“The doctor kept hearing the same story from his patients. After taking GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and finally shedding those excess pounds, some had gone a bit rogue. They began spacing out the shots instead of injecting themselves every week.
And it seemed to be working, said Dr. Mitch Biermann, an obesity and internal medicine specialist at Scripps Clinic in San Diego.
‘By the time the third person told me they were taking it every second or third week and still maintaining their weight, I started recommending it to other patients,’ he said.
Dr. Biermann also conceived a study to test the strategy. Now the results of that research are in: After 36 weeks of follow-up, most of the patients who spaced out their GLP-1 injections kept the weight off and also maintained health benefits like reduced blood pressure and better blood sugar control.
Only four patients gained weight after making the switch, and they quickly reverted back to weekly injections, the report said.
The study was small, only 34 patients in a relatively homogeneous group — mostly white and privately insured. And it was done by analyzing their existing medical charts.
Still, the research, published in February in the journal Obesity, provides a potentially appealing new option for patients who are loath to commit to lifelong weekly injections of a costly medication that may not be covered by insurance and that some fear could have unknown side effects.”
From New York Times.