Health
Weight-loss medications may also benefit common medical problem, study finds
Weight-loss medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists, which have gained popularity for treating type 2 diabetes and obesity, have been shown to have the surprising secondary benefit of reducing alcohol intake.
A team of international researchers from Ireland and Saudi Arabia followed 262 adult patients with obesity who started taking two GLP-1 medications: liraglutide or semaglutide.
Among the regular drinkers, weekly alcohol intake decreased by 68%, from approximately 23 units of alcohol to around 8 units.
WEIGHT LOSS, DIABETES DRUGS CAN CAUSE MOOD CHANGES: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT BEHAVIORAL SIDE EFFECTS
The findings were recently published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism and were also presented last week at the European Congress on Obesity in Spain.
GLP-1 agonists mimic a hormone called GLP-1, which is released from the gastrointestinal system after eating, according to study co-author Carel Le Roux, a professor at University College Dublin.
Weight-loss medications known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists have been shown to have the surprising secondary benefit of reducing alcohol intake. (iStock)
These medications activate GLP-1 receptors in the brain, decreasing the sense of “reward” people feel after eating or drinking, eventually leading to reduced cravings for both food and alcohol, he told Fox News Digital.
“It is this commonality of function that suggests the GLP-1 receptors in the brain may be a therapeutic target for not just the disease of obesity, but also for alcohol use disorder,” the professor said.
Study findings
Before the participants started the weight-loss drugs, they self-reported their weekly alcohol intake, then were categorized as non-drinkers, rare drinkers or regular drinkers.
Approximately 72% had at least two follow-up visits and 68% reported regular alcohol consumption.
WEIGHT-LOSS DRUGS’ IMPACT ON CANCER RISK REVEALED IN NEW STUDY
After starting the weight-loss medications, the participants’ weekly average alcohol intake decreased by almost two-thirds overall — from approximately 11 units of alcohol to four units after four months of treatment with the GLP-1 agonists.
The reduction in alcohol use was comparable to the decrease that can be achieved by nalmefene, a drug that decreases the “buzz” feeling in people with alcohol use disorder in Europe, according to the researchers.
Among the regular drinkers, weekly alcohol intake decreased by 68%, from approximately 23 units of alcohol to around 8 units. (iStock)
For the 188 patients who were followed over an average of four months, none had increased their alcohol intake after starting the weight-loss medications.
Patients reported that after an evening meal, they were too full to have their usual drink — and when they did drink, they reported becoming full extremely quickly and drinking at a slower pace, Le Roux noted.
“The findings in this study suggest that we may have just found a therapeutic target for alcohol use disorder.”
This suggests that the experience was less enjoyable, partly due to the reduced rate of alcohol absorption.
Some patients also reported that they didn’t enjoy the flavor of the alcoholic beverages as much, and also that hangovers were much worse.
All of these experiences showed that the weight-loss medications create “guard rails” that prevent most patients from drinking excessively, giving them a degree of control over their alcohol intake, according to Le Roux.
After starting the weight-loss medications, the participants’ weekly average alcohol intake decreased by almost two-thirds overall. (iStock)
“The findings in this study suggest that we may have just found a therapeutic target for alcohol use disorder — the GLP-1 receptor,” the professor told Fox News Digital.
“This finding potentially opens the possibility of an entirely new pharmacological treatment paradigm, which could be used in conjunction with conventional methods, such as behavior therapy and group support.”
Potential limitations
The study was limited by its relatively small number of patients, the researchers acknowledged.
Also, the researchers were not able to verify the participants’ self-reported alcohol intake, and roughly one-third of them were not available for follow-up.
SEMAGLUTIDE FOUND TO HAVE SHOCKING BENEFIT FOR LIVER DISEASE PATIENTS IN NEW STUDY
There was also no control group, which means the researchers couldn’t prove that taking weight-loss medication reduces alcohol intake.
The main advantage of GLP-1 agonists is that they only need to be taken once a week and continue to work for the entire week. (iStock)
“Randomized, controlled trials with diverse patient populations — including patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder — are needed to provide the quality and quantity of data that could be used to support an application for licensing the medication for the treatment of alcohol use disorder,” Le Roux said.
(One such trial is currently underway in Denmark.)
Study implications
With the current medications available to treat alcohol use disorder, the “major problem” is compliance, Le Roux said — “because the cravings for alcohol tend to come in waves.”
“This means a patient might be fully committed to treatment at one point in the week, but then stop taking the medication later in the week when a craving comes,” the professor added.
