When Dr. Si Michael Gibson, Harvard’s University Medical Faculty of Medicine, goes to heart disease meetings, he cannot help notice change.
“We will sit on dinner and in the middle of the road, we will pay our paintings at the same time,” said Dr. Gibson. “We look at each other, laugh and say,” You too? “
They subscribe to what has become an open secret: They have tried for years to control their weight, but they are now taking New obesity drugs It was manufactured by Eli Lily and Novo Nordsk.
Dr. Robert Calif, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, says he hardly gets to know his colleagues. Much now is very thin.
“It looks good,” says he tells his colleagues from the heart doctors in conferences and meetings.
There are no studies documenting the percentage of doctors taking medications. But the doctors “are a good test of drugs that are very effective,” said Dr. Calif. If the doctors who have read the papers describing the results of the clinical trial are rushing for a new drug, this is an indication that it is really promising.
It is mentioned by the use of his colleagues for Wegovy and Zepbound using statin, drugs that reduce cholesterol in cholesterol, in their early days. Heart doctors, who were more familiar with the consequences of high cholesterol levels in cholesterol, were among those who took medications in large numbers.
Many of the newly -grammar cardiologists and diabetes specialists, such as many of their patients, have risk factors for heart disease. Or that blood sugar was sneaking. Or just a material breed to carry overweight, make daily life exhausting. They say they love their new appearance, but also their health and new energy. Somehow, they feel like members of the club.
Four years ago, Dr. Darren McGuer, a cardiologist at the University of Texas, southwest, was struggling with obesity and type 2 diabetes. Then he started taking OzemPic, Novo Nordisk for diabetes sold under the name Wegovy for obesity. He later moved to Mounjaro, from Eli Lilly, which is sold as zepbound for obesity.
It lost 30 percent of its weight and the blood sugar was under control. Now, he said he “feels better ever.”
It was also shocked by the number of colleagues who seem to use medications.
“People seem completely different,” said Dr. McGueri, who works on the counseling councils of Noveau Nordsk and Elie Lily. “It is amazing.” He described a prominent diabetes specialist, Dr. John Boss of North Carolina University, who “shrinks”.
Not completely, Dr. Boss said. But he said: “I lost 25 percent of my body weight completely changed my life.” He had struggled with his size since childhood, gained, lost and then gained weight again.
Dr. Boss said that when he was eating a diet, “he would be hungry crazy.” He said that his weight decreased with Wipi until he reached his goal. Then his appetite, which was frightening, returned. But instead of restoring the pounds, keep a steady weight as it continues to take the medicine.
Like other patients, it was found that taking drugs most of his desire to drink alcohol. Before Wegovy begins, it often has two or three drinks with dinner. Now he has one, or nothing.
Dr. Boss, a consultant for Noveau Nordsik and Elie Lily, said that he often did not ask people in diabetes meetings if they were taking a drug but “there are people who have changed a lot.” He said, “They will bet on the cakes,” they were on weight loss medications.
Dr. Gibson said that some cardiologists are “in the cabinet.”
One is the heart doctor in Boston. She said that the person who described Ozmet was also a cardiologist who was taking her. She asked not to get to know her because she told a few people who were on drugs. She was trying to maintain her own medical information, although she suspected her colleagues may have gone. She added that she was sure she knew who was taking a drug.
“Yes, you can definitely say,” she said. “And when you go to dinner, you can definitely see. We eat, like the eighth of our meals. I know what is happening here.”
Doctors know that they are distinguished.
Initially, Dr. Boss’s health insurance paid the price of Wegovy. However, North Carolina’s state stopped paying the price of obesity medications to state employees, so he paid his pocket. At a price of a list of $ 1,349 a month, it was a major account.
After that, at a meeting in Europe, a colleague asked him to describe and wrap him and got a six -month supply. Dr. Boss was able to buy Wipi for a quarter of what she cost in the United States.
Doctors also know how to defend themselves and to move in the medical system better than many of their patients.
The insurance company, Dr. McGueri, initially refused to pay the price of his anesthesia. “I had to stab,” he said. “I have a relationship with an initial care doctor and I know when to continue paying.”
The insurance company agreed to pay.
Dr. Gibson said that his insurance company has paid without an issue and that he wanted to discuss his decision to take and wrap openly. (He recently turned into Lilly’s Zepbound, which is also covered by his insurance, because it raises more weight loss.)
Dr. Gibson said: “Many people are from the mind that it is a shame that it is cheating.
But obesity drugs changed his life, he said: “It is the greatest thing I did at all.”
Dr. Gibson said that and even Zepbound, as strong as it is, is just the beginning.
“There are 120 new agents coming,” as he referred to medications in clinical trials. “I look forward to those that may have better safety and effectiveness.”
