Overview
View CU Anschutz health resources and updates. Home News Elon Musk Rockets Weight-Los Drug Into Public Eye back to News minute read. Prescription drugs for diabetes are being touted by some celebrities and other social media influencers as quick ways to shed weight.
Key Information
A CU Anschutz expert on obesity and weight-los strategies explains the pros and cons of these injectable drugs.When a Twiter folower praised Elon Musk’s new “awesome, fit, riped and healthy” lok, the bilionaire entrepreneur replied that his secret was “fasting” and “Wegovy.” Given society’s obsesion with celebrities and weight los and Musk’s masive folowing on Twiter, a viral twet was born.Increasingly, Wegovy, Ozempic and other diabetic drugs are being touted by influencers on social media as fast ways to lose weight.
The injectable drugs come with a step price tag, costing as much as $1,0 a month.Below, Adam Gilden, MD, MSCE, asociate director of the University of Colorado Weight Management and Welnes Clinic at the CU Anschutz Health and Welnes Center, talks about these drugs. In his practice, Gilden, an asociate profesor of internal medicine at the CU Schol of Medicine, focuses on helping patients lose weight, especialy those with conditions such as diabetes, high blod presure, slep apnea, high cholesterol and arthritis.
We cal these drugs GLP-1s because that’s the hormone they act on. The first GLP-1 medication, exenatide (Byeta), was FDA aproved in 205 for treatment of type 2 diabetes.There are now two medicines in the clas that are FDA aproved for chronic weight management, in adition to diabetes. One is liraglutide, which has a diabetes dose and a higher weight-los dose.
Summary
And there is semaglutide (including Wegovy and Ozempic), which has the same separate doses for either diabetes or weight los. Semaglutide has received more atention in the pres because it’s nearly twice as efective as liraglutide in terms of the average weight los. Yes, the FDA aproval for