Sally Love has always enjoyed a drink – but, like many, it was during the Covid pandemic that her alcohol intake began to spiral.
At the beginning of 2020, the 45-year-old had just launched a business with her husband Richard: A mobile bar, housed in a vintage horse box, that catered to weddings.
But when lockdown hit, Sally found that, with little to fill the time, she was turning to booze.
‘Every day, whenever Boris Johnson would appear on the TV to give an update on the pandemic at those press conferences, I’d make a gin and tonic,’ says the mother-of-two, who also has two stepchildren.
‘Before, I would never have drunk at home during the day, but it didn’t seem to count during the pandemic.’
And when restrictions finally eased and Sally returned to work, her drinking didn’t stop – if anything, it worsened.
Surrounded by alcohol at the weddings where she worked, she would unwind by finishing off open bottles left behind at the bar.
She believes she was never addicted, but the volume she drank left her feeling physically unwell and emotionally low.
She also began to pile on the pounds. At one point, Sally, who is 5ft 6in, weighed nearly 15st (95kg), meaning she was, according to the NHS, obese.
‘I was in constant pain from a back injury I’d sustained a few years before, my mood was incredibly low, and I was overweight,’ says Sally.
‘The drinking just made all of this worse. In the day, I’d do my best to eat well, but the moment I had a glass of wine in the evening, I was instantly snacking on cheese, chocolate and crisps. And then the next day I’d feel terrible about myself.’
It was on a holiday in Majorca, Spain, last year, when Sally realised she needed to make a change.
At one point, Sally Love, who is 5ft 6in, weighed nearly 15st (95kg), meaning she was, according to the NHS , obese
‘I remember going to bed, having had a few drinks and big meal, and feeling absolutely dreadful about what I was doing to my body,’ she says.
‘I was scrolling through social media on my phone in bed when I came across a TikTok video about Mounjaro – I found an online pharmacy selling it, ordered it that night and began taking it the next week.’
Mounjaro, also called tirzepatide, is a revolutionary weekly weight-loss injection that can help obese patients lose as much as a fifth of their body weight.
The jab, which is known as a GLP-1 drug, works by tricking the body into thinking it is full. More than 1.5 million patients in the UK are now paying for private Mounjaro prescriptions, as well as a similar drug called Wegovy.
And, increasingly, many are experiencing a surprising effect of GLP-1 drugs: They no longer want to drink alcohol.
Sally says this is exactly what happened to her. Not only did the medicine slash the amount of food she ate, its effect on her drinking was immediate.
‘Within one week of beginning the drug, I realised I’d lost any desire to drink or snack,’ she says. ‘It was such a strange feeling, and it’s still quite hard to describe. But it’s as though that nagging voice in my head that was previously there telling me to have a glass of wine or gin just disappeared. It’s been ten months since I started Mounjaro, and I haven’t had a drop to drink. When I go out for dinner, all I’ll drink is water, coffee or lime and sodas. And I haven’t had any alcohol cravings at all.’
The drug has helped Sally slim down – she currently weighs a healthy ten stone. She works out in the gym three times a week, has created a TikTok account (@sally_iv_got_this) to document her progress, and says she has never been happier.
‘I feel like I’ve got my life back,’ she says. ‘My daughters have noticed how much more confident I am. My pain has even gone down massively. I had no idea that Mounjaro would have this effect on my drinking.’ At present, the NHS cannot prescribe GLP-1 drugs to treat addiction. Even when purchased privately, the jabs can only be given to those patients who are classed as severely overweight.
However, experts say that could soon change – with some now calling for GLP-1 drugs to be offered to slim patients struggling with alcohol addiction.
Sally currently weighs a healthy ten stone. She works out in the gym three times a week, has created a TikTok account (@sally_iv_got_this) to document her progress, and says she has never been happier
‘There has never been an effective drug treatment for alcohol addiction – until now,’ says Dr Maurice O’Farrell, a Dublin-based weight loss expert, who previously worked at an addiction clinic.
‘GLP-1 drugs are the best weapon against this problem I’ve come across in my career. I think there is a really strong argument for offering these jabs to people struggling with alcohol addiction, regardless of their weight.
‘Alcohol abuse is something that is normalised in our society, and these drugs could change that.’
The need for better treatments to tackle excessive alcohol consumption is undeniable. NHS guidelines advise no more than 14 units a week – roughly six pints of beer or ten small glasses of wine – yet around a quarter of British adults exceed this.
Nearly a fifth admit to binge-drinking in the past week, defined as consuming more than eight units in a single session. More than 320,000 people are admitted to hospital each year with alcohol-related conditions, and over 10,000 die – mostly from liver disease. Deaths linked to alcohol have risen steadily since the pandemic, reaching a record high last year. Regular drinking is also a known risk factor for several cancers.
Those calling for the use of GLP-1 drugs to treat alcohol addiction are supported by a growing body of scientific research. One Irish study, published earlier this year, found that patients taking Mounjaro reduced their weekly alcohol intake by three-quarters. Studies even suggest that the jabs appear to help patients kick other addictive behaviours including smoking and gambling.
