There are TikTok hashtags with tens of millions of followers, limitless column inches over celebrities’ waistlines and streams of media protection when trial outcomes come out. It’s uncommon {that a} new drugs will get a lot consideration. Then once more, it’s even rarer {that a} licensed drug causes protected and fast weight reduction with minimal effort.

A yr in the past, most individuals hadn’t heard of semaglutide, a drug developed to deal with sort 2 diabetes round a decade in the past below the model title Ozempic. Then, in 2021, it was authorized within the US as a weight-loss support below the title Wegovy. The medication may cause folks to lose a whopping 15 per cent of their physique weight.

The influence of this new class of medicines could possibly be unprecedented – doubtlessly bringing to an finish the world’s rising weight problems epidemic. “I don’t suppose it’s absolutely sunk in but,” says Jonathan Campbell at Duke College in North Carolina, who investigates how these medication have an effect on the physique.

For one factor, Wegovy was simply the beginning. The subsequent technology of those medication is in improvement and will probably be cheaper, simpler to make use of and, crucially, much more potent. What’s extra, rising proof suggests Wegovy and its ilk work higher when given at a youthful age, so medical doctors are exploring their use in youngsters and younger kids. This raises the prospect of switching from weight problems remedy to prevention. “We have now watched the weight problems panorama change dramatically over the past 40 years,” says Campbell. “Now, possibly we’re at a turning level the place that goes backwards.”

Why weight problems is on the rise

The rise in weight problems has been occurring since concerning the Seventies…