The diabetes medication Ozempic has been making headlines recently, some say it’s a miracle drug for weight loss and it’s on the FDA medication list of shortages. Director of Bariatric Medicine at LSU Health New Orleans, Dr. Catherine Hudson said many patients take the medication for diabetes and others for weight loss.
“There’s about an 80 to 90% overlap between obesity and Type 2 Diabetes and so a lot of patients are using this medication for both,” said Hudson.
Hudson said Ozempic and similar medications target gut hormones and since she’s been treating obesity, these new medications are real game changers. As for shortages of Ozempic and others like it, Hudson said it’s a supply chain issue…
“And then there’s also sort of discovery of GLP-1s as being so effective that patients with diabetes and patients with obesity rightfully want to get this medication,” said Hudson.
She said physicians should only prescribe Ozempic and medications that are FDA approved for patients that truly need it to treat obesity and or diabetes. Hudson said some refuse to see and treat obesity as a disease and another hurdle is insurance providers refusing coverage for the medications.
“The real problem that we’ve identified through the whole thing, is that we do not have access to care for patients with obesity we do not have coverage for an FDA-approved medication for weight loss,” said Hudson.
The medications are not ideal for those who’ve had pancreatitis or been diagnosed with or family history of thyroid cancer.
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