For years, Kim Reitz’s best wrestle with weight reduction was not shedding pounds, however protecting her physique from gaining what she misplaced or much more again.
The director of the emergency division at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest stated she tried a number of fad diets, all of which failed her, and even specifically formulated, excessive protein meals from Lehigh Valley Well being Community’s Weight Administration Heart. However even that solely labored for a restricted period of time.
“Buying the meals might be fairly costly. As quickly as I finished following the food regimen and buying by way of the workplace I gained the load again,” Reitz stated.
That cycle of weight reduction and regain resulted in 2022 when she was prescribed the load loss drugs Wegovy. Two years on, due to the medication in tandem with elevated train and tweaks to what she ate, she has stored the load off.
Reitz, 46, of Washington Township, is only one of many throughout the U.S. in the previous few years who’ve skilled breakthroughs of their weight reduction journey due to newer weight reduction medication like Wegovy and Zepbound. These drugs gained public consciousness and acceptance due to social media and superstar testimonials and adjusted the narrative round weight reduction drugs.
Dr. Angela Magdaleno, a doctor of weight problems drugs and endocrinology at LVHN, stated there have been already weight reduction medication out there however typically sufferers didn’t need them or weren’t capable of take them resulting from contraindications.
“I feel for a very long time weight reduction medicines had a nasty repute. I don’t know if it was [that] sufferers felt that it was an inexpensive manner out or that they shouldn’t use medicines. I feel a few of it needed to do with the medicines that have been out there like phentermine and orlistat. There’s quite a lot of regarding unwanted side effects or contraindications for blood strain, which quite a lot of sufferers have as effectively. It actually restricted the sufferers who have been utilizing medicines,” Magdaleno stated.
However issues are totally different now; Wegovy, Zepbound, Saxenda and different weight reduction medication are prescribed at each LVHN and St. Luke’s College Well being Community by way of every community’s medical weight reduction packages and weight reduction facilities. And Kate Boardman, director of Weight Administration Companies for St. Luke’s, stated as a rule sufferers are coming in to request these drugs
Kim Reitz hikes a path Wednesday, March 6, 2024, in Emmaus. Reitz is a Lehigh Valley Well being Community nurse who for years struggled with protecting weight off after she’d lose it. However two years in the past, she began taking Wegovy after going to LVHN’s weight reduction clinic and misplaced 55 kilos, which she has stored off. (April Gamiz/The Morning Name)
“Two years in the past sufferers would have been immune to even take a drugs. Throughout the previous 12 months we had seen sufferers coming in requesting the remedy with a way of urgency now we have not seen earlier than on this discipline,” Boardman stated.
Boardman stated the heavy hitters in weight reduction drugs are Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound. Whereas not equivalent, these drugs assist individuals management weight achieve by slowing the pace that meals leaves the abdomen, and lowering urge for food.
Wegovy is a drugs referred to as semaglutide that’s formulated and accepted by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration for the remedy of weight problems. Zepbound, also called tirzepatide, is the latest of those weight reduction drugs, receiving FDA approval in November. Wegovy and Zepbound usually are administered as weekly injections.
Saxenda, or liraglutide, is the oldest of those newer weight reduction medication, and was accepted by the FDA in 2016. Although Saxenda’s results are just like these of Wegovy and Zepbound, it’s taken day by day.
Wegovy and Zepbound are the load loss variations of Ozempic and Mounjaro, respectively, comparable drugs which can be accepted to decrease blood sugar for sufferers who’ve or susceptible to kind 2 diabetes.
There are drawbacks to those drugs, nevertheless, and Magdaleno stated value is one in every of them. If sufferers can’t get insurance coverage to cowl the remedy, the price might be as excessive as $1,000 per 30 days.
“We are able to’t change if the insurance coverage firm will cowl it or not. Some insurances simply don’t cowl weight reduction medicines,” Magdaleno stated.
One other is that these medication could require sufferers to make use of them for prolonged durations or for the remainder of their life. Like those that begin fad diets to shed some pounds with no intent of protecting it up as soon as their weight reduction aim is reached, individuals who cease taking Wegovy, Zepbound and Saxenda will rebound, with most gaining the load again.
“There’s no magic tablet. There’s no, ‘I’m going to take this for 3 months and it’ll magically keep off.’,” Magdaleno stated.
Reitz stated due to provide chain points final 12 months she spent 4 months off Wegovy or different weight reduction drugs.
“I gained about 5 kilos. I didn’t really feel good,” Reitz stated. “I wasn’t able to be off the remedy.”
She stated now she is taking a small weekly upkeep dose of Zepbound and he or she is feeling higher. She stated the medication additionally helps her regulate her blood sugar, which is an enormous plus contemplating that she has a household historical past of diabetes.
The opposite limitations are that these medication are meant for use along with food regimen and train, and there’s a restrict on longitudinal knowledge, Magdaleno stated.
“I feel it’s a brand new period of medical weight reduction. I actually suppose it’s altering the best way we deal with sufferers with weight problems. I feel it’s wonderful for the precise affected person however I feel for most people I’d say warning, don’t simply take this drugs. See the physician,” she stated.
She stated weight reduction is complicated and may contain a number of components; it’s why LVHN’s medical weight reduction program has physicians, nurse practitioners, behavioral well being therapists, registered dieticians, train physiologists and life-style coordinators working collectively as a multidisciplinary group to assist sufferers.
“We deal with weight problems as a illness — accurately handled. Weight problems is a continual, relapsing, multifactorial illness that requires multidisciplinary remedy,” Magdaleno stated.
Boardman, of St. Luke’s, stated for sufferers who want extra superior remedy, both resulting from extreme continual weight problems or a historical past of relapses, there are different interventions like meal planning and bariatric surgical procedure. She stated for treating extreme continual weight problems, bariatric surgical procedure continues to be the most effective, most time-proven technique, but it surely all relies on the affected person.
“Treating weight problems requires a complete and multifaceted strategy that acknowledges many, many obstacles and our clinicians will say that there’s a organic, there’s physiological, there’s social and there’s environmental components; it’s multifactorial,” Boardman stated.
However Reitz stated for her, the remedy in tandem with food regimen and train adjustments have been the most effective remedy.
“I’m very proud of the remedy. I’ve advisable it to many individuals and I’ve seen many individuals after me who’ve been very profitable,” Reitz stated. “I’ve no regrets about what I did. Being a nurse, we take drugs if now we have hypertension and we take drugs if now we have migraines. I had an issue with weight problems and I took drugs and it helped me.”