Weight loss drugs are having profound health impacts, and researchers at Virginia Tech said they’ve discovered another one — it could help people cut back on alcohol.
Weight loss drugs have profound health impacts, and researchers at Virginia Tech said they’ve discovered another one.
Excessive alcohol consumption is associated with serious health risks, including liver disease and increased cancer rates. However, a new study from the university reveals that GLP-1 agonist drugs — commonly used for weight loss — affect alcohol absorption in the same way they influence food digestion.
These medications slow the movement of food from the stomach to the small intestine, helping users feel full longer and eat less. Similarly, they delay the rate at which alcohol enters the bloodstream, meaning it takes longer to feel the effects of a drink. Essentially, it takes longer to get that buzz, and most people who drink socially don’t like that.
“Delayed rewards just aren’t as good as immediate ones,” said Alex DiFeliceantonio, an assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s department of human nutrition, foods and exercise who co-authored the study.
If you’re used to feeling buzzed immediately after downing a shot or two of liquor, that won’t be the case while on weight loss drugs. While the body does eventually absorb the alcohol, it’s going to take longer.
“But that early on of when you kind of are just drinking and you’re feeling those effects of drinking, if you delay that, people seem to like drinking less,” DiFeliceantonio said. “If you change that feeling, you can change the addictive potential of the drug, and you can kind of just change how people interact with the drug.”
Regardless of which weight loss drug someone was on, she added, the results were pretty much the same.
“We don’t really have a lot of great treatments for alcohol use disorder. Relapse is very common,” DiFeliceantonio said. “Maybe these drugs could be useful for helping people who really want to cut back on their drinking.”
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