Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - You can tell that the use of certain drugs for the purpose of weight loss is exploding in popularity when Oprah Winfrey is brought back on to TV to talk about it.
Monday night's TV special focused on Obesity, with an emphasis on the use of drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic. Of course, there was a Buffalo connection.
Heavily featured in the program was Dr. Scott Butsch of the Cleveland Clinic. Butsch is from Buffalo and has family that still lives in the area.
"These medications that we've used that I've used as a specialist in obesity medicine, for the last nearly 20 years have been around, it just seems the popularity has increased because of the effectiveness of these drugs," said Dr. Butsch in an interview with WBEN.
Butsch says obesity is a disease, and the stigma about it has to be removed.
"Obesity is a disease, which involves a dysregulation of the body's ability to control and regulate body fat or our weight. And until people realize that it's a disease, it might seem kind of strange to use a medication for something which was historically viewed as a behavioral problem or a character flaw," Dr. Butsch explained.
Over the last 20-to-30 years, science has evolved so much, Dr. Butsch and others now have a very good understanding of the pathophysiology, meaning the makeup of how this disease becomes a disease.
"Treatments which include medications, which include surgery, which include changing lifestyle, is involved in trying to change that dysfunction. These medications hit specific pathways in the brain or the gut that helped the body regulate body fat better," Dr. Butsch said.
According to Butsch, there are side effects from long-term use of medications.
"Most of these side effects are related to the digestive tract, which include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, but mainly they're typically mild to moderate and temporary," Dr. Butsch explained.
He adds it's important to look into one's diet, and how that might overlay on to the possibility of having side effects.
In addition, prescriptions for these drugs are based on the body mass index (BMI).
"A BMI over 27 which includes having an obesity related complication like type two diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, etc, or just having a body mass index or BMI over 30," Dr. Butsch said.
Butsch adds it's usually done in people who have not responded, in terms of their weight to lifestyle modification, whether that's changes in their diet or physical activity, sleep or stress.