“This research suggests a promising ancillary benefit of GLP-1 analogs, potentially influencing cravings for alcohol and offering a new avenue for managing alcohol use disorder,” a physician said. (iStock)
There are currently three FDA-approved medications to treat alcohol use disorder: naltrexone (which helps decrease cravings by reducing the “buzz” feeling that comes with drinking alcohol); disulfiram (which helps some people avoid alcohol by making them feel sick when they drink), and acamprosate (which restores the balance of hormones in the brain to reduce cravings), according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
But less than 10% of people with alcohol use disorder get the proper treatment, with many resuming use within the first year of treatment, past research shows.
The main advantage of the GLP-1 agonists is that they only need to be taken once a week and continue to work for the entire week.
For the 188 patients who were followed over an average of four months, none had increased their alcohol intake after starting the weight-loss medications. (iStock)
Outside experts say the study’s findings highlight the potential of weight-loss medications to help treat alcohol use disorder.
“This research suggests a promising ancillary benefit of GLP-1 analogs, potentially influencing cravings for alcohol and offering a new avenue for managing alcohol use disorder,” Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who was not part of the study, told Fox News Digital.
For more Health articles, visit www.foxnews.com/health
“While the exact mechanisms are still being explored, the findings contribute to our understanding of the broader benefits of GLP-1 analogs beyond obesity treatment,” Stanford added.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. New research shows one group getting hit the hardest – those without a college degree.
A recent study from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from over 101,000 adults aged 25 to 49 who died from colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2023.
While death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed.
WIDESPREAD HABIT MAY RAISE COLORECTAL CANCER RISK MORE THAN YOU THINK
For young adults with a high school education or less, the mortality rate rose from 4.0 to 5.2 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree stayed flat, at approximately 2.7 per 100,000.
This does not mean that a degree offers some kind of biological protection, researchers cautioned.
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. (iStock)
The difference is likely driven by the conditions in which people live and work, which often correlate with education levels, the researchers noted.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
The study suggests that the higher death rates are likely driven by differences in the prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and diet, which are “known to be elevated among children and young adults with lower [socioeconomic status].”
Because the study relied on death certificates, researchers couldn’t say exactly why college graduates had better outcomes.
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes. (iStock)
Certificates typically list the cause of death, age, race and education level, but they do not include a person’s full medical history.
RED FLAGS FOR COLORECTAL CANCER THAT WARRANT SCREENINGS BEFORE 45 YEARS OF AGE
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women in the same age group, according to recent statistics.
While colorectal cancer death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed. (iStock)
Because the disease is highly treatable when caught early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
Common signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer can include a change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days, according to the American Cancer Society.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Other signs that warrant seeing a doctor include blood in the stool or a persistent feeling of needing to go to the bathroom but being unable to go.
The research was published in JAMA Oncology.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
SMOKING AND VAPING MAY BE BANNED AT ONE STATE’S MOST POPULAR BEACHES AND PARKS: HERE’S WHY
After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
TOURISTS MAY FACE STEEP FINES AND JAIL TIME FOR VAPES AT THIS VACATION HOT SPOT
“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
VACATION HOT SPOT CRACKS DOWN ON VAPING WITH JAIL THREATS AND HEFTY FINES
She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
DISPOSABLE VAPES MORE TOXIC AND CARCINOGENIC THAN CIGARETTES, STUDY SHOWS
In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH ARTICLES
Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
MARTHA STEWART SHARES 7 TIPS FOR AGING WELL: ‘LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, BE GOOD’
“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
LONELINESS MAY BE SILENTLY ERODING YOUR MEMORY, NEW RESEARCH REVEALS
Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR HEALTH NEWSLETTER
“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE HEALTH STORIES
Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZ
That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
-
Idaho1 minute ago
Idaho Lottery results: See winning numbers for Powerball, Pick 3 on April 20, 2026
-
Illinois7 minutes agoIllinois teen stabbing case returns to court this week
-
Indiana13 minutes agoIndiana police find semi trailer loaded up with nearly 400 pounds of cocaine: troopers
-
Iowa19 minutes agoIowa women’s basketball transfer portal visitor commits to Big Ten foe
-
Kansas25 minutes agoChiefs 7-round mock draft: How Kansas City could rebuild for 2026
-
Kentucky31 minutes agoWhere Kentucky turns following Donnie Freeman’s commitment to St. John’s
-
Louisiana37 minutes ago8 children killed after domestic dispute in Shreveport
-
Maine43 minutes agoA Maine school hosted an anti-bullying dance team. Libs of TikTok called it ‘grooming’