How Ozempic, other weight-loss drugs are “changing medicine”

we try and mostly we fail to lose those 
pounds that have left some seven in 10   Americans overweight but as you've seen in all 
those TV commercials including on this network   there's a new class of drugs that could be a 
game changer Susan Spencer looks into the pros   and cons what goes through your mind when 
you see yourself at that weight a totally   different person 44-year-old LaQuita Clark says 
memories of being overweight and ridiculed go   back to middle school I remember sitting on 
the school steps with a group of my friends   and just a group of other kids walking by just 
oh my God you're so fat o it it was very hurtful   that was my heaviest weight about 250 lbs over 
the years Clark a nurse in Nashville Tennessee   tried everything from fad dieting to kick boxing 
nothing worked it was almost like like torture   because of that relationship that I had with the 
food it's like these are things that I love I'm   eating things that I love and um it's giving me 
Comfort at the moment so why why I change that   there's one dose in each package actually this is 
a month's worth but last June everything changed   so what you do is you open it up when diagnosed 
as pre-diabetic she was prescribed Ozempic with   one small injection a week her health improved 
and something else happened too when were you at   your heaviest what were you and how much weight 
have you actually lost since starting this drug   the heaviest weight that I been is 250 lb right 
now I'm at 164 that's life changing tell me in   a nutshell how do these drugs work so these 
drugs are in a class of medicines that sign   signal fullness to the brain and regulate blood 
sugar Dr Rekha Kumar is chief medical officer at   found the reality is is that people don't fail 
diets diets fail people the weight loss app that   LaQuita Clark uses to receive her care and to 
get her Ozempic so if I'm taking one of these   drugs I will know when it's time to stop eating 
or what so it's really amazing to see it when it   works and people will say that it's the first time 
they felt normal or it's the first time they felt   full wow an obesity specialist she helped oversee 
early Trials of glp-1 medications glp-1s include Ozempic and Mounjaro used for diabetes and 
Wegovy and Zepbound approved for weight loss   on average people lose 10 to 20% of their their 
body weight in the first year for many of the   roughly 74% of Americans who are overweight 
or obese that is almost unimaginable this is   a scientific breakthrough and not just because of 
weight control but because of cardiovascular risk   reduction treating diabetes people are actually 
getting healthier and and that's the point of   medicine it isn't just to be thinner but clearly 
being thinner is what's causing all the buzz it's   all over social media people are documenting their 
Journeys they're injecting on Instagram showing   other people how to do it doesn't this concern you 
definitely a lot of it concerns me I saw what's   most concerning we're seeing people want to get 
a hold of these medicines that don't need them at   all people trying to fit into dresses and wanting 
to lose the vanity weight and that's not really   what these were made for what are some of the 
most unusual places that you've heard of people   being able to to get these drugs the hair salon 
oh come on yeah one of my colleagues forwarded   me an email from her hair salon basically saying 
like come get a blow dry and get your Ozempic but   the hair salon isn't the only place where drugs 
like Ozempic are making an impression this is   certainly not escaped wall Street's attention 
definitely not definitely not Simeon Siegel is   a senior analyst at BMO Capital markets he says 
glp-1 drugs could be a gold mine for investors in   terms of one product that had the potential to 
affect this many Industries have you ever seen   anything like this well that's so I don't know the 
numbers but I wonder if the iPhone the iPhone do   you think this could have as big an impact as the 
iPhone well if it hits 40% of the people if if at   the end of the day if this becomes something that 
is as widely accessible as conversations can bring   it to it should have a very large impact with 
people thinner he envisions a ripple of effect   a potential boom in athleisure wear even in gym 
memberships it's sort of intuitive that Ozempic   might be the death knell for gyms who needs 
a gym my hypothesis with anecdotal evidence   is when someone who hasn't been fit becomes fit 
starts becoming fit they change their life to   make sure they're protecting and truly Being Fit 
And so instead of canceling the gym membership   they would tend to sign up yeah he says analysts 
even blue Sky about a big boost for the airlines   since lighter passengers could mean lower costs 
but all this depends on the drugs being widely   available which currently is far from a given so 
the biggest problem with these medicines right   now is access and there are people paying out 
of pocket that how much sometimes up to $1,200   a month so right now we're seeing maybe 30% of 
the time we're seeing coverage of these medicines   which is quite low considering we said 70% of 
the population might qualify yeah it used to be   that what was the saying you can't be too rich or 
too thin now you can't be thin without being rich   it seems that way Beyond cost there's the issue 
of side effects like an upset stomach sometimes   severe but the big lingering question about glp-1s 
what do we know about the long-term effects of it   so I think that's a a concern that we don't have 
a hundred years of data we have 20 years of data   if taken purely for weight loss how long do you 
have to take it uh we don't know um that's what   do you mean we don't know we don't know so that's 
one of the active research questions that's going   on around this class of medication right now 
is what happens when you stop um we think that   people tend to regain weight but that is not 
Dr Mara Gordon's main concern health is so much   more complicated than the number on the scale 
rather she worries these drugs feed a serious   Prejudice in our society the problem is fat phobia 
right the problem is a culture that discriminates   against people based on body size this is a real 
serious moral issue that our culture is facing   and Ozempic is absolutely part of that I may 
sh this with some of you guys it's something   Dr Gordon is an assistant professor at Cooper 
Medical School of Rowan University in Camden   New Jersey she calls herself a body positive 
doctor basically I don't bring up my patients   weight unless they want to but you have no qualms 
about prescribing Ozempic or one of these drugs   in cases where their health really is at stake 
in patients who have diabetes medications like   Ozempic can really help them it can help improve 
their blood sugar can help protect their heart I   think Society is stuck on what your body looks 
like not so much concerned about the inside or   your health and though she is quite happy with 
what her body looks like now LaQuita Clark says   feeling better on the inside is the most important 
part if that involves taking medication so be it   my focus and my goal is being healthy and being 
around for some years to see my children and my   grandchildren grow up so I I don't care about what 
Society thinks or what people are saying about it

As found on YouTube