten enough.
However, whereas GLP1 is broken down within minutes of being produced, liraglutide stays in the body for hours, tricking the brain into thinking a person is fuller for longer.
Orlistat, the only other diet drug prescribed in Britain, works by stopping the body from absorbing some of the fat in food.
Novo Nordisk has applied to the EU regulator and, if liraglutide is declared safe and effective, it could be prescribed within a year.
Like all drugs, it is not without side-effects, with nausea being the most common.
Professor John Wilding, a Liverpool University expert who led the latest trial, said drugs can help when diet and exercise fail.
‘One of the problems when people diet is that they become more hungry and their body is always trying to take them back to their previous weight,’ he said.
‘Drugs help people lose a greater amount of weight in the short-term and help them maintain that weight loss long-term.’

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