Happy New Year!

It’s good to be back talking to all of you again. The New Year is a time of optimism, everything seems possible, and there’s an enthusiasm for achieving health goals. One thing many people want to do is to lose some weight. It seems appropriate to cover a couple of drugs that were recently approved by the FDA to treat obesity. They’re a pharmaceutical approach to weight loss, and they’ve gotten so much press I have to cover them.

You’ve probably seen the commercials for a pre-diabetes and diabetes medication called Ozempic. It also has a sister drug called Wegovy that was approved for use in teens. In at least two clinical trials, subjects who had weekly injections of the drug lost at least 15% or more of their body weight in 68 weeks. Those who were switched to placebo injections started to gain back the weight they lost. All subjects were supported with monthly consultations with dieticians to induce a 500-calorie reduction in food intake and to increase exercise levels. Markers for type 2 diabetes improved such as HbA1c and blood glucose.

Is this the be-all and end-all to the obesity epidemic? And exactly how does this drug work? I’ll cover that on Saturday.

What are you prepared to do today?