This transcript has been edited for clarity.
I think it's important to remember and to think about the first time when patients with obesity come to see us: What have they faced? What have been their struggles? What shame and blame and bias have they faced?
One of the first things that I do when a patient comes to see me is I invite them to share their weight journey with me. I invite them to tell me about their struggles, about what's worked and what hasn't worked, what they would like, and what their health goals are.
As they share their stories, I look for the opportunity to share with them that obesity is not their fault, but that it's biology driving their body to carry extra weight and their body is super smart. Neither their body nor their brain want them to starve.
Our bodies evolved during a time where there was food scarcity and the potential of famine. We have a complex system that was designed to make sure that we always held on to extra weight, specifically extra fat, because that's how we store energy. In the current obesogenic environment, what happens is our bodies carry extra weight, or specifically, extra fat.
Again, I say to them, this is biology. Your body's doing exactly what it was designed to do. Your body's very smart, but now we have to figure out how to help your body want to carry less fat because it is impacting your health. This is not your fault. Having obesity is not your fault any more than having diabetes or hypertension is anyone's fault. Now it's time for all of us to use highly effective tools that target the pathophysiology of obesity.
When a patient comes to me for weight management or to help them treat their obesity, I listen to them and I look for clues as to what might help that specific patient. Every patient deserves to have individualized treatment. One medicine may be right for one person, another medicine may be right for another, and surgery may be right for another patient. I really try to listen and hear what that patient is telling me.
What we as providers really need is tools — different options — to be able to provide for our patients and basically present them with different options, and then guide them toward the best therapy for them. Whether it's semaglutide or tirzepatide potentially in the future, these types of medications are excellent options for our patients. They're highly effective tools with safe profiles.
A question that I often get from providers or patients is, "Well, Doctor, I've lost the weight now. How long should I take this medicine? Can I stop it now? I've lost the weight."
Then, we have a conversation, and we actually usually have this conversation even before we start the medicine. Basically, we talk about the fact that obesity is a chronic disease. There's no cure for obesity. Because it's a chronic disease, we need to treat it like we would treat any other chronic disease.
The example that I often use is, if you have a patient who has hypertension and you start them on an antihypertensive medication, what happens? Their blood pressure goes down. It improves. Now, if their blood pressure is improved with a specific antihypertensive, would you stop that medicine? What would happen if you stopped that antihypertensive? Well, their blood pressure would go up, and we wouldn't be surprised.
In the same way, if you have a patient who has obesity and you start that patient on an anti-obesity medication, and their weight decreases and their body fat mass at that point decreases, what would happen if you stop that medicine? They lost the weight, but you stop the medicine. Well, their weight gain comes back. They regain the weight.
We should not be surprised that weight gain occurs when we stop the treatment. That really underscores the fact that treatment needs to be continued. If a patient is started on an anti-obesity medication and they lose weight, that medication needs to be continued to maintain that weight loss.
Basically, we eat food and our body responds by releasing these hormones. The hormones are made in our gut and in our pancreas and these hormones inform our brain. Are we hungry? Are we full? Where are we with our homeostatic set point of fat mass? Based on that, our brain is like the sensor or the thermostat.
Obesity is a chronic, treatable disease. We should treat obesity as we treat any other chronic disease, with effective and safe approaches that target underlying disease mechanisms. These results in the SURMOUNT-1 trial underscore that tirzepatide may be doing just that. Remarkably, 9 in 10 individuals with obesity lost weight while taking tirzepatide. These results are impressive. They're an important step forward in potentially expanding effective therapeutic options for people with obesity.
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Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: 'Not Their Fault': Obesity Warrants Long-term Management - Medscape - Jul 01, 2022.
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