The fever-pitch hype round GLP-1 medicine like Ozempic and Mounjaro makes them sound like game-changing drugs, and for a lot of they’re — however for different sufferers, the expertise is completely underwhelming.
In an interview with the Associated Press, 38-year-old Danielle Griffin stated that though she was capable of get a prescription for Novo Nordisk’s weight reduction shot Wegovy — and even bought it covered by her insurance, which remains to be typically a battle — the medicine simply did not work for her.
“I’ve been on Wegovy for a yr and a half,” Griffin stated, “and have solely misplaced 13 kilos.”
Despite doing “the whole lot proper,” together with weight-reduction plan, exercising, and consuming a number of water, she’s had “no success” with the favored weight reduction injectable.
“It’s discouraging,” Giffin stated.
While there’s been scrutiny on a laundry list of side effects that may include glucagon-like peptide-1 medicine, which appear to work by mimicking the physique’s feeling of fullness, non-responsiveness of this kind hasn’t captured a lot consideration.
Obesity consultants informed the AP, nonetheless, that as much as 20 p.c — or one in each 5 sufferers — could not shed some pounds on the medicine in any respect.
Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an weight problems professional at Massachusetts General Hospital, informed the information wire that as a result of “totally different individuals have totally different responses,” these medicine will not work the identical for everybody who takes them.
From medications that stymie weight loss to variations in mind and intestine chemistry, a number of elements affect how individuals metabolize GLP-1s, the Mass General physician stated.
“[Obesity] is a illness that stems from the mind,” Stanford stated. “The dysfunction is probably not the identical.”
Endocrine specialist Jody Dushay of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center stated that she’s additionally seen individuals have points losing a few pounds with GLP-1s — although typically, she and her sufferers are capable of inform whether or not they will work inside just a few weeks.
Between non-responsiveness and undesirable gastrointestinal side effects like vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea, those that run into points with medicine like Wegovy typically really feel at wit’s finish, Dushay stated. There are loads of different choices, nonetheless, together with switching to a special GLP-1.
“I inform them: it isn’t recreation over,” the endocrinologist stated.
Indeed, Griffin informed the AP that she ultimately converted to Zepbound, the same drug made by Eli Lilly — and that inside simply three months, she’d misplaced seven kilos.
“I’m hoping it’s gradual and regular,” the lady stated.
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