What if you could lose weight like you had a gastric bypass but with something as simple as hormone infusions instead? A new trial looking at the effects on people with type 2 diabetes and obesity found that hormone infusions may provide a novel way to lose weight without surgery.
Testing hormone infusions
A team from the Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction at Imperial College London recruited 15 people to receive three gut hormones (called “GOP”) that increase in people who undergo gastric bypass surgery.
The participants received infusions that lasted for 12 hours per day and the trial went on for 4 weeks. The infusion gave themselves the infusions at home by connecting the portable pump 1 hour before breakfast and disconnecting it about 12 hours later, after their last meal each day.
The control group, whose 11 participants received nothing more than a saline solution, lost 5.5 pounds. But the group that received the GOP hormone infusions lost 9.7 pounds.
In addition, those volunteers who received the hormone infusions got to near-normal glucose levels without big swings in insulin or glucose. The group receiving a placebo did not experience these improvements.
Things to consider
It’s important to note that this was a very small sample size. And because both groups received advice on how to eat healthy and lose weight, it’s possible that the difference in weight loss was due to one group heeding the advice better than the other.
On the bright side, if these infusions are the cause of the weight loss, this could be good news for patients who don’t qualify for gastric bypass or for those who are concerned about the possible side effects and complications. These can include things like nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and extremely low blood sugar levels.
The results of the study were published in Diabetes Care.
