Who do you prescribe appetite-reducing injections for?
The theoretical indication of the semaglutide family is for those who have a BMI (weight divided by their height in meters squared) greater than 27 with diseases associated with obesity or for anyone over 30.
Why do they stop hunger?
Because they are molecules, transformed by the industry, that replicate two hormones: one that our intestine secretes, GLP1, and another, gastrointestinal, GIP, which controls various processes related to hunger and, in the case of diabetics, with sugar.
Do you lose weight just because you reduce hunger and eat less food?
The industry modifies these molecules, which naturally have a half-life of just minutes, so that you can inject them once a week or every day.
And what effect do they have on the patient?
They reduce appetite, and hunger is a relevant variable in treating obesity, so they modify the patient’s relationship with food. And, in addition, they regulate what happens to your body after eating, and in this way improve sugar control.
How do they stop our appetite?
After eating, the body needs to be ready to digest food better and this drug acts in three ways: it slows down the emptying of the stomach, stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin and stops the feeling of hunger in the brain. And to treat diabetes, the relevant effect is the second: it increases insulin secretion.
What does the medicated patient perceive?
You lose appetite, but at first it may happen that the medication, by slowing down the stomach, makes you suffer from nausea and vomiting; That’s why we increase the doses little by little. The effect on sugar is achieved with a dose of 1 mg of semaglutide; and lose weight, with the 2.4.
Does it generate addiction, dependency…?
No, but if you stop injecting it, you will feel hungry again and regain the excess weight you had. But that does not mean that it hooks or causes rebound. You don’t gain more weight when you stop taking it than you had before taking the injection.
Is there anyone who doesn’t tolerate it?
To avoid this initial nausea, we increase the dose progressively: we start with 0.25 mg, 0.5, 1… But, in fact, there are also those who do not tolerate it. The most relevant thing is that this drug is giving the obese person back part of the control over their disease. And the truth is that they appreciate it.
Is it enough to cure obesity?
You are less hungry and can thus better negotiate your relationship with food; but the drug is only part of the treatment: it controls hunger, yes; but, in the end, you must manage your diet better: you must know, for example, if what you eat contains many calories or few; schedules; habits…
Does it help fight obesity, but is it not enough to overcome it?
Let’s see: it is not that the obese person has a wrong behavior and only by taking the drug sees the light and corrects it, but it is someone who biologically suffers from an inappropriate appetite that leads him to have an inappropriate behavior, and taking the drug gives him the opportunity to improve it.
Semaglutide gives you a chance to correct your obesity, but not cure it?
If you do not correct this unhealthy relationship with food, when you stop taking the drug, you return to the starting situation. And obesity is in the category of diseases generated by an unhealthy lifestyle and can cause hypertension, type II diabetes, cholesterol…
Aren’t they associated in some way?
If I stop taking diabetes medication, my blood sugar goes up; and if I stop semaglutide, I regain the lost weight. Obesity, after all, is a disease of heterogeneous causes: if you are hungry due to emotional disorders and you do not correct them, when you stop treatment you will suffer weight regain.
But does medication change the rules of the game against obesity?
Obesity did not have a widespread effective treatment, and this makes it possible to address it, and thus the associated pathologies: diabetes, cardiovascular, sleep apnea… Obesity, after all, is a tree in which many branches become ill and also mental health. Of course, that can be cause and effect.
Isn’t the treatment very expensive?
The obese diabetes patient has Ozempic financed by Social Security for 4 euros per month. And there are others that use the same molecule or similar ones that are not funded, such as Saxenda, for obese people, which costs about 140. There is liraglutide for 300 a month or Wegovy, now only in the US, although for 1,300 dollars a month .
They are not popular prices.
That is why I advocate that they be made cheaper for the general public and public health, and thus the entire society will benefit from our combating the obesity pandemic.
