Using injectables for weight loss has become the talk of the town and the major players in this market are Wegovy and Zepbound. Wegovy was originally marketed as Ozempic and Zepbound was originally marketed as Mounjaro used for diabetes control.
Both injectables are different chemical compounds which act on different pathways in the body but were commonly shown to cause a significant amount of weight loss as one of the added effects.
Once people saw that it caused a significant amount of weight loss, there was a lot of misuse of the medication causing a significant backlog in production and availability and compounding pharmacies started creating their own concoction.
Even though these medications were patented and trademarked, the compounding pharmacies found a workaround for this issue and started combining vitamin B12 along with the chemical components and started selling them to weight loss clinics and pharmacies.
Ozempic, generically known as Semaglutide, was approved by the FDA for Type 2 diabetes in 2017. Mounjaro, generically known as Tirzepatide, was also approved for type 2 diabetes. Both medications have really good benefits when it comes to diabetes control with significant reductions in A1c.
The way these medications work is by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone and tricking the brain into thinking that the person is already full. It also acts by reducing the speed of the gut transit, that is, reducing the speed with which the food travels from the mouth to the intestine. Since there is a slow down in the gastric transit, people often have symptoms of nausea, vomiting and diarrhea during the first few days.
Wegovy and Zepbound are approved for weight loss by the FDA but it still depends on an individual basis. Patients have to talk to their physician providers prior to starting these medications as these medications are known to cause a lot of side effects if not taken appropriately and also have to be avoided in people with certain kinds of thyroid disorders.
Anyone who would like to ask me a medical question relating to the health of older adults can email me at questions@apexmedicalgroup.org. I hope to provide a helpful answer in a future issue of this newspaper.
Disclaimer: The information shared in this column is based on current practice guidelines but is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition.
Dr. Arvindselvan Mohanaselvan, M.D., is a physician board certified in internal medicine, with a subspecialty in geriatrics. He currently works at Apex Medical Group as a primary care and geriatric medicine provider. Email questions for Paging the Doctor on Call to questions@apexmedicalgroup.org.
