Semaglutide and Tirzepatide may reduce alcohol consumption in individuals with obesity

 Alcohol use disorder (AUD) contributes significantly to global mortality. GLP-1 and GLP-1/GIP agonists have been authorized by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) to manage obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Animal studies have reported that GLP-1 agonist molecules can effectively reduce alcohol intake; however, scientific evidence on the impact of GLP-1/GIP agonists on alcohol intake is scarce.

About the study

In the present study, researchers investigated whether semaglutide or tirzepatide medications reduced alcohol intake and the impact of the self-reported effects of alcohol among those consuming the medicines (intervention group) compared to those who were not (control group).

The researchers conducted two studies to investigate the impact of glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists on alcohol consumption. The first research entailed scanning Reddit social media deliberations about GLP-1 agonist medications with a machine-learning-based attribution mapping technique to identify the main themes and alcohol-related postings.

The researchers visualized optimal clusters using the Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP) approach and a random forest (RF)-based binary classifier to comprehend the underlying characteristics and their weights.

The second research included a survey of 153 individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher who drank alcohol and self-documented using tirzepatide or semaglutide for at least 30 days.

The researchers evaluated the subjects’ previous and current self-reports related to alcohol use and its effects. The researchers used the validated remote timeline followback (TLFB) instrument to assess inter-individual variations in alcohol intake.

The team also utilized the binomial distribution of binge drinking to assign individuals a binge drinking score of 0 or 1 (five or more drinks for men and four or more drinks for women).

Furthermore, they investigated ways in which the impact of alcohol use was altered among individuals who were prescribed tirzepatide or semaglutide in comparison to those who were not.

Results

The study examined social media comments about medicine, diabetes, obesity, weight loss, healthcare, and pharmacy. Diabetes, weight, dosage, insurance, and pharmacy were the most weighted features. The majority of alcohol-related entries were over-enriched in two clusters: "weight loss and obesity" (n=439) and "medication effects" (n=826).

In total, 962 individuals made 1,580 alcohol-related contributions, with 72% addressing decreased urges, decreased consumption, and other negative repercussions of drinking. Most positive correlations observed between clusters showed a rise in concurrent talks related to all identified themes.

The most noteworthy negative association was observed between "medication effects," "insurance and coverage," and "dose-related" talks, showing a trend away from discussing the effects of drugs and toward seeking information about dosages and obtaining medications via insurance.

The research participants were predominantly white women in their forties, educated for an average of 15 years, and had a BMI of approximately 35. Tirzepatide or semaglutide participants reported median doses of 7.50 mg, whereas the median dose for Wegovy or Ozempic participants was 1.0 mg.

Participants drank much more alcohol on weekends compared to weekdays, and those with obesity taking tirzepatide or semaglutide consumed significantly less alcohol and showed lower probabilities of binge drinking than their non-diabetic or non-obese peers.

AUD Identification Test (AUDIT) scores reduced when individuals began taking their current dose of Tirzepatide or Semaglutide, and drinks per episode of frequent usage decreased dramatically after participants started taking their medication.

There was no dose-dependent change in average drinks or AUDIT scores in the drug groups, although there was a visible downward trend in the Tirzepatide group.

The repeated measures analysis demonstrated a statistically significant main-time impact on stimulative and sedative effects before and during drug administration. The control group differed considerably from the current time point for both drugs, but not from before commencing each medication. The findings indicate that when taking these drugs, the consequences of alcohol intoxication, notably the stimulative and sedative effects, were minimized.

Conclusions

Overall, the study findings provided initial real-world evidence of lowered alcohol intake among obese individuals receiving tirzepatide or semaglutide medicines, showing potential efficacy for AUD treatment among obese individuals.

Furthermore, individuals using Semaglutide or Tirzepatide had a lower mean number of drinks, binge drinking, AUDIT score, and the sedative/stimulating effects of alcohol. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that GLP-1 agonist medicines cause a decrease in alcohol consumption.

Further research, including randomized controlled trials, is required to investigate the therapeutic potential of GLP-1 agonists and GIP/GLP-1 combination medicines for treating AUD.

