WEBVTT

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I was recently asked to talk about a news article that's reported a woman who has passed away

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from a gastrointestinal illness in relation to ozimpic.

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Before I dive into the story, I just want to give my condolences to the family.

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I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that you're experiencing.

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I personally have loved ones on these medications as well and cannot fathom how you must feel

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as you have lost a loved one.

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Okay, let's get into the news articles.

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Reportedly, there's a woman who wanted to lose weight for her daughter's wedding.

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I think many of us have probably been in similar situations.

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As she wanted to lose weight for her daughter's wedding to fit into a certain dress, she decided

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to talk to her physician about using a medication for weight loss.

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Her physician had prescribed her ozimpic.

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Ozimpic is a very well studied medication that is used for type 2 diabetes.

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And people lose significant amount of weight with ozimpic.

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The actual medication C. Maglutide is also wagobi, which has been approved for weight

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loss.

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So this mother was able to lose a significant amount of weight.

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I believe the report said that she lost 35 pounds over about 5 months.

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Throughout her time taking this medication though, she had severe gastrointestinal side

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effects.

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From what I could see in the report, she had severe nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.

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These are known common side effects that have to be talked about with a physician and

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is often timed the reason to discontinue the medications.

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Despite experiencing these side effects, she decided to continue to use the medications because

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she wanted to feel comfortable at her daughter's wedding.

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After a few months, she was switched to lira glutide or sexinda to continue to lose

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weight.

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This is a similar medication that has been around for a long time.

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Then January 16th of this year, she had stopped breathing.

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As per the report, the events leading up to this was that she was vomiting and brown fluid

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and that her husband had noticed that it was not stopping and tried to put her on her side

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and then she had stopped breathing and CPR was initiated.

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Unfortunately, this is when this mother had lost her life.

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On the death certificate, the cause of death was listed as acute gastrointestinal illness.

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So again, my condolences go out to this family and I'm terribly sorry this happened.

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So now to talk about the medications.

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Something that's not clear in the report was if the woman was still taking these medications

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during this event or if she had stopped over a certain amount of period of time.

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Second would be that we do not know if the medications actually caused this acute illness.

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We don't know if it was a side effect of the medication as we don't know if she was still

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taking it.

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If the medications cannot have potential long term side effects, when we look at the extensive

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studies that have been done, we do not see that or we haven't seen that.

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Yes, side effects are very common, especially GI side effects, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation,

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severe nausea.

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And so big picture, is it possible that the medication led to these side effects?

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It would be possible, but can we say that for certain?

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No.

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So although a horrific case and I cannot fathom going through this, the data that we have on

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these medications right now are that they are safe and efficacious.

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But in saying that if you are having severe side effects, the medication should be discontinued.

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Another thing that I want to discuss is the underlying pressure to lose weight.

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I think that this is a societal problem that we have, that we have to look a certain way

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or we have to be a certain body size or that we have to fit in a certain size of clothing

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to look beautiful.

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Where all these pressures have been so ingrained to us that it makes us subconsciously or in

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our mind think that we have to be a certain size to feel comfortable in our own skin.

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Now again, I don't know this woman.

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I'm not saying that she battled with any of these external pressures, but I know it's

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something that I've struggled with in my life.

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And I think this raises a bigger problem throughout the world that we are willing to go to the

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greatest sacrifice to lose weight.

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And at the end of the day, our overall health is far more important than weight loss.

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And sometimes overall health means not losing weight at this exact time.

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So I know this has been a long video, but in conclusion, I am terribly, terribly sorry

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to this family.

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What we know about these medications and the extensive research that have been done on them,

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it does appear that they are safe and efficacious.

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Third, if you are experiencing side effects, they are not something to ignore and you should

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talk with your position about them.

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By the way, I'm not saying this woman didn't, that's just a disclaimer.

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Lastly, there's nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight, but I hope that you could feel

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beautiful in your own skin the way you are right now despite the societal norms.

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It's okay to want to lose weight, but it's not okay to sacrifice all other areas of your

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health to maybe gain some benefit in the realms of health in terms of weight loss.

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That's a sad case and my condolences to the family.