GLP1’s Keep Getting Better
I started working with GLP 1’s about 3 years ago. My husband, an internist, has a small panel of patients in addition to his work as a Chief Medical Officer. He needed help managing these patients and was starting to prescribe drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy to his patients (followed by Mounjaro and Zepbound). As we learned about these medications together and how incredibly impactful they would be, I became absolutely fascinated with the drugs’ capabilities. Fast forward 3 years, and we have even more data showing positive impacts the medical community wasn’t even expecting.
A recent study from Washington University analyzed data in over 2 million Veterans. This is important because the vet population is extremely diverse - all ages, races and ethnicities, socioeconomic backgrounds, a diverse disease population and more. They looked at those who had taken the drug over the last several years for a multitude of different reasons - some for diabetes, some for weight loss - and analyzed what happened outside of those two issues. What they found confirmed what we have anecdotally been seeing for years. Decrease in inflammation. Decrease in heart disease. Decreased risk of dementia. Decreased addictive behaviors. What’s so fascinating to me, is these are issues we previously didn’t really have great preventative meds for. Yes, diet and lifestyle can impact all of these things - which seems to be an uphill battle for most Americans living in our current health/food/wellness/lackthereof cycle.
I know that these drugs initially gained the reputation of being the skinny shot or “cheating”, and it will be a little tricky to reverse that mindset for some people. At this point, compounded medications are bridging the gap for patients who could benefit from the drug, but may not have the insurance coverage. I don’t subscribe to the narrative that patients are “Taking it from diabetics who need it” - and that’s a conversation for another blog post. With compounds, we can safely treat so many people who will benefit from these medications whether they need to lose a significant amount of weight or not. If you have questions? Please ask!