Whether online or at the grocery store check-out lane, it’s hard to avoid news of a celebrity’s dramatic weight loss and the speculation as to whether or not they are taking a new weight-loss medication.
Meanwhile, at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Daniel Bessesen, MD, writes a prescription for an older weight-loss medication for yet another disappointed patient. Most people struggling with weight cannot afford the newer medications that are providing dramatic weight loss for the stars, said Bessesen, a professor in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
“This is a very important medical advancement in probably the most common health problem people have that leads to a huge number of associated health problems like diabetes, arthritis and cancer. It is a problem that we've never had good medical treatments for,” Bessesen said of semaglutide, a diabetes drug (Ozempic) turned weight-loss aid (Wegovy). Tesla’s Elon Musk launched a national obsession when telling a reporter he used Wegovy to shed considerable pounds.
“Now, finally, we're going to have treatments that have greater effectiveness, but they're currently too expensive for most patients to use, and they're not covered by insurance. To me, that's the real story behind this, not whether or not Oprah uses them,” Bessesen said, referring to a recent Oprah Winfrey special aired on ABC targeting the new drugs titled “Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution."
The weight loss seen with semaglutide has spurred research across the country, including at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, to expand and improve upon the medications and reshape the practice of bariatric medicine. Bessesen shared more about the drugs and their impact in the edited Q&A below.