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The fever-pitch hype around GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro makes them sound like game-changing medications, and for many they are — but for other patients, the experience is totally underwhelming.
In an interview with the Associated Press, 38-year-old Danielle Griffin said that although she was able to get a prescription for Novo Nordisk’s weight loss shot Wegovy — and even got it covered by her insurance, which is still often a struggle — the medication just didn’t work for her.
“I have been on Wegovy for a year and a half,” Griffin said, “and have only lost 13 pounds.”
Despite doing “everything right,” including dieting, exercising, and drinking lots of water, she’s had “no success” with the popular weight loss injectable.
“It’s discouraging,” Giffin said.
While there’s been scrutiny on a laundry list of side effects that can come with glucagon-like peptide-1 drugs, which seem to work by mimicking the body’s feeling of fullness, non-responsiveness of this sort hasn’t captured much attention.
Obesity experts told the AP, however, that up to 20 percent — or one in every five patients — may not lose weight on the drugs at all.
Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity expert at Massachusetts General Hospital, told the news wire that because “different people have different responses,” these drugs won’t work the same for everyone who takes them.
From medications that stymie weight loss to differences in brain and gut chemistry, lots of factors influence how people metabolize GLP-1s, the Mass General doctor said.
“[Obesity] is a disease that stems from the brain,” Stanford said. “The dysfunction may not be the same.”
Endocrine specialist Jody Dushay of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said that she’s also seen people have issues losing weight with GLP-1s — though generally, she and her patients are able to tell whether they’re going to work within a few weeks.
Between non-responsiveness and undesirable gastrointestinal side effects like vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea, those who run into issues with drugs like Wegovy often feel at wit’s end, Dushay said. There are plenty of other options, however, including switching to a different GLP-1.
“I tell them: it’s not game over,” the endocrinologist said.
Indeed, Griffin told the AP that she eventually switched over to Zepbound, a similar drug made by Eli Lilly — and that within just three months, she’d lost seven pounds.
“I’m hoping it’s slow and steady,” the woman said.
More on GLP-1s: The Diet Industry Is Reportedly in Total Meltdown Over GLP-1 Weight Loss Drugs
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