Extra Weight Can Make Frailty Worse
The research was funded by Novo Nordisk, the maker of the semaglutide medicine Ozempic and Wegovy, and several other of the research’s researchers reported compensation from Novo. Nonetheless, healthcare suppliers say the findings make sense.
A lot of the profit comes from fats loss, in keeping with Mir Ali, MD, the medical director of the MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Middle at Orange Coast Medical Middle in Fountain Valley, California, who was not concerned with the analysis. “The advantages of weight reduction usually outweigh the potential lack of muscle,” he says. “Frailty can really enhance with weight reduction in individuals with obese or weight problems.”
Extra weight causes power irritation within the physique which will exacerbate underlying well being situations. Further kilos can even place extra stress on joints that may restrict mobility, Dr. Ali says. “Losing a few pounds could fight these components,” he says.
Gregorovic says the center advantages of a GLP-1 can even work in opposition to frailty, elevating an individual’s mobility and high quality of life. “It’s actually fascinating that measures of frailty moved in a positive path with semaglutide, whereas they worsened over time with placebo,” she says, calling the findings “very reassuring” for older adults with weight problems and obese.
She additionally factors out that many older adults already come to healthcare suppliers with some extent of age-related muscle and bone loss earlier than they begin an weight problems medicine, Gregorovic says. “We’re ranging from a unique place than we may be with a youthful affected person, and that must be a part of the dialog,” she says.
Earlier Analysis on GLP-1 Use Amongst Older Adults Has Proven Combined Outcomes
Lack of ‘Lean Mass’ Isn’t Synonymous With Muscle Loss
“The priority is actual,” relating to GLP-1 use amongst adults with frailty, “however I feel it typically will get oversimplified,” Gregorovic says.
“Anytime somebody loses a big quantity of weight, we’re going to see some lack of lean mass together with fats mass,” she continues. “However lean mass and muscle aren’t interchangeable.” Lean mass consists of muscle, but additionally water, glycogen (vitality saved within the physique), organs, connective tissue, and different nonfat tissue. “So, once we hear {that a} sure proportion of weight reduction was lean mass, we shouldn’t assume that somebody misplaced that very same proportion of their muscle,” Gregorovic says.
Steps to attenuate muscle loss nonetheless have to be taken, she says. However muscle loss is to be anticipated at this stage of life. “A point of muscle and bone loss is already occurring as we age, and a few older sufferers could already be beginning with much less muscle, power, or mobility,” Gregorovic says.
It’s Necessary to Have a look at Every Affected person as an Particular person, Consultants Say
“Use of GLP-1 receptor agonist-based therapies ought to all the time be individualized, utilized in mixture with optimum well being behaviors, and carefully monitored in collaboration with a well being skilled,” Dr. Ostrominski says.
Gregorovic says that healthcare suppliers shouldn’t keep away from treating weight problems due to frailty considerations. “It means we have to be extra considerate about how we do it,” she says. That may imply slowly ramping up the dosage of semaglutide, if wanted. “I’m on the lookout for the therapeutic dose that offers us the profit we’re on the lookout for whereas nonetheless permitting that particular person to eat nicely, keep hydrated, be energetic, and really feel nicely,” she says.
General, Ostrominski recommends that older adults who’re contemplating GLP-1 medicines speak to their healthcare supplier about their particular person dangers and advantages. If the choice is made to maneuver ahead with the medicines, doing common cardio and resistance coaching, together with slowly and steadily growing the dosage, may be useful to fight frailty, he says.
