You have no doubt been clobbered with the huge advertising budget of this new class of weight loss drugs including Ozempic, Wegovy, etc. These are brand names for the generic Semaglutide, which is a GLP-1 agonist.

What is GLP-1 and What does it do?

What is GLP-1 and what is an agonist? GLP stands for Glucagon-like Peptide and an agonist is something that preserves GLP from being cleared from the system, making it last longer.

GLP-1 is produced in your gut and serves to signal your brain receptors that you are satisfied, that you are not hungry. GLP-1 is a hormone, and you can think of its action as similar to that of birth control pills that keep your body convinced it is pregnant already. In the case of GLP-1, it makes you think you are full, as though you have just eaten.

The other effects are to slow down emptying of the stomach and movement through the digestive tract making you feel full longer and to help with blood sugar control by reducing the short term spike seen after a meal. This is why it was originally developed to treat Type II diabetes.

How Effective is Semaglutide?

First, let’s look at the history of medical approaches to weight loss…

At least 25 different drugs have been prescribed to treat obesity between 1964 and 1969, and then were withdrawn due to adverse drug reactions including life threatening conditions like heart valve problems, cancer, and the like. From amphetamines to diuretics, these drugs have popped up and then got pulled after sometimes catastrophic effects including heart attacks, colon and pancreatic cancer, suicidal ideation, etc.

Before GLP-1 agonist drugs, these weight loss drugs only resulted in a weight loss of about 3% in exchange for loss of bowel control, depression and other side effects. So, if you were 300 lbs, taking these drugs could get you down to about 290lbs. Really? And all I have to do is wear a diaper?

Now, with earlier GLP-1 agonists, you could expect to get down by 6% or to about 280 lbs. But with the newer Semaglutide drugs, you can expect about 11 – 20%, resulting in a weight reduction to 240lbs. Incidentally, this is similar to the weight reduction expected from a bariatric surgical procedure.

So should you try it?

Let’s look at the pros and cons…

Benefits:

• Addresses the devastating effects of obesity, if only partially (cancer, cardiovascular disease, etc)
• An alternative to surgical treatment options
• Produce as much as 3 times as much weight loss as all prvious historical weight loss drugs, most of which were removed form the market for adverse effects.

Adverse Effects of Semaglutides:

• Weight loss stalls on these drugs, even though the drug injections have to continue to maintain any benefit.
• Even those using the drugs only go from obese, to less obese & medicated. And if the medication is stopped, the weight comes right back
• Most (80% of those getting fully paid-for treatment) people stopped taking the drug within 2 months of starting it, due to short term gastrointestinal side effects effects including nausea, vomiting, etc.
• Potential for bowel obstruction and other more serious and more rare adverse effects (thyroid cancer, pancreatitis, etc.)

What is the alternative?

Well, to be frank, the alternative is to eat less crap. Consider the findings in recent years of the benefit of eating a plant-based diet of unprocessed foods with all of the antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and FIBER that comes naturally from real food. This triggers the release of natural GLP-1 without the side effects.

If you were to make your own plant-based unprocessed foods, without the excessive sugars and fats and salt that food product manufacturers put in there to artificially impair your satiety signals, most people coudl eat ad libitum (ie. as much as you want) and still lose weight!

And if you think you will be missing out, think again. It has never been easier to go to a plant-based diet AND the recipes you will find online for plant-based foods are absolutely DELICIOUS! And if you think you will be deficient in nutrition, you should understand that you will get everything you need, including protein, without eating meat and you will help your grocery budget, help the planet, and lower your medical bills into the future. The only thing you would need to supplement is Vitamin B-12 since that only comes from animals and organisms found in dirt.

And to finish off this topic, the greatest thing about a natural approach is that you will FEEL BETTER, LOOK BETTER, and LIVE BETTER! Because the natural approach is Better for Life! Ah-HA!