Ozempic to treat arthritis? Why doctors say obesity drugs could cure a host of chronic illnesses
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Many overweight patients struggle with chronic conditions like high blood pressure, fatty liver, rheumatoid arthritis, and sleep apnea.
Now, some doctors are suggesting an “obesity first” approach to treating these issues.
The idea is to treat obesity with medications approved for that use and, as weight drops, other chronic diseases will also improve or go away altogether.
By prescribing a drug such as Wegovy from Novo Nordisk or Zepbound from Eli Lilly, in addition to diet and exercise, doctors are confident they can treat obesity and improve related conditions with a single medication.
Dr. Caroline M. Apovian, an obesity medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, tells The New York Times, “You get the weight loss, and you’ve treated the high blood pressure, the fatty liver, the diabetes, the high cholesterol, the high triglycerides.”
Dr. Apovian reports that patients who follow this protocol are delighted with the streamlining of their bodies and their medications. As a bonus, patients often keep taking their obesity drugs, a consistency that’s less common for prescriptions like statins.
Still, some docs are skeptical of the “obesity first” initiative.
Detractors note that patients with obesity can be easily turned off by a doctor who mentions their weight. In addition, obesity drugs are expensive, and while they may provide unexpected benefits, more studies are needed to verify their effectiveness.
This contingent points out that the prudent approach is to use well-tested drugs, available in affordable generic form, to treat conditions that accompany obesity.
Both the makers of these medications and skeptical physicians are calling for rigorous studies to establish what effect obesity medications will have in treating multiple conditions.
So far, results seem promising.
Dr. Daniel Drucker, an obesity researcher at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, tells The Times that many of these positive effects may stem from the drugs’ ability to reduce inflammation.
Dr. Drucker mentions patients whose crippling rheumatoid arthritis has all but vanished after taking Zepbound for obesity.
In a clinical trial, Wegovy use was linked to improved ability to exercise in people with diabetes and heart failure.
Researchers have also found that Zepbound can help with sleep apnea, and Ozempic may help fight kidney disease.
Recent studies have shown drugs like Wegovy, and Ozempic may be beneficial in both preventing and treating alcohol use disorders, and in March, Wegovy was approved by the FDA to reduce the risk of stroke, heart attacks, and other serious cardiovascular problems in patients who are overweight or who have obesity.
