CU Anschutz In The News

“The results seen with tirzepatide are the best seen so far with any anti-obesity medication and are similar to results seen at one year with bariatric surgery,” Adam Gilden, MD, an associate professor and the associate director of the weight management and wellness clinic at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, told Everyday Health last month when the findings were published. Dr. Gilden wasn’t involved in the recent study.

There’s no question that eating highly processed, calorically dense, and nutrient deficient foods like fast food and convenience foods has contributed to the obesity crisis, along with the drastic reduction of daily physical activity, says Bonnie T. Jortberg, PhD, RD, an associate professor in the department of family medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, who was not involved in this study.

Compounded versions of salt-based semaglutide haven’t been studied in rigorous clinical trials to determine whether they’re safe or effective, says Adam Gilden, MD, an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora who treats people with obesity and diabetes.

All of the medications approved in the last decade have a good track record of safety so far, says Adam Gilden, MD, an associate professor and obesity researcher at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. These newer drugs either combine medicines that have good safety records when used individually or those that have been used for a long time to manage type 2 diabetes before gaining traction as obesity treatments.

Certain alternative medicines can do more harm than good, according to panelist Prateeti Khazanie, MD, who specializes in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology at the UCHealth Heart Failure Clinic at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Colorado. Dr. Khazanie shared the story of a patient who was drinking herbal tea, which happened to contain a lot of licorice root. Too much licorice can lower a person’s potassium levels and disrupt normal heart function.

And if you experience more serious symptoms, such as wheezing, chest discomfort or pain, or shortness of breath, see your doctor right away, says Fernando Holguin, MD, professor of medicine and director of the asthma clinical research program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Those symptoms are more commonly linked to other complications, such as pneumonia and asthma.

“The report is concerning,” says Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH, a pediatric and infectious disease specialist and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus. “Measles was declared eliminated from the United States in 2000.”