Women who stop taking a GLP-1 weight loss/diabetes medication just prior to a pregnancy appear to be at higher odds for excess weight gain and complications while pregnant, new research shows. As the study authors pointed out, potential risks to the fetus of using a GLP-1 while pregnant remain unclear, so current recommendations advise discontinuing the drugs prior to or during a pregnancy. However, doing so may bring about its own hazards, concluded a team from Mass General Brigham in Boston. “Additional studies are needed on the balance of pre-pregnancy benefits of GLP-1s with the risks associated with interrupting them for pregnancy,” said study senior author Dr. Camille Powe. She’s a Mass General Brigham endocrinologist and co-director of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her team published their findings Nov. 24 in JAMA Network Open. According to study lead author and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Jacqueline Maya, the use of GLP-1s by women “has increased dramatically.” Speaking in a hospital news release, she said the study focused on how GLP-1 “discontinuation affects weight gain and outcomes during pregnancy.” To do so, the researchers tracked the medical records of almost 1,800 pregnancies cared for by the Mass General Brigham healthcare system between 2016 and 2025. Most of these pregnancies occurred among women with obesity. Outcomes for women who had received a GLP-1 prescription “within three…  read on >  read on >

Women who stop taking a GLP-1 weight loss/diabetes medication just prior to a pregnancy appear to be at higher odds for excess weight gain and complications while pregnant, new research shows. As the study authors pointed out, potential risks to the fetus of using a GLP-1 while pregnant remain unclear, so current recommendations advise discontinuing the drugs prior to or during a pregnancy. However, doing so may bring about its own hazards, concluded a team from Mass General Brigham in Boston. “Additional studies are needed on the balance of pre-pregnancy benefits of GLP-1s with the risks associated with interrupting them for pregnancy,” said study senior author Dr. Camille Powe. She’s a Mass General Brigham endocrinologist and co-director of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Program at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her team published their findings Nov. 24 in JAMA Network Open. According to study lead author and pediatric endocrinologist Dr. Jacqueline Maya, the use of GLP-1s by women “has increased dramatically.” Speaking in a hospital news release, she said the study focused on how GLP-1 “discontinuation affects weight gain and outcomes during pregnancy.” To do so, the researchers tracked the medical records of almost 1,800 pregnancies cared for by the Mass General Brigham healthcare system between 2016 and 2025. Most of these pregnancies occurred among women with obesity. Outcomes for women who had received a GLP-1 prescription “within three…  read on >  read on >

Researchers are standing behind new data on how people’s posteriors reflect changes linked to aging and diabetes. Shrinkage or inflammation of the gluteus maximus muscles of the buttocks may reflect frailty, sitting time, fat deposition and diabetes risk, and these changes may occur differently among men and women, the British team said. “Unlike past studies that mainly looked at muscle size or fat, we used 3D shape mapping to pinpoint exactly where the muscle changes, giving a much more detailed picture,” noted study coauthor Marjola Thanaj, a senior research fellow at the University of Westminster’s Research Centre for Optimal Health in London.   Her team will present their findings next week in Chicago at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). In the study, Thanaj and colleagues examined more than 61,000 MRI scans collected as part of the ongoing UK Biobank database. They also had detailed information on the Biobank participants’ physical measurements, medical histories and lifestyles.  Overall, this allowed the team to assess 86 different variables and track associations with changes in buttock muscle shape over time. Speaking in a RSNA news release, Thanaj reported that “people with higher fitness, as measured by vigorous physical activity and hand grip strength, had a greater gluteus maximus shape, while aging, frailty and long sitting times were linked to muscle thinning.” Men designated as…  read on >  read on >

Researchers are standing behind new data on how people’s posteriors reflect changes linked to aging and diabetes. Shrinkage or inflammation of the gluteus maximus muscles of the buttocks may reflect frailty, sitting time, fat deposition and diabetes risk, and these changes may occur differently among men and women, the British team said. “Unlike past studies that mainly looked at muscle size or fat, we used 3D shape mapping to pinpoint exactly where the muscle changes, giving a much more detailed picture,” noted study coauthor Marjola Thanaj, a senior research fellow at the University of Westminster’s Research Centre for Optimal Health in London.   Her team will present their findings next week in Chicago at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). In the study, Thanaj and colleagues examined more than 61,000 MRI scans collected as part of the ongoing UK Biobank database. They also had detailed information on the Biobank participants’ physical measurements, medical histories and lifestyles.  Overall, this allowed the team to assess 86 different variables and track associations with changes in buttock muscle shape over time. Speaking in a RSNA news release, Thanaj reported that “people with higher fitness, as measured by vigorous physical activity and hand grip strength, had a greater gluteus maximus shape, while aging, frailty and long sitting times were linked to muscle thinning.” Men designated as…  read on >  read on >