Journal reference:

• Quddos, F., Hubshman, Z., Tegge, A., et al. (2023) Semaglutide and Tirzepatide reduce alcohol consumption in individuals with obesity. Sci Rep 13, 20998. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-48267-2. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-48267-2

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20231201/Groundbreaking-studies-indicate-Semaglutide-and-Tirzepatide-may-reduce-alcohol-consumption-in-individuals-with-obesity.aspx

Appeals court partially stops Biden rollback of fed funded abortion curb

 A divided federal appeals court struck down some Biden administration rules regarding the Title X family planning program, but will continue to allow health providers who refer patients for abortion to apply for federal funding. 

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit panel in a 2-1 ruling on Thursday granted a preliminary injunction that blocks the Biden administration from rolling back a Trump-era restriction requiring recipients of Title X grants to maintain “strict financial and physical separation” between the grant recipient and any entity providing abortions. 

The restriction means that family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood must have different buildings, staff and billing systems if they want to provide abortions and still receive federal funding. Those providers must foot the bill for the separate services. 

Though limited, the ruling likely creates confusion around the future of the program in states where providers for low-income patients are already stretched thin. 

Judge Joan Larsen, appointed by President Trump, was joined in the majority by Judge Amul Thapar, another Trump appointee. 

Judge Karen Nelson Moore, appointed by former President Clinton, concurred with the majority’s conclusion on the referral rule, and dissented on the separation provision.  

But the injunction only applies in Ohio, even though 11 other GOP-led states joined the lawsuit. According to the court, Ohio was the only state to show it was harmed by the Biden administration’s rule change — the state said it lost one-fifth of its Title X funds in 2022, due to Planned Parenthood resuming its participation in the program, and taking some of those government grants.

The court also left intact a provision of the rule that requires Title X projects make abortion referrals upon request. 

Title X is the only federal program that provides money for family planning services. Title X funds thousands of providers across the country offering contraception, cancer screenings and other services to millions of low-income women and men.  

Advocates argue Title X disproportionately serves Black, Latino and Indigenous patients, as well as patients with low incomes and those who live in rural areas. 

In 2019, the Trump administration changed the rules of the program by disqualifying family planning clinics that provided abortions in the same location. It also effectively prohibited clinics that referred patients for abortions from receiving federal funding.  

The changes decimated the program. 

After the rules took effect, about one-quarter of nearly 4,000 providers left the program, including Planned Parenthood affiliates, who served about 40 percent of the program’s patients. 

As a result, several states were left with no Title X providers. The number of patients served fell from 3.9 million in 2018 to 1.5 million in 2020, according to health policy research group KFF. 

Reproductive health advocacy groups had mixed reactions. 

Planned Parenthood Action Fund called it “yet another attack on reproductive freedom” following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

But Clare Coleman, President and CEO of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), called the ruling a “win for the Title X” program. 

“This ruling is surprisingly good news, albeit with some unclear implications for Ohio and the network down the road,” Coleman said in a statement. 

“The bottom line is that today’s decision keeps the Biden administration’s rule fully in effect and has no immediate impact on the full network – that should bring welcome relief for patients and providers alike.” 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4337874-appeals-court-partially-stops-biden-rollback-family-planning-restrictions/

EMA's safety committee recommends label update for certain decongestants

 The European Medicines Agency's (EMA) safety committee on Friday recommended changes to product information for all medicines that contain the ingredient pseudoephedrine to address safety concerns related to neurological and heart-related side effects.

The health regulator started a review of decongestant medicines for cold and flu in February, after reports of conditions affecting blood vessels in the brain in some patients who took pseudoephedrine-containing medicines.

The committee recommends inclusion of risks related to the neurological conditions in the product information and warns it should not be used in certain patients with high blood pressure.

Pseudoephedrine is a drug used alone or in combination with other medicines to treat a blocked nose due to cold, flu or allergy.

Makers of pseudoephedrine-containing drugs include Reckitt Benckiser, McNeil Products Ltd and Organon & Co.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/emas-safety-committee-recommends-label-133914462.html

US says it's ready to 'pause' sanctions relief for Venezuela unless further progress seen

 The White House said on Friday it was prepared to "pause" sanctions relief for OPEC member Venezuela in coming days unless there is further progress on the release of Venezuelan political prisoners and "wrongfully detained" Americans.

Speaking after a deadline for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to meet certain commitments, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S. welcomed an announcement on Thursday that opposition presidential candidates barred from public office would be able to appeal to Venezuela’s highest court.

But he said the Venezuelan government needed to do more or else Venezuela would risk a U.S. freeze on some relaxed sanctions unveiled in mid-October in response to a deal between Maduro and the country’s opposition on holding a 2024 presidential election.

