Semaglutide - A New Hope for Smokers [Forbes Magazine]

Hello everyone — as clinic director I'm always sharing the benefits of these medications that go beyond weight, and this Forbes piece covers one of the more surprising ones: smoking.

Recent research found that smokers with type 2 diabetes who were using semaglutide were less likely to need medical care related to tobacco use compared to those on other diabetes medications. In plain terms: something about the medication appears to reduce smoking behavior.

If that sounds random, it's actually not — and regular readers will recognize the pattern. We wrote recently about the Addiction journal study showing GLP-1 users had 40-50% lower rates of opioid and alcohol abuse. Now tobacco. Different substances, same direction.

The theory tying it together: these medications work on the reward-and-craving circuitry that drives compulsive behavior. It's the same circuitry that makes food noise so loud for some people — and researchers increasingly believe cravings for nicotine, alcohol, and opioids run on similar tracks. Quiet the circuitry, quiet the craving. Whatever the craving is for.

I'll be straight with you, like always: nobody should start semaglutide AS a smoking-cessation drug — that's not what it's approved for, and the research is early. But if you're on it for weight and find your cigarettes less interesting? That's not your imagination, and you're not alone. Patients have told us versions of this for a while.

The craving-quieting effect of these medications keeps proving bigger than anyone expected. Watch this space.

-Daryl

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