{"id":179940,"date":"2025-09-25T03:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T03:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/179940\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T03:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T03:09:07","slug":"are-weight-loss-drugs-safe-florida-expert-weighs-in-on-semaglutide-and-tirzepatide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/179940\/","title":{"rendered":"Are weight loss drugs safe? Florida expert weighs in on semaglutide and tirzepatide"},"content":{"rendered":"

SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB<\/a>) – Weight loss medications like Wegovy and Zepbound are gaining widespread attention for their dramatic results, and that demand shows no signs of slowing.<\/p>\n

To help break it all down, ABC7 spoke with Dr. Scott Howe, medical director at Premier Weight Loss in Bradenton.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese medications are changing lives,\u201d Dr. Howe said. \u201cPeople are losing more weight than ever, it seems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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So, what\u2019s behind the popularity?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually found a medication that actually works,\u201d Dr. Howe explained. \u201cPeople that come into our clinic have tried and tried, so many times, to lose weight, and they failed. So we finally found something that works.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two most common medications are semaglutide (branded as Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Zepbound). Each works differently inside the body.<\/p>\n

\u201cSemaglutide hits one receptor. It was the first one that came out,\u201d Dr. Howe said. \u201cTirzepatide hits two receptors, and studies show that with tirzepatide, you get about a 32% weight loss compared to 28% with semaglutide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both are effective. According to Dr. Howe, the best option depends on individual needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have a lot of weight to lose, semaglutide works just remarkably well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But as interest grows, so do shortcuts. Some people are buying medications online, without a doctor\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n

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Dr. Howe urged caution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really don\u2019t know exactly what they get online,\u201d he said. \u201cAt our clinics, I\u2019ve monitored 47,000 patient visits. I review labs, EKGs, and medication interactions. If there\u2019s a problem, we deal with it right then and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says that the level of oversight matters and can make or break a patient\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome health insurance companies are still covering it if you\u2019re obese,\u201d Dr. Howe noted. \u201cBut others are pulling back. It\u2019s like Botox, so popular and widespread that insurers don\u2019t want to pay anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the medications continue to grow in popularity. Dr. Howe believes that\u2019s partly because the health benefits go beyond the scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s overall improvement in health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) – Weight loss medications like Wegovy and Zepbound are gaining widespread attention for their dramatic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[106632,106630,97,243,106631,106629,106628],"class_list":{"0":"post-179940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-are-weight-loss-drugs-covered-by-insurance","9":"tag-bradenton-weight-loss-clinic","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-medication","12":"tag-premier-weight-loss-sarasota","13":"tag-tirzepatide-vs-semaglutide","14":"tag-wegovy-vs-zepbound"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}