Thoughts about ozempic and other weight loss injection treatments

I have several patients on these drugs (GLP-1) and the results have been great. I have no problem prescribing them. I think they are safe, have few side effects, and are easy to manage. 

I have lots and lots of thoughts about weight and weight loss. Here are a few:

• I think we as doctors spend way too much time telling people to lose weight.

• I never make weight loss the focus of our conversation.

• I think society is obsessed with how bodies look, and it makes me actually mad.

• I think it's your body, not mine, and if you want to be thinner, that's your choice, and I'm here to help.

• I think it's your body, not mine, and if you are happy with how you look, that's your choice, and I'm here to help.

• I think it's awfully weird that the healthcare industry spends so much time, money, and effort telling people to lose weight, and then when a drug comes out that helps people lose weight, the same industry spends time, money, and effort wringing hands and worrying about whether using a medicine to lose weight is the right thing to do. What do they want people to do, suffer? There's so much moralizing over this and it makes me crazy.

So in short... if you are interested in trying weight loss drugs, I'm here to help. It's not the sole focus of my practice but I'm happy to help people do it if they'd like.

Also, I am always focused on cost for my patients, and I have access to a great high-quality compounding pharmacy (that I've personally vetted) based here in St. Louis that can get these drugs for less than half of what they normally cost. I have one patient who told me he's saved enough money on tirzepatide to pay my fees for three years. So that's cool!

If you have questions about weight loss medications, this is one of many things we can talk about and I can manage as your primary care physician. Let’s chat.