By Christopher Piercecchi, MD — Physician and Wellness Manager, Founder, The Men’s Clinic for Wellness & Vitality
SITREP is an evidence-based review briefing for patients and colleagues at The Men’s Clinic for Wellness & Vitality. It is educational and does not constitute individualized medical advice.
One of the biggest developments in medicine over the last several years has been the arrival of the GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. It started with semaglutide. The brand name everybody knows is Ozempic, although Wegovy is actually the semaglutide product approved specifically for obesity. These drugs hit the market, everybody and their brother started trying to get hold of them, and they became one of the most talked-about categories of medication in the country.
And, as happens almost anytime a medication actually works and pharmaceutical companies sell a lot of it, a group of critics emerged to explain why the drug was supposedly terrible for you. We have seen versions of this before with statins and plenty of other medications, and of course it has happened with these weight-loss medications. Critics say they cause muscle loss, they are overprescribed, and they are being handed out far too casually.
So where are we now with the weight-loss drugs? Are they good or bad? What medications are actually available? How do they differ? Who should be taking them? And, most importantly, how should physicians prescribe them?
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