For almost a decade, Julie Lord’s evenings followed the same pattern: a glass of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc that would always inevitably turn into a whole bottle.
It had not always been that way. Julie, 56, from Leeds, had a successful, well-paid job in the pharmaceutical industry and said she barely had time to drink while working.
But when she took early retirement in 2017, alcohol crept into her daily routine – and stayed there.
And it wasn’t until she started a new medication for an unrelated health condition that she discovered she could cut back.
“Everyone knew I liked a drink,” she says. ‘I drank because it was fun. I would find a reason to open a bottle – whether it was because I had friends over or because I was sunbathing in the garden. Before I knew it, I had gone through the whole story.”
Julie never saw it as a problem, she says, because she had no underlying health problems and stayed active – a keen hill walker who describes herself as ‘super healthy’.
But her GP disagreed, warning her that she was drinking at harmful levels and referring her to support groups to help her cut down.
For almost a decade, Julie Lord’s evenings followed the same pattern: a glass of Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc that would always inevitably turn into a whole bottle
The NHS recommends drinking no more than 14 units of alcohol per week – around six medium glasses of white wine.
Research shows that drinking more regularly can increase the risk of liver disease, heart problems and even cancer.
But Julie drank about 70 units a week. Yet she was resistant to seeking help.
“I didn’t want to go to a support group and talk about my problems,” she says. ‘I didn’t drink because I had problems or was sad. I drink because I’m happy and the binges happen when I’m having too much fun.’
Julie has tried several times to reduce her consumption. She tried to wait until evening before opening a bottle. She even tried non-alcoholic wine.
However, she says she would always fall back into her old routine.
“But I would talk myself out of it. I’d think, ‘You’re going to die anyway – you might as well enjoy life.’ I had no health problems, so I assumed it wasn’t really a problem.’
Then the solution to Julie’s binge drinking came out of nowhere.
The NHS recommends drinking no more than 14 units of alcohol per week. But Julie drank about 70 units a week
Julie was 6 feet tall and weighed about 25 pounds. She had gained weight during menopause and wanted to lose a few pounds before it crept further.
After a friend recommended it, she paid £53 for a month’s supply of the weight-loss drug Wegovy and started the weekly injections in May 2026.
Studies have shown that the shot, also known as semaglutide, can reduce weight by as much as 15 percent.
Like the other revolutionary slimming shot Mounjaro, it suppresses appetite by releasing artificial hormones that convince the body that it is full.
More than 2.5 million Britons now pay for weight-loss drugs and in the past two months two weight-loss pills, the Wegovy pill and Foundayo, have been launched in Britain.
What happened next surprised Julie. Within a week of taking Wegovy, her long-standing craving for wine virtually disappeared.
“I couldn’t believe it,” she says. ‘It made me virtually stop drinking within a week. It was a miracle. I literally just quit. I can’t explain it. I didn’t want it anymore, I didn’t want it anymore, I didn’t buy it anymore. I just didn’t need it anymore.
‘The first week I had a few glasses because the bottle was open and I had finished it. Then I stopped buying wine. I realized that I used to just drink. The craving just disappeared.”
Within a week of taking Wegovy, Julie’s long-standing craving for wine virtually disappeared
Her habit of drinking a bottle every day dropped to barely half a glass, she says, and the ritual that once defined her evenings disappeared with it.
“Before Wegovy, I thought about what I did later because I could have a glass of wine,” she says. Instead, she started meeting friends for coffee instead of wine, and was able to drive herself home in the evening.
The change also saved her the approximately £70 a week she had been spending on Sauvignon Blanc.
Experts say Julie is far from alone in this experience. There is increasing evidence that weight-loss medications can help reduce alcohol cravings.
In May, the same month Julie started using Wegovy, a groundbreaking study was published in the esteemed medical journal Lancet, which looked at the impact Wegovy has on alcohol consumption.
The Danish study showed that Wegovy patients had 40 percent fewer heavy drinking days than those who did not take the injection. These patients also saw their alcohol consumption drop by approximately 70 percent.
Studies have suggested that weight-loss drugs may have a similar effect on other pleasure-seeking behaviors, such as smoking, gambling and even shopping.
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 gives us pleasure, whether that’s food, alcohol, cigarettes, socializing or sex,’ says Dr Alexis Bailey, a neuropharmacologist at City St George’s, University of London.
“The leading theory is that the injections help dampen the dopamine spikes that addicts experience.”
However, despite this surprising positive effect, Julie discovered that Wegovy did not have the effect she had initially hoped for: she lost less weight than she expected.
After two months on the medication, Julie had only lost about half a stone – not enough, she felt, to justify the cost of continuing. So she stopped.
However, within six weeks of giving it up, the craving for alcohol crept back, and so did wine.
Julie drank another bottle every day, although she says it took her several hours to get through it rather than one drink.
Determined not to lose the progress she’d made, Julie started Wegovy again last week – this time with her drinking rather than her weight as the target. She says she can already feel the difference coming back, while her desire to reach for a glass fades again within days.
This time, Julie says, she plans to be in it for the long haul.
“I like to have fun and live my best life,” she says. ‘I just want to have more control over how much I drink. These injections are the first thing I’ve found that can do that. And in the long run, they save me money because I have to buy a lot less Oyster Bay.”
