GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) – Using diabetes meds to shed a few pounds is more than a TikTok trend. Celebrities like Elon Musk have boasted of their weight loss thanks to this substance. The two drugs are Ozempic and Wegovy. Ozempic was approved for diabetes and Wegovy was approved for weight loss. However, they are made from the exact same ingredient, semaglutide.The Greenville clinic offers a drug concoction, and one patient says it changed his life.
Dennis Cameron says he was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed about 260 pounds last summer. He had high blood pressure and saw a doctor about severe chest pains.
“They said I had some kind of stroke,” Cameron said.
His grandfather died of a heart attack at the age of 56 and he worried about the same fate, especially since he is a single father.
“I had a three-year-old and I just wanted to be with him,” Cameron said.
He went to see Dr. Mario Menendez in Internal Medicine. Lowcountry Men’s Clinic at Greenville.
“We generally tend to associate obese people with lack of willpower and poor habits, but that’s not really the case,” says Menendez. ”
He recommended Cameron try a compound of semaglutide and B12. The active ingredient acts as an appetite suppressant.
“The compound version is just a custom version of the drug,” Menendez said. will work.”
Cameron said it worked. In six months he lost about 65 pounds. He didn’t feel hungry and he was able to eat in small portions, he says.
“If you go to a steakhouse and order steak, potatoes and salad, you probably eat a third of it,” Cameron said.
Cameron warned that it’s important to listen to your body while you’re on the drug, and not to eat after your body has given the signal that it’s full. You can take 2.4 mg of semaglutide. Cameron says .5mg worked for him.
“The biggest problem I had was when I started increasing my dosage, I had a little bit of acid reflux,” Cameron said.
Other side effects semaglutide Includes abdominal cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. People with a family history of thyroid cancer or multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2 should not use this drug. Dr. Menendez says it could cost him $1,300 from $400 a month, depending on whether personal insurance covers the cost.
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