The pros and cons of popular weight loss drugs

CHARLOTTE — You’ve likely heard of the drug Ozempic and its weight loss powers — it’s the latest diet craze and people are running to doctors to get their hands on it.

But what is it and who is the drug meant for?

Ozempic is for the treatment of diabetes and is in a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists.

“GLP-1 is a hormone that everybody has, and it is secreted when you eat,” said Dr. Cressent Pressly, medical director of CoreLife Novant Health.

Dr. Pressly says the drug essentially mimics that hormone, telling the brain after you’ve eaten to go ahead and start breaking down sugar.

The first drug of this kind came out in 2005, and Ozempic came out in 2017.

“It worked beautifully, and people were losing weight -- 12% of their body weight, 15% of their body weight, sometimes even more,” Dr. Pressly said.

In 2021, it was approved for the treatment of obesity under the name Wegovy. Same drug, different name.

Wegovy quickly flew off shelves and that drove people to use Ozempic (officially approved for diabetes) for weight loss. That’s also about the time when many of us started hearing about it.

“The medications are very, very effective and necessary for people who truly have the disease of obesity,” Pressly explained. “So, anyone with a BMI greater than 27 and comorbidity or other disease related to weight. Or a BMI over 30 who have tried and tried to lose weight through lifestyle change, and they have really tried for at least three months.”

Although it’s tempting, the drug is not for people who have gained some weight over time and want to slim down, especially without trying other lifestyle changes.

There are side effects such as nausea and a constant feeling of fullness. The drugs are also expensive and need to be taken under the supervision of medical professionals.

“If you enter Ozempic in Google, you will be fed advertisement after advertisement of websites that will do a quick assessment -- you tell them what you need to tell them to get the med and it will send it to your house,” Dr. Pressly said.

She says a lot of these websites are using medication that is similar to Wegovy but it is not actually Wegovy and it’s not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Pressly says there have been overdoses, and in her professional medical opinion, it can be dangerous.

Over time, GLP-1 drugs have become more effective with fewer side effects. In fact, there are other, newer ones on the market now.

This class of drugs is also being studied for positive impacts on cardiovascular health for those with the disease of obesity, which Dr. Pressly stressed is a chronic disease, not a character flaw.

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