Many of us watched the recent special from Oprah Winfrey on what she and many are calling the Weight Loss revolution. Some of us have seen other celebrities talk about weight loss using the new weekly shots. A few of us have seen friends or family members use these drugs and suddenly they are no longer “interested” in food. I reached out to Dr. Alicia Shellywith Wellstar Health Centers to discuss “the shot.”
I tell people all the time I’m addicted to food, for them it sounds like a joke, but I know it is my truth. I love food, I think about food all the time. I read recipes, I read menus, and I’m addicted to food. This means for me that I constantly fight to eat right and I constantly exercise. I asked Dr. Shelly if the new diet drugs were for people like me.
Dr. Shelly said I am the person that these new drugs are designed for and that the medical community is continuing to learn that obesity is a multifactorial and complex condition. She speaks about humans having a weight set point where your body wants to maintain a certain weight. Shelly goes on to explain that the new weight loss drugs are not a magic bullet and that lifestyle changes around diet and exercise are still needed.
Recently insurance companies have begun approving the new diet shots to treat obesity because research is finding that with weight loss come better numbers for diabetes and high blood pressure. I asked Shelly if enough research has been done on the new drugs, like other diet drug solutions such as fen-phen. She says that the drugs regulate a hormone associated with hunger and feeling full.
When asked about the side effects Shelly says that some people can tolerate the side effects including nausea and other unpleasant challenges and others cannot. I ask what happens when a patient is prescribed the drugs.
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For more information Dr. Shelly at Wellstar
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