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MEDICAL WEIGHT LOSS
Medical weight loss is the process of losing weight with the help and guidance of a healthcare professional. Our provider uses their knowledge and medical experience to help individuals attempting to lose weight to create realistic plans that meets their unique circumstances.
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ShineMed will help you find and keep the weight loss motivation that you need to succeed. Medical weight loss includes three components to manage weight loss - ongoing provider consultation, behavior changes, and weight loss medications if necessary.
What Is Medical Weight Loss?
Why is Weight Loss Important?
The disease of obesity is a chronic (long-lasting) disease caused by many environmental and genetic factors. Obesity is no longer believed to be a problem caused by overeating or a lack of will power. It seriously impacts a person's health and quality of life. There is no single treatment. Obesity needs life-long treatment using multiple methods.
How Can You Approach Weight Loss Therapy?
The goal of therapy is to prevent, treat, or reverse the complications of obesity and improve the quality of life. Health benefits have been reported with weight loss of as little as 5 % of body weight. Many patients, however, have a weight loss goal of 30% or more below their current weight, a goal that is often not achievable without bariatric surgery.
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With lifestyle measures alone, a weight loss of 5 to 7% of body weight is more typical but often difficult to maintain. In trials comparing pharmacologic therapy with placebo, weight loss of 5 of 10% using both drug and behavior intervention is considered a very good response, and weight loss exceeding 10% is considered an excellent response.
How Can We Help You To Achieve A Healthier Weight?
I) Identify candidates-Assessment of an individual's overall risk status includes determination of the degree of overweight (body mass index [BMI]), the presence of abdominal obesity (waist circumference), and the presence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia) or other comorbidities (e.g., sleep apnea, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease). ​
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2) Initial treatment- The initial management of individuals who would benefit from weight loss is a comprehensive lifestyle intervention: a combination of diet, exercise, and behavior modification. All patients who would benefit from weight loss should receive counseling on diet, exercise, and goals for weight loss.
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3) Subsequent treatment - For patients who are unable to achieve weight loss goals with a comprehensive lifestyle intervention alone, options include pharmacologic therapy. When a decision has made to initiate pharmacologic therapy, single agents are preferred over combination therapy. In addition, the choice of anti-obesity drug depends upon patient comorbidities, but also takes into account patient preferences, adverse effects, and insurance coverage and cost.
What Drug Therapy Options Are Available?
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Drug therapy is an often helpful component in the treatment regimen for people with obesity; it can be considered for those with a BMI >30 kg/m2, or a BMI of 27 to 29.9 kg/m2 with weight-related comorbidities, who have not met weight loss goal (loss of at least 5% of total body weight at 3 to 6 months) with a comprehensive lifestyle intervention. The decision to initiate drug therapy should be individualized and made after a careful evaluation of risks and benefits of all treatment options.
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For most patients, a glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) agonist (eg, semaglutide or liraglutide) is preferred first-line pharmacotherapy. If there is an inadequate response to semaglutide or it is not tolerated, and treatment with a different drug is considered.
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Treatment of obesity with a dual-acting glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (also called gastric inhibitory polypeptide [GIP]) receptor agonist may be more effective than "traditional" GLP-1 receptor agonists. Tirzepatide is a novel GLP-1 and GIP receptor agonist that is effective in the treatment of obesity in patients with and without diabetes mellitus. However, this med is not approved for the treatment of obesity alone.