About 70% of Americans are carrying way too much weight, and it’s causing some serious health problems like type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, stroke, heart disease, and even certain types of cancer.
The good news is that losing just 5%-10% of your body weight can lower your risk of these diseases. The bad news is that losing weight is hard.
Enter semaglutide, an FDA-approved medication that aids chronic weight management in obese adults.
Here to explain this innovative weight-loss aid is Dr. Naima Cheema, our triple-board certified physician at Nexclin Medicine in Roswell, Georgia. Here’s what you need to know about this safe and effective new weight-loss medication.
Semaglutide (brand name Wegovy®) is a medication that mirrors a natural hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which is responsible for regulating your appetite. The Food and Drug Administration approved its use for weight management in June 2021, but the active ingredient has been around for a while. In fact, Ozempic®, a drug used to control blood sugar, is simply a lower dose of semaglutide, and it hit the scene in 2017.
When people taking Ozempic lost weight, researchers studied its effects on people without diabetes and found it effective. The FDA approval states that Wegovy is safe for adults with a BMI of 30 or more and those with a BMI of 27 or more with at least one weight-related health condition.
Dr. Cheema injects semaglutide just under your skin or may prescribe a single-use injection pen you can use at home once weekly.
To understand how semaglutide works, let’s take a quick refresher course on how your digestive tract works.
After you eat a meal, your digestive tract releases incretin hormones, including GLP-1, to trigger your pancreas to release insulin, which lowers your blood sugar. Incretin hormones also coax the food to linger in your stomach a little longer, so you feel full, and your appetite decreases — two bonuses if you’re trying to shed a few pounds.
Semaglutide mimics the effects of incretin hormones, giving you a huge weight-loss advantage.
Semaglutide injections are just one part of our comprehensive supervised weight-loss services. Nexclin Medicine offers full-scale support for our patients during their weight-loss journeys, from specialized diets and nutrition supplements to prescription weight-loss medications.
Don’t struggle to get healthy alone — contact us at Nexclin Medicine online or by phone to schedule a consultation with Dr. Cheema and find out if semaglutide injections or any of our other weight-loss treatments are right for you.
