The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published an article on the impact of a weight loss drug on OSA, which to no surprise resulted in weight loss and decreased sleep breathing events.
While the information is encouraging for very obese patients (average 75 pounds overweight in this study), the reporting on the study is very misleading as to suggest the drug itself has a special property to decrease breathing events in the upper airway.
I perused the whole journal article and found no such information to suggest anything other than weight loss leads to decreased severity of OSA—a fact described in the scientific literature dating back perhaps a century. The authors surmise in the Introduction that weight loss is what they are testing to see how much decrease in breathing events might occur.
The average weight loss was more than 30 pounds, shedding almost half of the obesity in these patients, resulting in about 50% reduction in sleep breathing events.
What’s not highlighted in media reporting are the common side-effects associated with this drug that would certainly prevent many individuals from long term use. Judging by the data, it appears to 20 to 40% of the participants reported prominent digestive problems.