What started off as drugs to fight diabetes have found to be effective for weight loss, but be cautious.
In a recent presentation titled “Ozempic and the Truth about Weight Loss,” Brown discussed weight-loss drugs, the side effects, cultural issues with body image and many other topics.
The glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists are basically hormones that regulate your insulin level. These diabetes drugs date back to 2012. As research was done on them and a group of people that took them were followed, they saw a significant side effect was weight loss, Dr. Elisa Brown-Pruett said.
The Swedish company that marketed these drugs, Novo Nordisk, decided they could be a weight loss drug. It is a larger dose than for diabetes.
Weight loss can vary depending on which GLP-1 agaonists you use and your dose.
Studies have shown that all glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists can lead to weight loss of about 10.5 to 15.8 pounds when using liraglutide, an injectible weight loss drug.
Studies have found people using Semaglutide, an anti-diabetic medication and weight-loss drug and making lifestyle changes lost about 33.7 pounds compared to 5.7 pounds in those who didn’t use the drug, the presentation showed.
The pros include diabetes control, blood glucose/sugar and hemoglobin A1C control and weight loss. It’s not clear whether these benefits are from the drug or the weight loss, the presentation said.
Research has found that some drugs in these groups are correlated with lower risk of heart disease such as heart failure; lower risk of stroke; lower risk of kidney disease and improved blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
The cons are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain and hypoglycemia/dangerously low blood sugar. Also, incrased risk of thyroid cancer, pancreatitis; increased risk of or worsening of eating disorders; it’s linked with depression; and lifetime treatment vs. regaining the weight.
The weight loss does help with some people’s insulin sensitivity, but it’s the actual hormonal control of insulin.
“That’s what these drugs do. They control insulin either from the pancreas or how insulin is liberated by the liver from glucagon. They also will suppress your appetite. If you do lose weight, you secrete less insulin. Period. But the main way they work is they’re actually they actually mimic hormones that regulate insulin in our body,” Brown-Pruett said.
Mounjaro is still only for diabetes. It mimics two of the body’s hormones that control insulin.
Asked if losing weight helps control diabetes and maybe even stops it, Brown-Pruett said it’s hard to say definitively.
“That’s really hard to say because the effects of the drug in regulating insulin can’t be necessarily separated from their ability to decrease your appetite and blunt your hunger cues. It’s a side effect of it. We do know that many people who’ve chosen other weight loss methods, such as bariatric surgery, have been able to get off of their diabetes drugs — some of them. But there’s not a one to one because the person’s individual genetics and their metabolism and all those things are also a factor. But if you lose weight … many people will also have less insulin secretion, and that lower insulin secretion will make your insulin more effective, if you’re not hyperinsulinemic all the time,” Brown-Pruett said.
At her presentation, Brown-Pruett said she talked about diet, diet culture and the difference between weight and health.
“It’s not a direct correlation that being a larger bodied person means you’re unhealthy,” she said.
Obesity stats
>> 2 of 3 Americans are considered obese or overweight.
>> 42 percent meet the criteria for obesity up from 34 percent a decade ago.
>> 45 million Americans stated they were on a diet, according to a Centers for Disease Control study, although many people may not consider the way they eat a diet.
>> Obesity rates have increased over the decade despite increases in those who say they are dieting.
The diet business is a $72.6 billion industry including diet soft rinks, artificial sweeteners, the health club industry, commercial weight loss chains, retail meal replacements diet supplements, medical programs (physicians, hospitals/clinic programs, prescription diet drugs, bariatricians, weight loss surgeries), low-calorie dinner entrees and apps.
Source: Dr. Brown Pruett’s presentation titled “Ozempic and the Truth about Weight Loss.”
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