Any “snapback” of partially lifted U.S. sanctions would mark a major shift from President Joe Biden's new approach toward Venezuela.

In the most significant lifting of tough Trump-era sanctions, Washington issued a six-month general license authorizing U.S. transactions with Venezuela’s vital oil and gas sector and a second license authorizing operations of state gold mining company Minerven. It also removed a U.S. prohibition on secondary-market trading of Venezuelan sovereign bonds.

Washington had vowed to reverse that sanctions relief unless the Venezuela's Socialist government took steps by the end of November to release political prisoners and three Americans it considers unlawfully jailed, and also lift public-office bans on opposition candidates.

U.S. DEMANDS

Thursday’s announcement by the Venezuelan government and opposition, which opened a path that could enable opposition politicians to run, appeared to satisfy one of Washington’s chief demands.

“It's welcome news,” Kirby said. “We are, however, deeply concerned about the lack of progress on the release of wrongfully detained U.S. citizens and Venezuelan political prisoners.”

“So we're going to continue to be actively engaged here in diplomatic efforts on those particular issues, and we're prepared to take action in the coming days to pause certain sanctions relief, unless further progress is made,” he added.

Kirby did not specify which of the sanctions-easing measures could be put on hold if Maduro fails to comply.

Reflecting skepticism in some quarters about the likely extent of any new U.S. action, two sources in Washington said earlier this week that the administration may respond initially by just reinstating sanctions on state-run Minerven.

The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If the U.S. deems Maduro's actions insufficient, it faces a decision on whether to reignite tensions with Venezuela when Washington is grappling with major foreign policy crises, principally the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza and Russia's war in Ukraine.

Under the appeals process announced late on Thursday, candidates can file petitions to the court between Dec. 1 and Dec. 15.

The winner of the opposition's presidential primary, Maria Corina Machado, is among those barred from office.

The Venezuelan government released five political prisoners in October but there have been no releases since.

It also holds at least three Americans who the U.S. government says are wrongfully detained.

https://news.yahoo.com/us-says-ready-pause-sanctions-203613413.html

Hamas leader Sinwar plotted Israel's most deadly day in plain sight

  Last year, Yahya Sinwar told a rally in Gaza that Hamas would deploy fighters and rockets in a fierce strike on Israel, the nation that imprisoned him for 23 years before he was freed and rose to a leadership role in the militant group.

The speech by Hamas' leader in Gaza to thousands of cheering supporters bore the hallmarks of crowd-pleasing hyperbole. Less than a year later, Israel discovered it was no idle threat, when Hamas fighters broke through Gaza's fence, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostage.

"We will come to you, God willing, in a roaring flood. We will come to you with endless rockets, we will come to you in a limitless flood of soldiers, we will come to you with millions of our people, like the repeating tide," he said during his Dec. 14 address. By the time of the speech, Sinwar and the militant Islamists' military leader Mohammed Deif had already hatched secret plans for the Oct. 7 assault, the deadliest day in Israel's 75-year history. In response, Israel has bombarded and invaded Gaza, killing more than 15,000 Palestinians. Heard in hindsight, Sinwar's words carry the foreboding of what was to come, an attack Hamas dubbed the "flood of Al-Aqsa," a reference to the mosque in Jerusalem that is one of Islam's holiest shrines and stands on a place revered by Jews as Temple Mount. Al-Aqsa has been subject to repeated Israeli raids. Sinwar is leading negotiations for prisoner-hostage swaps and directing military operations along with Deif and another commander, possibly from bunkers beneath Gaza, three Hamas sources have told Reuters.

A senior Israeli security official told reporters this week Sinwar had wielded influence over talks mediated by Qatar that led to the ceasefire that ended on Friday after the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners by Israel in return for dozens of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. In the days after the Oct. 7 attacks, Sinwar was seen by some of the Israeli hostages in the tunnels, freed hostages have said. Hamas and Israeli officials have not publicly commented on the reported sighting.

The question of hostages and prisoner swaps is deeply personal for Sinwar, who spent half his adult life behind bars, and has vowed to free all Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

In his only statement since the attacks, he called on prison care associations to prepare the names of Palestinians jailed in Israel, suggesting they would all be brought home.

He was himself one of 1,027 Palestinians released from Israeli prisons in a swap for a single Israeli soldier held in Gaza in 2011.

