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Weight-loss Prescription medication: Wegovy

Journalist | Hyunjin Lee | jennylee_525@yonsei.ac.kr

Designer | Dahyun Ryu | dahyunryu17@gmail.com

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Over 70% of American adults have obesity or are overweight. Having them is a serious health issue as it could cause heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, resulting in premature death. Furthermore, these symptoms are linked to an increased risk of certain types of cancer. Losing 5-10% of body weight through diet and exercise is essential to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in patients with obesity. Therefore, many people use weight loss medications, such as Qsymia, Imcivree, Saxenda, Contrave, and Xenical, to lose weight. Hollywood celebrities, influencers, and even Elon Musk have reportedly used the popular injection, a new weight loss medication called “Wegovy” to get rid of unwanted weight.

What is Wegovy?

Wegovy is the first FDA-approved injection for chronic weight management in adults with obesity since 2014. Wegovy is a brand name for semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonists. To be more specific, it works by mimicking a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that targets areas of the brain that regulate appetite and food intake. However, different names of the product including Semaglutide are currently used; as a treatment for diabetes (oral and injections) and obesity. Rybelsus is used as an oral drug for diabetes, Ozempic is used as an injection for diabetes, and Wegovy is used as an injection for obesity. In addition, Saxenda and Wegovy both are appetite-regulating hormone GLP-1 agonists, but the injection interval varies due to the difference in half-life.

Wegovy is a liquid solution in a prefilled, single-dose pen and is injected under the skin. It is mostly prescribed to people who have a particular BMI, usually 30kg/m2 and over, or 27kg/m2, and at least one weight-related health condition, such as type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol. Furthermore, in the case of considering injections in intractable obese adults, Semaglutide is suggested rather than other drugs. Wegovy should be injected under the skin once a week for 4 weeks with 0.25mg at first and should be increased gradually until patients reach a maintenance dose.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/endocrinology/obesity/96425

Wegovy and Weight Loss

Wegovy can lead to weight loss since it is designed to suppress appetite, so people eat less. Semaglutide acts on the appetite center of the hypothalamus of the brain, suppressing appetite and increasing satiety, losing weight while maintaining blood sugar. Moreover, it mimics the action of a gut hormone called GLP-1 and it stimulates incretins, a gastrointestinal hormone, which promotes insulin secretion in pancreatic beta cells, slowing down the rate at which food travels from the stomach to the intestine.

According to the study from NEJM, there was a weight loss of 14.9% in the gastropod group (2.4mg subcutaneous injection once a week), and a weight loss effect of 2.4% in the placebo group, in an experiment that was conducted for 68 weeks for 1961 people. Additionally, the experimental group that lost more than 5% reached 86.4%, and the experimental group that lost more than 15% was more than 50%. In other words, one out of two subjects who injected Wegoby had a weight loss effect of 15% or more. Compared to previous obesity treatments, including Saxenda, which showed a weight loss effect of around 10%, Wegovy proved to be very effective. It has become a blockbuster “game changer” drug in the obese market by reducing Saxenda’s seven-time subcutaneous injection discomfort by 1/7 and improving its medicinal effect by more than 1.5 times.

Side effects of Wegovy

Wegovy may cause some mild or serious side effects, but it may depend on age, other health conditions, or other medications. The most common side effects of Wegovy are vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, nausea, headache, dyspepsia, hypoglycemia in patients with type 2 diabetes, gastroenteritis, allergic reaction, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Moreover, weight loss is not permanent and thus not a complete cure for obesity. Most patients regain their lost weight at the end of the course since they’ve been promised a ‘miracle instant cure’, not a sustainable lifestyle change.

Safe Use Guideline for Wegovy

Wegovy should not be used in combination with other Semaglutide-containing products, other GLP-1 receptor agonists, or other products intended for weight loss, including prescription drugs, or herbal products. Semaglutide for weight management requires twice the dose, thus there is a risk of hypoglycemia when administered by diabetic patients with insulin or other oral blood sugar-lowering drug. Also, it should not be used in patients with a history of severe allergic reactions to Semaglutide or any of the other components of Wegovy.

Conclusion

As the perception that “obesity is a disease that needs treatment” is growing around the world, the obesity treatment medication market is gradually growing. The fact that obesity can be treated with the help of drugs is good news. However, the limitations and other adverse factors like out-of-pocket costs without insurance or long-term side effects have forced some people to stop taking Wegovy. Moreover, after people stopped taking Wegovy, they regained two-thirds of the weight they had lost on the drug. Wegovy was a new “miracle” drug that promised to revolutionize the weight-loss industry and change the paradigm of obesity treatment, however, there are some concerns about this drug. Therefore, rather than relying too much on weight-loss medication, people should first control their weight with healthy habits and be aware of using Wegovy if needed. B

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