Recently the FDA approved the Wegovy (semaglutide) drug as a medical treatment for obesity. Weight loss professionals and health advocates are generally unsupportive of using medications for weight loss, preferring diet and exercise as the best long-term solution for losing weight. However, obesity experts believe that Wegovy is different. It’s as safe as a Jackpot Capital casino download, they say, and more effective than any weight loss drug that has yet reached the market.
Obesity
Between 1975 and 2016 the worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled. Obesity is a public health concern because obesity is one of the leading risk factors for premature death. In 2017 8% of global deaths were a directly attributed to obesity.
There are many cause of obesity but obesity is mostly caused by extended sedentary behavior, living in an environment that encourages and allows low levels of physical activity and consumption of food rich in fats, sugars, oils and starches.
Diets
There are dozens – hundreds – of different types of diets on the market. They range from calorie counting to limiting the intake of certain foods to forbidding some basic food groups entirely. One of the most successful food plans, Weight Watchers, assigns points to different foods and limits each person to a specific number of daily points based on their current weight and the amount of weight that they want to lose.
Other diets include low-carbohydrate and no-carbohydrate diets, diets that restrict fats, diets that try to recreate the way that our caveman ancestors lived and more. Some people find that they lose weight on one specific diet while others try multiple eating plans to no avail For some people, exercise is the key to weight loss success but that’s not true for everyone. A great way to succeed in weight loss is in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise, and the Healthy Weight Patches can help you reach your weight loss goals.
Drugs
Over the years different drugs have come out on the market with the aim of helping the weight loss process through pharmaceutical strategies. Some include Chitosan which is supposed to block fats and cholesterol from getting absorbed by your body, Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) which is said to help you feel full and green tea extract which, supporters say, curbs your appetite and raises calorie and math metabolism.
There are also prescription weight-loss drugs such as Bupropion-naltrexone (Contrave), Liraglutide (Saxenda), Orlistat (Xenical) and Phentermine-topiramate (Qsymia). Orlistat works by interfering with fat absorption and the other three decrease appetite and increase feelings of fullness.
Wegovy
Semaglutide, sold as Wegovy, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June. It is to be prescribed for clinically obese adults and is supposed to help with chronic weight management. Any individual with a BMI of at least 27 can be prescribed Wegovy provided that they have at least one weight-related ailment – high cholestoral, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.
Semaglutide has the same active ingredient that is used to treat type 2 diabetes. One injection a week lowers blood sugar which then can lead to weight loss, especially for patients who take the 1 mg-per-week dose as opposed to the lower .5-mg dose. A new 2.4 mg dose will also be on the market in the near future.
Trials
According to the drug’s manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, drug trials have shown that people who took 2.4 mg of semaglutide weekly, together with diet and exercise, lost significantly more weight than those were given placebo injections. Of those in the Semaglutide group, half of the participants lost at least 15 percent of their body weight. A third lost 20 percent.
Jennifer L. Kirby, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Virginia Health System commented that “The data is pretty impressive. We have a limited amount of tools in our toolbox when it comes to the treatment of overweight and obesity. The addition of semaglutide is excellent news.”
Why Wegovy?
W. Timothy Garvey, M.D., Butterworth Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and director of the UAB Diabetes Research Center says that none of the other FDA-approved weight loss drugs work as well as semaglutide. “The efficacy of [semaglutide], so far as we can see in clinical trials, is twice that of what we’ve seen with currently approved weight loss medications,” says Garvey.
Semaglutide was initially used to treat diabetes. It works by mimicking a natural hormone (GLP-1) that suppress appetite by acting centrally in the brain. When injected, semaglutide prompts the body to produce more insulin after eating so that blood sugar levels drop. People who feel fuller tend to choose foods that aren’t as calorically sense and, in general, eat less. Weight loss often accompanies use of GLP-1 drugs but taking 2.4 mg of semaglutide triggers a larger weight loss.
Magic Pill
Semaglutide may be a game changer but Garvey cautions that it’s not a magic pill. “It helps patients adhere to a reduced-calorie diet; it’s not a magic pill,” he said. “You still have to pay attention to lifestyle choices and keep up physical activity.” Garvey believes that the main benefit of semaglutide is that it makes it easier to stick with changes needed for weight loss.”
There are also side effects of the use of semaglutide including nausea, diarrhea, constipation, vomiting and stomach pain. Beginning on a lower dose and slowly working up to 2.4 mg may help mitigate these side effects.
Another downside of semaglutide is the cost which can run over $1000 a month – Medicaid does not help pay for it. But for many people, it’s worth the difficulties. “We know that overweight and obesity can worsen over 200 conditions, including joint disease, heart disease and many types of cancer,” says Kirby. “I see patients who have struggled with their weight for a long time and have been told repeatedly, ‘All you need to do is eat less and exercise.’ But those interventions [alone] only result in modest results for most patients. The rest really need extra help.”
