{"id":650034,"date":"2026-08-22T02:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/650034\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T02:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T02:19:18","slug":"what-are-the-benefits-and-risks-of-glp-1-drugs-beyond-weight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/650034\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the benefits and risks of GLP-1 drugs beyond weight loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB<\/a>\/Gray News) \u2014 Doctors have used GLP-1 drugs for weight loss for about five years, and researchers say some of the benefits are catching them off guard.<\/p>\n

Dr. Steven Heymsfield, a professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and director of the Metabolism Body Composition Laboratory, has studied GLP-1 drugs for 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome [benefits] were predicted beforehand and others were completely surprising,\u201d Heymsfield said. \u201cThe unpredictable type is that people report less desire to drink alcohol. And now there are studies beginning to show that that\u2019s been confirmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benefits beyond weight loss<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said people with arthritis have unexpectedly reported improved symptoms, less pain and less inflammation, and can walk better. He said studies have shown people need fewer knee replacements as a result.<\/p>\n

Heymsfield also pointed to cardiovascular improvements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already shown with GLP-1s that they reduce the risks of heart attacks, cardiovascular disease and mortality,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s thought that it\u2019s not just the weight loss, but processes like inflammation also are improving that might mediate these effects on the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said not all benefits are tied directly to weight loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like it\u2019s not just the weight loss, but these drugs that actually have themselves some properties that improve inflammation,\u201d Heymsfield said, adding that effect is being actively studied.<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said it is likely that GLP-1 drugs are already being prescribed off-label to treat inflammation, including in people of normal weight. He said off-label prescribing carries risk because the effects of the drugs are not known in people for whom they are not approved.<\/p>\n

On decreased interest in alcohol and substance use, Heymsfield said researchers do not know exactly how the drugs work in that regard, but they believe GLP-1s may act on areas of the brain tied to those behaviors.<\/p>\n

Adverse effects reported<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said some patients on GLP-1 drugs do not eat adequately and have developed vitamin deficiencies not usually seen, including scurvy from vitamin C deficiency, because of the way the drugs affect eating habits.<\/p>\n

He said some patients lose the enjoyment of eating altogether, a condition he described as hedonia, or lack of interest in eating.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people enjoy eating. It\u2019s not just to get calories. It\u2019s an enjoyment,\u201d Heymsfield said. \u201cAnd if you lose that enjoyment, some people go off the drugs because they\u2019ve lost that part of their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said the drugs have also been reported to reduce \u201cfood noise,\u201d which he described as a beneficial effect that in some cases can become too pronounced.<\/p>\n

Muscle and bone loss are also concerns, Heymsfield said, occurring in everyone who loses weight on the drugs. He said Pennington researchers are studying ways to mitigate that loss, including increased protein intake, resistance exercise and drugs designed to prevent muscle loss, such as androgen-type drugs.<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said muscle loss becomes more of a problem for patients who are frail, such as a 75-year-old who is overweight and starts a GLP-1, which could worsen their ability to get around and increase fracture risk.<\/p>\n

New drug in trials<\/p>\n

Pennington researchers are testing retatrutide, a triple agonist drug combining GLP-1, GIP and glucagon, Heymsfield said. He said the drug has produced the most weight loss seen so far in this class of drugs \u2014 in the range of 25% to 30%, comparable to bariatric surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a lot,\u201d Heymsfield said.<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said the drug, however, also carries more side effects. He said retatrutide is in Phase 3 trials, the last phase before approval, and could reach the market in the next few years. He said approval timelines for these drugs have been moving faster, pointing to two oral GLP-1 drugs that recently came to market.<\/p>\n

Safety and long-term use<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said GLP-1 drugs are safe when taken as prescribed, with well-described gastrointestinal effects and low risk overall, particularly at lower doses.<\/p>\n

He said the drugs\u2019 effects stop once a patient stops taking them, unless the patient has made lasting behavioral changes to diet and exercise during treatment.<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said weight cycling \u2014 losing weight, stopping the drug and regaining weight \u2014 is common and not a healthy way to live, and that regained weight is not muscle.<\/p>\n

Heymsfield said more powerful and more targeted GLP-1 drugs are in development, including potential once-a-month injections and drugs designed to preserve muscle and bone.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WAFB via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB\/Gray News) \u2014 Doctors have used GLP-1 drugs for weight loss for about five years,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[274],"tags":[145971,3721,2675,274740,18,5138,518,194928,211843,274745,1950,274742,274743,274744,14569,35957,49758,135,19,128266,17,462,12199,2927,274741,123123,32228,7886,564,5360],"class_list":["post-650034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-baton-rouge","tag-benefits","tag-diabetes","tag-dr-steven-heymsfield","tag-eire","tag-fat-loss","tag-food","tag-food-cravings","tag-food-intake","tag-food-noise","tag-glp-1","tag-glp-1-drug-benefits-beyond-weight-loss","tag-glp-1-drug-risks-and-side-effects","tag-glp-1-drugs-and-alcohol-use","tag-glp-1-side-effects","tag-glp-1s","tag-glp1","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-injections","tag-ireland","tag-medication","tag-muscle-loss","tag-ozempic","tag-pennington-biomedical-research-center","tag-retatrutide","tag-risks","tag-side-effects","tag-weight-loss","tag-weight-loss-drugs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117136770064166328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}