"I call on the resistance to pledge to free the remaining prisoners. This must turn immediately to a practical plan," he said at a huge homecoming rally in Gaza City after his release.

"DEAD MAN WALKING"

Born in the Khan Younis refugee camp, Sinwar, 61, was elected as Hamas' leader in Gaza in 2017. Since Oct. 7, Israel has considered him and other leaders to be "living on borrowed time," Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last week Israel is unlikely to end the war before Sinwar is dead or captured, officials in the region have said.

Sinwar rose to prominence as a ruthless enforcer, the head of the Al-Majd security apparatus which tracked, killed and punished Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel’s secret service before he was jailed.

Both Hamas leaders and Israeli officials who know Sinwar agree he is devoted to the militant movement to an extraordinary level.

One Hamas figure based in Lebanon described him as "puritanical...with an amazing ability of endurance."

Michael Koubi, a former Shin Bet official who interrogated Sinwar for 180 hours in prison, said he clearly stood out for his ability to intimidate and command. Koubi once asked the militant, then aged 28 or 29, why he was not already married.

"He told me Hamas is my wife, Hamas is my child. Hamas for me is everything."

Sinwar had been arrested in 1988 and sentenced to consecutive life terms accused of planning the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers and the murder of four Palestinians.

In jail, his hard line against collaborators continued, Israelis who dealt with him have said.

At time, "he did not have Jewish blood on his hands, he had Palestinian blood on his hands," Yuval Bitton, previously head of the Israel Prison Service's intelligence division, told Channel 12 TV in October.

Bitton, a dentist who treated Sinwar, said Israeli medics removed a tumour in Sinwar's brain in 2004. "We saved his life and this is his thanks," said Bitton, whose nephew is among the hostages in Gaza.

Koubi described Sinwar as being devoted to the destruction of Israel and to killing Jews. The senior Israeli official described him as a "psychopath", adding that "I don't think the way he grasps reality is similar to more rational and pragmatic terrorists".

Bitton added that the Hamas leader was willing to allow huge suffering for a cause and had once in prison led 1,600 prisoners to the brink of a mass hunger strike until death if needed in protest at the treatment of two men in isolation.

"He was ready to pay any price for the principle," he said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/newsmaker-hiding-plain-sight-hamas-133440427.html

COP28 advisory board member resigns over reports of UAE fossil fuel dealmaking

 A member of the main advisory board of the COP28 climate summit resigned on Friday over reports that the UAE presidency used the meeting to secure new oil, gas deals, according to her resignation letter seen by Reuters.

Hilda Heine, former president of the low-lying, climate vulnerable Marshall Islands, said reports that the UAE planned to discuss possible natural gas and other commercial deals ahead of U.N. climate talks were “deeply disappointing” and threatened to undermine the credibility of the multilateral negotiation process.

“These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole,” Heine wrote in the letter she sent to COP President Sultan al-Jaber.

She added that the only way for Jaber to restore trust in the process was to “deliver an outcome that demonstrates that you are committed to phasing out fossil fuels.”

https://whtc.com/2023/12/01/cop28-advisory-board-member-resigns-over-reports-of-uae-fossil-fuel-dealmaking/

Israel's most wanted: the three Hamas leaders in Gaza it aims to kill

 

The 61-year-old Yahya Sinwar, as well as Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, both 58, form a secretive three-man military council.

Three men topping Israel's hit-list remain at large: Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas' military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades; his second in command, Marwan Issa; and Hamas' leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar- who have been directing Hamas' military operations as well as leading negotiations for a prisoner-hostage swaps. They are possibly conducting all operations from bunkers beneath Gaza, news agency Reuters reported quoting three Hamas sources.

As hostilities resumed in Gaza after a seven-day truce brokered by Qatar collapsed, Israel's offensive was unlikely to stop until the three top Hamas commanders are dead or captured, the report claimed as the seven-week-old military campaign has killed more than 15,000 people in Palestine.

The 61-year-old Yahya Sinwar, as well as Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa, both 58, form a secretive three-man military council that planned and executed the October 7 attack against Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and around 240 taken hostage- the bloodiest in Israel's 75-year history.

Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv's objectives are the destruction of Hamas' military capabilities, bringing the hostages back as well as ensuring that the area around Gaza will never be threatened by a repeat of the attack.

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/gaza-war-news-hamas-war-news-israel-most-wanted-three-hamas-bosses-in-gaza-tel-aviv-must-kill-101701442409108.html