An email advertisement from a telehealth company promoting weight-loss medicines features tennis superstar Serena Williams.
“If you’re carrying 15–20 extra pounds,” the message states, “medications like Wegovy can help jumpstart your progress.”
Obesity specialists and medical researchers regard such messaging as troubling. The highly profitable drugs, known as GLP-1s, are increasingly presented as lifestyle solutions for shedding excess weight.
In medical practice, however, these medicines are prescribed as long-term treatment for chronic diseases, principally obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The difference is significant.
Nearly 18 per cent of adults in the United States have taken a GLP-1 drug either for weight reduction or for the treatment of a chronic condition. About half discontinue use within a year.
