Is there a new Weight Loss Injection to tackle obesity?

With obesity becoming a national crisis - we have made plenty of blog entries covering this subject, experts have just revealed that a wonder weight-loss jab helped patients shed 10lbs in just four weeks.  I have to say, as I have battled a yoyoing fight with my weight, I am reading this with anticipation!!!!

Apparently, the new injection has been called the "best anti-obesity treatment yet."  Where do I sign up??? It relies on a cocktail of hormones to burn fat. It actually is said to mimic having a gastric band fitted, without any of the side effects.  I am starting to go green with jealousy of the people on this study.

Volunteers - all with type 2 diabetes (I am very pleased to say that I do not have that, and therefore very glad I was not part of all this), lost an average of 9.7lbs in the trial held at the Hammersmith Hospital in West London.

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, said "we are getting towards the Holy Grail of tackling weight loss. Millions could lose fat with an approach like this. The real hurdles will be safety, cost and how keen people will be to have a regular hormone jab. It is a small trial and we need to see success with bigger studies, but this is a step in the right direction."

Professor Tricia Tan, from Imperial College London, said: "there is a real need to find new medicines so we can improve and save the lives of many patients. Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes can lead to potentially life-threatening conditions such as cancer, stroke and heart disease."

Previous studies have found that gastric band operations work because three hormones that originate in the bowels are released in higher levels. The team wanted to see if injecting the same hormones would have a similar effect. Fifteen patients were given the treatment for four weeks, using a pump that slowly injected the mixture under the skin for 12 hours a day.

The group ate 30 per cent less food than before and lost nearly twice as much weight as a control group given a salt water jab as a placebo (i think I would be annoyed if I had not been in the first group). The new injection also helped return the group's blood sugar levels to near normal within a month.

Professor Tan said: "while wearing the pump you feel less hungry. The sensation is like after you have eaten a big meal. What is even  more exciting is that we are able to normalise blood sugar levels and people can come off of diabetes medications."

Gastric band operations, while often successful, can cause abdominal pain, chronic nausea, vomiting and debilitating low blood-sugar levels.

HMHB  says:

Wow. This is an interesting approach. The hormone injection shows promise. The effects are looking good, and anything that can help people to lose weight and combat obesity is a good thing. But until larger studies are completed we need to be careful. And also, it should not be the case that people can think it is okay to put on weight as then they just get an injection to lose it again.

Putting on weight can be easy, while removing it can feel like an enormous uphill struggle - take it from me, I know. Exercise and good nutrition is the most important thing of all, as well as understanding things take time and effort - no pain, no gain.  Good luck everyone.