In April, a major review of more than a dozen GLP-1 studies, published in the medical journal Endocrinology, concluded that the medication reliably decreased alcohol consumption and prevented patients with alcohol addiction from relapsing.
Why exactly GLP-1 drugs have this effect is still a mystery. The drugs cause weight loss by mimicking a hormone released by the pancreas when the stomach is full, suppressing appetite.
One Irish study, published earlier this year, found that patients taking Mounjaro reduced their weekly alcohol intake by three-quarters
But many experts believe that the injections have the unintended consequence of suppressing the production of dopamine – the feel-good chemical the brain produces in response to pleasurable experiences. ‘Our brains produce dopamine in response to anything that brings us pleasure, whether that’s food, alcohol, cigarettes, socialising or sex,’ says Dr Alexis Bailey, a neuropharmacologist at City St George’s university in London.
‘It’s crucial for human survival – if we didn’t get pleasure from eating, we might not seek out food, and if we didn’t enjoy sex, then there wouldn’t be any motivation to procreate.
‘But often our brains can overproduce dopamine in response to certain activities, like drinking or gambling. Then the body starts to crave this release of dopamine. That’s how addiction occurs.
‘The leading theory is that GLP-1 injections helps dampen these dopamine surges that addicts experience.’
One Mounjaro patient who says the drug radically changed his drinking habits is Steve Murray, 71, from Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire. He started taking the jabs in November last year to help lose weight he’d gained following spinal surgery.
The former police officer says that, until then, alcohol had been a big part of his life.
‘I’ve always loved a pint,’ says Steve. ‘I’ve played rugby all my life, and going to the pub with the boys after the match and drinking six or seven beers was something I did often.’
But the moment Steve started Mounjaro, his desire to drink disappeared. ‘I still go the pub but once I’ve had one pint, I don’t want any more,’ says Steve. ‘Early on, I’d order a second, and then just not finish it, as I just didn’t get any pleasure out of it. These days I’m quite happy drinking a coffee or a water.
‘I didn’t even know the drug had this effect before I started taking it. My friends are always asking whether anything’s wrong when they see I’m not drinking. But I feel great and I’ve lost three stone. Cutting out the pints almost certainly helped with that.’
It is unclear when private doctors or the NHS will be able to use the drugs to treat alcohol addiction. ‘There’s plenty of evidence that these drugs help reduce alcohol cravings, but that doesn’t mean the NHS will agree to prescribe them for this purpose yet,’ says Dr Madusha Peiris, a neuroscientist at Queen Mary University of London and founder of the weight-loss supplement Elcella.
‘Before GLP-1s can be classed as addiction drugs, there needs to be large randomised control trials that prove they are safe and effective for patients who are not overweight or obese. And it’s still unclear what size dose patients should take. If a patient is a healthy body weight, would it be dangerous for them to take the same size dose as an obese patient? Would a micro-dose have the same impact on alcohol cravings? These questions could take a few years to answer.’
There are also concerns that prescribing GLP-1 injections to patients with addiction issues – which are usually associated with poor mental health – could spark an increase in eating disorders.
The UK Addiction Treatment Centres group (UKAT), which runs several rehab centres, says it has reservations about using the drugs for this reason.
Zaheen Ahmed, director of therapy at UKAT, said weight-loss drugs were being used to treat alcoholism in the US, successfully so far. ‘However, at this moment in time, we do feel that more time and research is required before we’re prepared to take that step,’ he said.
‘So far this year, 60 per cent of the clients we’ve treated for an eating disorder have revealed to us during their treatment that they have been misusing weight-loss jabs like Wegovy. Until there is more regulation and understanding around the strength that these jabs have, our fear is that we will see an astronomical rise in people suffering with eating disorders and body dysmorphia.’
Some slim patients struggling with alcohol are already finding ways to access GLP-1s.
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One woman with a healthy BMI of 22 who spoke to The Mail on Sunday said she managed to buy Wegovy online to help combat her excessive drinking by lying about her height – making it appear that she was overweight.
The 46-year-old – who asked to remain anonymous – said: ‘I didn’t expect it to work, but they instantly approved my request and started sending me the jabs.’
The mother-of-one says the impact on her drinking was near-instantaneous. ‘From the very first, lowest dose, I lost all desire to drink,’ she said, adding that she had not lost any weight because she was on a low dose.
Ultimately, many experts believe the benefits of taking GLP-1s to combat over-drinking – or any other form of addiction – far outweigh the risks.
‘Almost everyone struggles with some form of addiction, whether that’s someone who can’t help reaching for a chocolate biscuit or a heavy smoker,’ says Dr O’Farrell.
‘A lot of this is not our fault. For most of human history, we have been hunter-gatherers and food has been a scarcity. Today, there is essentially an infinite number of calories we can consume, and an endless list of ways to get a hit of dopamine, like from booze.
‘These drugs could potentially be the answer to this very modern problem.
‘So often, in the discussion around addiction, people say that you can’t cure addicts because you can’t change human nature. But that’s exactly what these injections can do.’