DR MAX PEMBERTON: It’s not cheating to use weight loss jabs – they literally save lives

There is no doubt about it: as a society we are groaning under the weight of obesity. The World Health Organization has warned that by 2030, two-thirds of women and three-quarters of men will be overweight.

If not addressed, we face a ‘massive’ crisis, the organization says. By the end of the decade, obesity will be a bigger cause of liver failure than alcohol.

It is estimated that obesity currently costs the country £58 billion a year. To put that into perspective, that’s just under a third of the entire NHS budget. The situation escalates out of control.

However, in recent months there has been a glimmer of hope: semaglutide.

This drug has actually been around for several years under the trade name Ozempic. It is designed for diabetes and is similar to a naturally occurring hormone in the body.

It was injected once a week to stabilize a patient’s blood sugar levels, but researchers also found it helped people lose weight.

A very similar treatment that also contains semaglutide – called Wegovy – has now been licensed to treat obesity.

The drug acts like a hormone in the brain, making people feel less hungry and slowing the clearance of food from the stomach, encouraging weight loss.

Along with others currently being developed, it offers real hope to those who have struggled with weight loss. I know because I saw it firsthand.

For many years I worked in an eating disorder service, and part of my job was to assess obese patients who were awaiting bariatric surgery, usually a gastric band or bypass, to help them feel full after eating much less. than they were used to.

However, most were not eligible and apart from surgery we could offer them little.

Instead, we should send them back to the GP with advice about healthy eating and exercise. It was heartbreaking as many were tormented by their weight but felt powerless to do anything about it, and yet the NHS fell short when they asked for help.

A few years ago, patients started telling me about semaglutide. Some started buying it privately and I have to say the results were startling.

Since then, I have had more and more patients taking the drug, and it has been quite emotional at times seeing patients on their weight loss journey.

People who have struggled with their weight all their lives have lost the pounds seemingly effortlessly. They simply don’t feel particularly hungry and no longer crave the foods they used to eat. It’s been a game changer.

However, this does not mean that it is a panacea. There’s no doubt that this isn’t for everyone.

It doesn’t address people’s underlying relationship with food. Some people use food for psychological reasons, and of course an injection cannot help with this. These people will continue to need emotional and psychological support.

Like any medicine, it also has side effects. The most common – nausea, diarrhea, constipation and fatigue – improve over time, but these vary from person to person and some may not be able to tolerate them.

But for many people who have battled with their weight, shedding the pounds really does seem to help. It can give them the kickstart they need to tackle their weight and start exercising regularly and eating healthy. I think it will literally be a life saver for many.

There are currently barriers to its widespread use. It is difficult to obtain and expensive, and this has driven desperate people to buy it illegally over the internet.

That means it’s unlikely to have been stored or shipped at the right temperature (it needs to be kept at a consistent cold temperature) and some batches have even been discovered to be fake, meaning people are risking their lives.

Indeed, there have already been reports that two people in the US have died and three have been hospitalized after taking fake versions of the medication. And in some cases, doctors also appear resistant to its use.

This has surprised and saddened me, but I think this is because there is still a lot of stigma surrounding obesity and some view these injections as ‘cheating’, as if overweight people have to suffer in their quest for a healthy weight.

Yet we don’t apply this logic to other problems people have; for example, no one says the same about nicotine replacement therapy for smokers.

I am so convinced that this drug offers hope to people struggling with obesity that I have founded a start-up (getslimmr.co.uk) with the aim of offering a no-nonsense service to keep costs down and allow as many people as possible to access it.

It offers an online assessment that is reviewed by a prescriber after submission and, if the patient qualifies, Wegovy is then delivered straight to the door.

I’ve been working on it in the evenings and at weekends and will continue to work full-time in the NHS when we fully launch in a few weeks, but I hope this means patients can get the drug at a reasonable price wherever they are also in the world. country.

For years, there have been public health campaigns encouraging people to eat healthy and exercise. But despite all this, obesity rates have increased.

What we do simply doesn’t work. I passionately believe that this new drug is the future of weight loss.

Dame Maureen has shown us the true meaning of courage

Coronation Street star Dame Maureen Lipman was reportedly assigned a bodyguard on set earlier this month after speaking out about anti-Semitism in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Israel.

Where have we come to the point where a 77 year old woman needs protection simply because she had the courage to stand up against prejudice and racism? I was completely shocked to hear that Jewish people in Britain were afraid to walk the streets for fear of attacks.

How have we allowed our moral compass to become so distorted?

Thank God for people like Dame Maureen.

Although evil prevails when good men (and women) do nothing, it cannot have been easy for her to stick her head above the parapet like this, knowing that by doing so she would be making herself a target for further vilification and hatred.

I emailed her to say she had my support and how brave I thought she was taking a stand. She responded and said she didn’t feel brave. She felt nervous, she said, but knew silence was worse. This got me thinking.

People often believe that to be considered courageous, you don’t have to feel fear when you do or say something. But this is wrong. I think true courage is when you’re afraid, but you speak out anyway because you know it’s the right thing to do.

Cannabis use increases the risk of heart attack, heart failure and stroke by up to a third, according to two major studies. This is in addition to all the other risks associated with the drug.

So why do we turn a blind eye to cannabis while restricting vaping and nitrous oxide, which, while not without risk, pose less of a threat to health?

Women in Britain are the biggest female binge drinkers in the developed world, international data shows. Some of the worst offenders are highly educated, middle-class and middle-aged women.

What is going on here? Let’s not forget that this generation of women was young in the early 1990s – the era of the ladette.

One of the ways doctors detect alcohol problems is through the CAGE questionnaire.

Have you ever felt like you needed to cut down on your drinking? Have people annoyed you by criticizing your drinking? Have you ever felt guilty about drinking? Should you drink first thing in the morning? If you answer yes to two or more questions, there may be a problem.

DR MAX PRESCRIBES…

Runner’s Advent Calendar

Designed for everyone from an avid runner to an occasional jogger, this advent calendar encourages you to keep fit even as the evenings draw in and the weather gets colder.

It includes things like recovery snacks, running socks and hydration packs and has everything a runner needs.