Dhruv Khullar

But she decided to enroll in a nearby clinical trial that was studying whether GLP-1 medications like Ozempic could help people with alcohol addiction.

Every week, researchers blindfolded her and injected her with a solution, either Ozempic or a placebo.

Within weeks, Mary lost her taste for beer.

She switched to white wine, and then she stopped drinking altogether.

Many people talk about Ozempic as getting rid of the food noise inside their heads, those intrusive, unwanted, repetitive thoughts about eating.

For Mary, it cleared out alcohol noise.

it started to moderate her desire for drinking.

It turned what was an overpowering emotional response into something that could be seen from a distance.

Suddenly, she had the mental space to make changes in her life that she'd long wanted to.

She started exercising.

She improved her diet.

She ended a difficult relationship.

People know how much GLP-1s affect your body, she told me.

I don't think they realize how much they affect your mind.

Now, as a doctor, I have long wished that we had more to offer people who are struggling with an addiction.

And hearing Mary's story, it's hard to overstate just how striking it was.

GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide 1, was first discovered way back in the 1980s.

Scientists thought that it might be helpful to manage diabetes, but because the naturally occurring version of the molecule broke down within minutes, it was hard to turn into a drug.

The big break didn't come until years later, when a scientist who was studying chela monsters, of all things, found that the lizard's venom contained a similar peptide, and that peptide could hang around for hours.

His discovery catalyzed what would become the GLP-1 revolution.