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Type 2 Diabetes and Obesity

Obesity is an important risk factor for type 2 diabetes.1 Both obesity and type 2 diabetes are risk factors for cardiovascular disease.2 Weight management is a key part of the recommended care for patients with type 2 diabetes.3 Lifestyle interventions (diet and exercise) are the cornerstone of management but are not effective for all patients and other interventions, including pharmacotherapy are often required.4 However, approved drug treatments for type 2 diabetes can have positive and negative effects on patients’ weight.5

  • What challenges do you face when trying to achieve weight loss in your patients who have type 2 diabetes?
  • Which drugs treatments indicated for type 2 diabetes are most suitable for patients who are overweight or obese and why?

 

References:

  1. Cameron et al. Quantifying the Sex-Race/Ethnicity-Specific Burden of Obesity on Incident Diabetes Mellitus in the United States, 2001 to 2016: MESA and NHANES. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2021 Feb 16;10(4):e018799.
  2. Scherer and Hill. Obesity, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Diseases: A Compendium. Circulation Research. 2016 May 27; 118(11): 1703–1705.
  3. Davies et al. Management of hyperglycaemia in type 2 diabetes, 2018. A consensus report by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD). Diabetologia. 2018; 61:2461–2498.
  4. Leitner et al. Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: Two Diseases with a Need for Combined Treatment Strategies - EASO Can Lead the Way. Obesity Facts. 2017 Nov; 10(5): 483–492.
  5. Apovian et al. Body Weight Considerations in the Management of Type 2 Diabetes. Advances in Therapy. 2019; 36(1): 44–58.
  • 3yr
    Lifestyle modification is pretty challenging as we all know we are a society with fast food restaurants around us and we refuse to be active and engage in daily exercise. I personally thing once weekly Wegovy is good for type 2 DM with morbid obesity not only for its CV benefit but robust weight loss #
  • 3yr
    Very difficult to convince Hispanics and Asians to decrease rice intake.
  • 3yr
    What other drugs taken in addition to antidiabetic agents lead to weight gain (e.g., antidepressants)? How do you manage weight concerns in such patients?
  • 3yr
    sulfonylureas are a problem. rybelsus
  • 3yr
    I agree that obesity and diabetes are risk factors for CV disease. Add to that smoking status then that patient is really put at higher risk. Prevention, screening, and lifestyle modification are important in treating patients. There are several challenges in achieving weight loss - such as patient's resistance to practice healthy lifestyle which could be to a lot of reasons. Medication compliance can also be an issue, especially taking into consideration potential side effects.
  • 3yr
    pharmacology helps move a patient more quickly to their measurable goals but the lifestyle changes are the long term goal and treatment to manage disease and prevent complications. the 2 can work well together
  • 3yr
    My main challenge is to find time to discuss weight loss when I’m seeing pts with multiple comorbidities and uncontrolled diabetes, also high cost of newer medications and compliance with diet and exercise regimen. I prefer using GLP-1 analogs for weight loss.
  • 3yr
    patient compliance with lifestyle modification
    sglt2 and glp1 are great for weight control in addition to lowering hgba1c
  • 3yr
    agree with everyone
  • 3yr
    So many patients suffer with inability to lose weight and constant gain
  • 3yr
    What are the positives and negatives of pharmacotherapy for T2DM? Have you had patients who have successfully instituted lifestyle changes (e.g., diet, exercise) and no longer needed pharmacotherapy? If so, please describe.
  • 3yr
    most weight loss medications are not covered and pts have no access to a dietician in my area, time restrains are not allowing to focus mainly on weight loss because I have to take care of multiple endocrine problems
    I am using mainly GLP-1 analogs and SGLT-2 inhibitors, looking forward to using recently approved Mounjaro once available at the pharmacies
  • 3yr
    Drugs that are beneficial in achieving weight loss as well as glycemic control such as ozempic or victoza are often more expensive than other older drugs. Patient buy in is a huge problem for me.
  • 3yr
    very good
  • 3yr
    1. My patients enjoy food and find comfort in non-healthy meals. It makes them happy especially when social aspects of engagement have been limited because of the pandemic. This the greatest challenge in our current climate and as we are starting to see patients travel more as the economy opens up and has become more of challenge.
    2. Medications such as sulfonyureas and insulin should be used with caution with obese patients
  • 3yr
    The challenge remains durability to lifestyle changes and medication related weight loss given the easily and frequently consumed processed foods. Metformin and SGLT2 show modest weight loss at best with some hyperresponders to GLP1
  • 3yr
    In our rural area, diet is far from ideal... just encourage more fruits and if no CKD; Ozempic;
  • 3yr
    Of course diet and exercise is recommended for all diabetics and obese patients. Ozempic, especially because it's only a once a week, painless injection,has helped tremendously to help both of these areas.
  • 3yr
    Managing Diabetes and the related Obesity is a life long challenge for both the patients and the Health Care Providers and is governed by the multiple factors of Patients perception of the disease process , comorbid factors , economy , tolerance of the meds , compliance , complacency and preference of the meds . Managing Diabetes and Obesity has never been so promosing than ever before thanks to GLP-1 Agonist and the SGLT-2 inhibitors and slew of meds in the pipeline . Patients need to be monitored and motivated on long term basis to follow the diet and exercise program and now with the help of plethora of the apps available helps a lot for the BioFeedback in managing the Blood Glucose and weight , Use of the Continous Glucose monitors has become in vogue thanks to much better coverage by the insurance companies , GLP-1 in particular the Availablity of Oral Rybelsus has been a shot in the arm of the use of this class with much wider acceptability of these meds and have helped lot of diabetic pts to achieve better glucose control and weight loss with signficant potential for positive Cardiovascular outcomes as supported by the data , Ofcourse the injectables in this class are always there for the pts who prefer them There is always room for the addition of SGLT-2 inhibitors in the life long management of diabetes and they become drugs of choice in pts with and with risk for Cardiovascular disease , Mefformin remains the cornerstone med to manage the Insulin Resistance and should be always there even and unlness not possible due to intolerance , Bariatric Surgery should be pursued whenever possible and indicated as has the potential of "curing "diabetes given the sophistaication and safety that is now there in this modality . Overall affording the meds tolerance and compliance remain the main challenges in managing diabetes and obesity
  • 3yr
    What is the combined benefit of pharmacotherapy and lifestyle change in patients with diabetes and hypertension? Does this combination further potentiate health outcomes?
  • 3yr
    the challenges in weight loss or or wheeze the patient losing the weight and keeping the weight off even with GLP-1 they tend to plateau over time and the medication does not appear to have the same effect down the line as it does at the initial visit and need to increase ever increasingly dosages of GLP-1 in order to gain the same favorable effect.
  • 3yr
    1. The obese patient has habits and lifestyle that make achievable, sustainable weight loss difficult. If they have already advanced to insulin, then the weight gain associated with a necessary medication must be overcome as well. So, lifestyle, eating habits, medications, and comorbidities, must all be manipulated and eventually balanced to achieve weight control.
    2. Currently, the most promising drugs available are the GLP-2 inhibitors.

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