New Non-Surgical Weight Loss Options at New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery
If you’ve followed the news over the last year or so, you’re most likely aware of some medications, like Ozempic, now being used to facilitate weight loss. You may not know, however, that New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery in Knoxville, TN offers comprehensive non-surgical weight loss management for appropriate candidates. We recently sat down with Dr. K. Robert Williams to discuss these new weight loss options, who would be a good candidate, and how these medications may be used moving forward.
What are the non-surgical weight loss options New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery is now offering?
We have introduced GLP-1 agonists. We have Semaglutide, and pretty soon we will have Tirzepatide as well. These are new medications that have been popular in the media. The brand names are Ozempic and Wegovy. Wegovy is FDA approved for weight loss. Mounjaro an Zepbound are the brand names for Tirezepatide.
Who is a good candidate for the non-surgical weight management program?
We get a lot of patients that are interested in surgery, but their body mass index doesn’t quite meet the criteria from an insurance standpoint. When evaluating whether a patient qualifies for surgery, their body mass index has to be 40 or higher or 35 to 40 if the patient has medical problems like diabetes and high blood pressure. We see many patients who have a body mass index of 36 or 37, but no comorbidities, or maybe their body mass index is 33 to 32. So, they’re close to being a surgical candidate, but they can’t have it because insurance won’t approve it for their BMI.
These weight loss medications give us another tool to treat those folks with the understanding that the weight loss is not as significant. That said, if you’re starting at a lower weight than a weight loss surgery candidate, then you probably don’t need to lose quite as much weight. So, most folks are going to see a 10 to 15% total body weight loss with these medications.
Why did you decide to include non-surgical options as part of New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery?
Several reasons. One is I feel like they’ve been around long enough now, and we have enough studies to show that they’re safe and effective. That’s been a question on my mind for a while, you know, “What are the side effects going to be?” We’ve been able to accumulate a fair bit of data to show that, for most patients, they’re going to be well tolerated, and there are some good effects.
The second thing is there have also been some studies that have come out recently that show that it’s safe to use these medications on patients who’ve had surgery, who either regained weight or haven’t lost enough weight.
In the past, if somebody didn’t lose enough weight or they had regained over time after their weight loss surgery, our discussion was limited to, “You need to focus more on your diet, or we can put you through another operation.” But, every time you do another operation, the risks go up a little bit. So, it’s nice to have this other option, that can be effective for somebody who’s had weight loss surgery but has not completely reached their goals.
Will weight loss medications be used more commonly in conjunction with bariatric surgery moving forward?
I think we will be using medications more in the future because, we’re on a first generation here of these GLP-1 agonists, and Tirzepatide is kind of the second generation. It hits additional hormones for more weight loss than Semaglutide, and there are a couple more meds in development now that will probably be even more effective in terms of controlling appetite. There’s one that I’m hoping comes out in 2025 or 2026 that may show 50% more weight loss than even Tirzepatide as they fine tune these medicines.
So, I think meds will have a bigger role going forward. But, I don’t think we’ll be able to let go of bariatric surgery just because even our most effective meds still are not typically going result in sufficient weight loss for many patients, folks who maybe have 150 pounds of excess weight or more. While they might be able to lose 30 or 40 pounds with medicines, they still won’t be getting the results that we need. So, I think going forward we’ll be using these medications solo and in conjunction with surgery sometimes. I do think their role will expand as we go forward.
I think these meds are a big step. It’s interesting the way that they work. They affect gastrointestinal hormones, similar to surgery. They lack some of the mechanical effects, like limiting how much the stomach can actually hold and the changes in digestion, but I think it’s a big step towards addressing obesity as a disease and figuring out where treatments are going to go from here. I think there’s a lot of potential.
To learn more about the non-surgical weight loss management at New Life Center for Bariatric Surgery in Knoxville, TN, request an appointment for a consultation by calling our office at (865) 694-9676 or online!