Obesity and the behaviors and habits that lead to obesity can contribute to or outright cause many kinds of health complications, including diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and painful arthritis, among other uncomfortable and unhealthy conditions. Through the years, many people have tried all sorts of methods and mechanisms to encourage and facilitate weight loss, including diets, exercise regimens, apps and websites, and even surgical procedures.
While many patients succeed in losing significant amounts of weight, it’s not uncommon to regain the weight over time, as these treatments address excess fat itself and not the causes of weight gain. Thanks to medical innovations in the causes and manifestations of appetite, however, drugs like Semaglutide can support long-term weight loss plans, helping patients reduce their weight to intervene in medical conditions that commonly accompany obesity and overweight, like high blood pressure, increased blood glucose and cholesterol levels, and systemic inflammation.
Semaglutide works by mimicking a gut hormone known as glucagon, which affects the pancreas and stimulates the production of insulin. This insulin production, in turn, slows the body’s process of emptying the stomach while signaling the brain to feel less hungry, helping patients eat less food without feeling hungry or succumbing to cravings. Semaglutide was originally introduced as a treatment for diabetes, and it continues to prove effective for diabetic patients.
Diabetes and other hormonal conditions require lifelong treatment, however, and the same is true when Semaglutide is used for weight loss. When patients stop using Semaglutide, the benefits disappear, and many patients regain most or all of the weight they lost under treatment.
Even though many people think that obesity is related primarily to environmental and behavioral factors, the National Institutes of Health and American Medical Association view obesity as a chronic disease that can wreak havoc on many of the body’s systems. Historically, doctors have prescribed injectable, subcutaneous Semaglutide to their patients with diabetes; more recently, oral Semaglutide has become more widely available.
If your doctor uses injectable Semaglutide, you’ll want to consider the reality of a lifetime of injections and think about whether the idea appeals to you. Additionally, while lower doses of Semaglutide have proven effective for diabetes in the past and present fewer side effects, some patients use higher dosages for weight loss; because these applications haven’t been used as long, their longer-term repercussions aren’t yet known. It’s realistic, however, to wonder if something that affects the metabolism might have repercussions over a lifespan and should be considered when weighing Semaglutide treatment.
In many cases, the cost of Semaglutide is enough of a prohibitive factor to make the treatment unrealistic. The average cost of Semaglutide is about $1,400 a month, and the drug is infrequently covered by insurance and never by Medicare. Despite the cost of Semaglutide, the medication is in high demand, appealing to patients who have struggled with their weight and with the many associated health conditions that are more likely in obese and overweight patients.
Because the potential long-term repercussions of increased doses of Semaglutide are not yet known, many obesity scientists are concerned about the treatment and prefer to focus on prevention through education, intervention, and support. For patients who are already ill, however, Semaglutide can enhance the physiological mechanisms that support the changes associated with weight loss and may be a life-saving solution.