{"id":3072,"date":"2024-03-03T14:00:18","date_gmt":"2024-03-03T19:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/?p=3072"},"modified":"2024-03-03T07:57:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T12:57:26","slug":"theres-no-easy-way-to-stop-taking-ozempic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/?p=3072","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s No Easy Way to Stop Taking Ozempic"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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There\u2019s No Easy Way to Stop Taking Ozempic<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tWhat happens if you have to go off weight-loss drugs?<\/b><\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tIt\u2019s a growing concern for the millions of Americans taking medications including Wegovy, Zepbound or Ozempic. Employer-health plans are tightening requirements or dropping coverage. And manufacturers\u2019 discount coupons for initial supplies of medication expire, leaving people having to cough up roughly $1,000 a month without insurance.

\n\nFor patients, this presents a conundrum. They have to stay indefinitely on the drugs, known as GLP-1s, or risk gaining back the weight, according to many doctors. But for lots of people, taking the medication forever isn\u2019t a realistic option.

\n\nFaced with this predicament, some are trying to switch to a different GLP-1 to see if their insurance will cover it. Others are looking into older anti-obesity treatments or finding cheaper versions at compounding pharmacies.

\n\nNo option is perfect. Older drugs don\u2019t work as well, and doctors worry about safety and quality with cheaper compound versions.

\nChristine Hayworth, a 41-year-old in Long Beach, Calif., lost about 60 pounds in a year on GLP-1 medication. But in the fall, she stopped taking it when her manufacturer savings card expired.

\n\nIn the month and a half when she was off the drugs, she regained 8 to 10 pounds. Ultimately she got insurance approval for Wegovy, and relost the weight, she says.

\n\u201cI went into a panic, and during that time it was like my body was spiraling,\u201d she says. \u201cI had all this success. Now what if I just go backwards?\u201d

\n\n Getting approval <\/b>

\n\nA commonly cited 2022 study funded by Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Wegovy and Ozempic, found that patients regained two-thirds of their lost weight a year after they stopped taking semaglutide, the main component in the medications. Wegovy is approved for obesity treatment. Ozempic is approved for Type 2 diabetes, but many people take it off-label for weight loss.

\n\nPeople typically reach peak weight loss and plateau six to nine months after starting to take GLP-1 medications, says Dr. Caroline Apovian, co-director of the Center for Weight Management and Wellness at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital in Boston.

\n\n\n\nDoctors say it has become harder for patients to be covered for these drugs as health plans grow more concerned about costs. The coverage issues mainly affect people taking the drugs for weight loss, not for managing Type 2 diabetes, doctors say.

\nBack in 2022, about 60% of prior authorizations got approved by insurers, says Dr. Myra Ahmad, chief executive of Mochi, a telehealth obesity clinic. Now the rate is down to 25% to 30%, she says.

\n\nWeight regain is gradual at first, then comes back more forcefully, she says.

\n\nIf you lose access to one drug, you can have your doctor try to get your insurance to approve a different one. So if you\u2019ve been on Wegovy, for instance, you could try getting coverage for Zepbound.

\n\nThere are also older anti-obesity medications, but they aren\u2019t as effective and might have more side effects, such as phentermine, Contrave and Qsymia, as well as drugs that are taken off-label for weight loss, such as the diabetes medication metformin.

\n\nOften, patients have to go on multiple medications as well as trying to change their diet and exercise habits, says Dr. Amanda Velazquez, director of obesity medicine at Cedars-Sinai Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Health in Los Angeles.

\n\nEating a high-protein diet, staying away from ultra-processed foods and adding resistance training to your workouts also helps, says Apovian.

\n\nAnother possibility is bariatric surgery, which can result in patients\u2019 losing up to 35% of their body weight in the long term, says Apovian. This is a good option for people who need to lose more than 20% of their body weight, she says.

\n\n Strategies for stopping<\/b>

\n\nDoctors say more research is needed to determine the best way to go off the drugs for patients who need to. If possible, the best way to go off GLP-1s is to reduce your dosage very gradually over time, says Dr. Dan Azagury, medical director of Stanford Lifestyle and Weight Management Clinic.

\n\n\u201cIf you do it abruptly, it\u2019s practically guaranteed you\u2019re going to regain weight,\u201d he says. \u201cSometimes the hunger comes back really significantly, and it\u2019s really hard to fight that if you stop it overnight.\u201d

\n\nHe also recommends significantly increasing your exercise routine and to aim for intense exercise six days a week.

\n\nIf your body has been at a healthy weight for some period\u2014likely at least a year or more\u2014it might be possible to go off the drugs at some point, says Dr. Lydia Alexander, chief medical officer of Enara Health, a San Francisco-area obesity telehealth startup. Even then, going off the drugs will probably be much harder for someone who has had obesity for years compared with someone who gained weight more recently, she adds.

\n\nKen Chinavare, a 53-year-old airplane mechanic in the Detroit area, stopped taking Wegovy last year after he had shed more than 30 pounds on the medication and was comfortable with his weight. Over the past year, he has regained most of the weight. Now he is thinking about whether to go back on a GLP-1.

\n\u201cThe regain has taken a psychological toll,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s disheartening. While on Wegovy, I felt normal. I didn\u2019t have constant food noise in my head.\u201d


\n\nContributor: Sumathi Reddy \u2013WSJ.com<\/i>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s No Easy Way to Stop Taking Ozempic What happens if you have to go off weight-loss drugs? It\u2019s a growing concern for the millions of Americans taking medications including Wegovy, Zepbound or Ozempic. Employer-health plans are tightening requirements or dropping coverage. And manufacturers\u2019 discount coupons for initial supplies of medication expire, leaving people having […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-lifestyle","category-news-and-information"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3072"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3076,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3072\/revisions\/3076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claremontcoloniccenter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}