Morning Health Learning Center - Doctor explains how Wegovy and Ozempic work

The 60 Minutes host interviewed Dr. Caroline Apovian about the new weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, discussing their mechanisms, side effects, dosages, and clinical results.

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60 Minutes (Youtube Channel)

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Host:
What is the biggest misconception about obesity?

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‍Dr. Caroline Apovian, MD:
The biggest misconception about weight and obesity is that somehow your weight is under your control. Obesity is a disease of the pathways that regulate your energy balance.

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Host:
Dr. Caroline Apovian who specializes in weight management at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, explained how the anti obesity medication Wegovy and the diabetes drug Ozempic work. These new medications that have come out, what do they actually do in the body?

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Dr. Caroline Apovian, MD:
These new medications are analogs of naturally occurring hormones that your body makes when the food goes through your intestines, those cells in the intestine makes these hormones. And the hormones go to the brain and say you're full. That's what we're putting in a pen. And we're just giving patients a little more of that fullness hormone.

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Host:
So the new medication is saying, all right, you've eaten enough.

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Dr. Caroline Apovian, MD:
You've eaten enough and it does so when you've eaten less food. That's what it's supposed to do. It's just like an EpiPen. Let's say for a month, you open one, you take it in your stomach. You take it, go like that, press. That's it.

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Host:
So side effects of these medications. How severe how serious how long lasting?

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Dr. Caroline Apovian, MD:
Very rare side effects of pancreatitis, but otherwise, it's really FI side effects, nausea, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, very minimally treated with low doses.

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Host:
But if you have nausea at the low level, does that mean you can't take the medication?

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Dr. Caroline Apovian, MD:
It doesn't. Your body has to get used to the drugs. And you can stay on the low level for as long as it takes to relieve the nausea. And only then do you go up to a higher dose? It does go away. The nausea does go away. Only in rare cases, is the nausea so bad that you can't take the drug. That's why these drugs are dosed slowly. And starting with low doses and build up. So for example, Ozempic for diabetes Wegovy for obesity, you start 0.25 a week. And then after a month of weekly 0.25, you go up the next month, 0.5. If you have no nausea, or your nausea is minimal, then the next month you go up to 1.0 and then 1.7 and then 2.4 which is the highest. And at 2.4, that's where the average weight loss in the studies was 15 to 17% and then 1/3 of those patients over 20% weight loss.

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Doctor explains how Wegovy and Ozempic work

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