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Surgery or Meds: What’s the Best Approach to Weight Loss?
One may have better outcomes but the other can play a big role, and the decision depends on each person’s specific needs
My brother is a bariatric surgeon who has been concerned lately as weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Mounjaro are used more widely. This means fewer patients both qualifying for and desiring bariatric surgery. The assumption among many interested in weight loss, especially in those with a lot of weight to lose, is that the medications are safer than the surgery. But this may not be the case.
People often choose medications over surgery for any condition, if the option exists. That’s evidently true with weight loss. One study found a 105% increase in use of GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) — the technical name for Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Ozempic — from 2022 to 2023, with a relative in the rate of bariatric surgery during the same period. Throughout 2023 and early 2024, bariatric surgeons said they were seeing a in weight loss surgeries.
The medications are driving people from bariatric surgery but in some cases they are used alongside it, either before or after. If the need for surgery is prevented, then the medications are doing what they are supposed to do. If a…
