NEW HORIZON FOR TREATMENT IN…
Advances in medical therapies for obesity
Paolo Ciampalini
Unità Operativa Complessa di Endocrinologia e Diabetologia - Ospedale Bambino Gesù – Roma
Obesity is a medical condition characterized by an excessive accumulation of body fat that can lead to negative effects on health, with a consequent reduction in life expectancy. Correct diet, physical exercise, and psychological approach are the basis for the preventive and curative therapy of obesity; to facilitate the treatment, slimming drugs can be prescribed that act by reducing appetite or inhibiting the absorption of fat. In addition to the classic criteria for defining an obese patient, the guidelines also focus on medical therapy as a prevention of possible complications of obesity, and the spread of messages and images via social media (where obesity is often addressed only for aesthetic reasons and not health) leads today to an almost frantic search for medical therapies to address and resolve the problem. Pharmacological research is very active in this sector, and in this brief overview we will see the molecules currently available on the market and the future ones that are being developed and that could be marketed within a few years. The most effective drugs are GLP-1 receptor analogues, molecules that increase the levels and action of GLP-1 in our body. Discovered almost by chance, they have revolutionized the therapy for obesity, also considering the relatively few side effects compared to the many advantages not only towards weight but towards the functioning of many organs of our body.