Patients regain most weight within two years of stopping GLP-1s; high-protein diet defeats cholera infection; borrowed mitochondria may ease nerve pain – Morning Medical Update

Patients regain most lost weight within two years of stopping GLP-1s

A study published in The BMJ confirms a concerning trend: once patients stop taking weight-loss medications, the weight and cardiometabolic benefits don’t last. Across 37 trials, people regained most of the lost weight within about two years of stopping treatment, even with newer GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide and tirzepatide. The takeaway for counseling: for many patients, these medications may need to be framed as long-term, chronic therapy rather than a short course.

A high-protein diet can defend against cholera infection

A study from UC Riverside and published in Cell Host and Microbe suggests what patients eat could blunt cholera infection. Diets rich in casein, the main protein found in milk and cheese, as well as wheat gluten, sharply reduced the bacteria’s ability to colonize the gut. High-fat diets didn’t significantly slow the infection and diets high in simple carbohydrates showed limited impact. The dairy and wheat gluten diets “virtually shut the pathogen out.”

“We saw up to 100-fold differences in the amount of cholera colonization as a function of diet alone,” said Ansel Hsiao, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and plant pathology at UC Riverside, and senior author of the study.

Borrowed mitochondria may ease nerve pain

National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded researchers report that support cells in peripheral nerves actually “loan out” mitochondria to sensory neurons — and that this energy sharing breaks down in diabetic and chemo-induced neuropathy. In mouse models, restoring healthy mitochondria from satellite glial cells reduced pain behaviors and helped small nerve fibers recover. The work, published in Nature, is very early, but it points to a new way of thinking about neuropathy treatment — not just blocking pain, but refueling tired nerves.