Comparisonsmaster
What Is The FDA Approved Semaglutide For Weight Management
Related Topics (Sponsored Ads):
Since diet and exercise alone are often not effective, and surgery is not desired or recommended for many people, the development and use of ‘weight loss’ drugs has grown. While some of these drugs have been shown to be helpful, they are still not quite doing the job. Recently, a new drug to help lose weight has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – called semaglutide.
Since diet and exercise alone are often not effective, and surgery is not desired or recommended for many people, the development and use of ‘weight loss’ drugs has grown. While some of these drugs have been shown to be helpful, they are still not quite doing the job. Recently, a new drug to help lose weight has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – called semaglutide.
What Semaglutide Is
Semaglutide is the actual name of the drug marketed as “Wegovy”. It is an injectable drug that is taken once a week, under a doctor’s supervision. Wegovy acts basically as an appetite suppressant, helping the patient to eat less and follow a proper diet. The drug was first used in treating people with diabetes and now has been repurposed for weight loss purposes for treating people with obesity in general.
This repurposed version, Wegovy, uses a stronger strength of the drug than before. After verified clinical studies, it was shown to be very effective in helping people to lose significant amounts of weight and with minimal side effects. After this, it was approved by the FDA.
Who This Drug Is For
This drug is intended for people who are medically considered to be obese. It is not meant to be a universal weight loss drug. The measure used for determining being medically/clinically obese is what your Body Mass Index (BMI) is. To be approved to take Wegovy your BMI has to be 30 or more, unless you have a weight related medical condition – such as diabetes and high blood pressure – then you qualify with a BMI of 27 or higher.
Treatment Procedure
Wegovy must be introduced gradually into your body, so the effectiveness and results come over time. This is the case because the drug has a common side effect of causing problems like nausea, diarrhea and stomach pain. These side effects are minimized by starting with a low dose and gradually increasing it. The drug is taken via an injection on a weekly basis. For most patients, the drug will need to be taken on a long term basis.
Drug Results and Benefits
People who use this drug are able to feel full faster and with smaller portions and thus they are less hungry and eat less, which induces weight loss.
In a 68-week long scientifically-controlled medical trial of nearly 2,000 participants, each with a body mass index of at least 27, the semaglutide group had an average weight loss of nearly 15% versus only 2.4% in the placebo group.
Semaglutide seems to produce more weight loss than has been seen with any of the other currently available weight loss drugs. In comparison, average weight loss with other medications is 4% to 11%.
The mean-average weight loss in the trial group that received semaglutide was almost 15%. So, if you weigh 200 pounds, you might expect to lose 30 pounds by using this drug combined with a healthy diet and reasonable exercise/physical activity.
Concerns and Drawbacks
Besides the side effects mentioned above, people with thyroid, pancreas or gallbladder conditions should be careful in using this drug. It should be noted that this is drug is not a “magic bullet”- it must be used in conjunction with a proper diet and exercise to be fully effective (the drug itself will however make it much easier to stick to a diet).
Unfortunately Wegovy is very expensive and is, at least not currently, covered by Medicare or most private health insurance. This might change in the near future, as the medical community is lobbying the government to cover drugs like this, because lowering obesity will lower the occurrence of health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and other prevalent health problems.
