Obesity is a disease. Weight loss drugs are just one way to treat it, says this expert in bariatric surgery (podcast)

Prescription diabetes medications, like semaglutides (such as Ozempic) and tirzepatide (such as Mounjaro) are among the latest – and perhaps the most well-known – types of drugs to treat obesity.

In this episode of the Florida Health Care Insider podcast, presented by Cleveland Clinic in Florida in partnership with the South Florida Business Journal, Raul Rosenthal, MD, director of bariatric and metabolic surgery at the Ellen Leifer Shulman and Steven Shulman Digestive Disease Center at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital, discusses these revolutionary drugs, surgery and more.

But first, Rosenthal emphasizes, obesity “is a chronic disease. What we can do with medication or with an operation is to bring the obesity disease into remission, but we can’t cure it.” Factors such as genetics, metabolism and phenotype (“the interaction of a human being with the environment”) come into play.
However, today’s most-popular weight loss drugs – which Rosenthal predicts will become more affordable and easier to use in a few years – as well as bariatric surgery and lifestyle changes are effective tools for treating obese patients.
“It’s important that people understand they need to do something about obesity because the long-term consequences are irreversible,” says Rosenthal.

Listen to this episode to hear about:

• One reason patients don’t seek medical or surgical treatment for obesity (6:25)
• Why insurers and employers are favoring bariatric surgery (9:12)
• Which bariatric operation is performed most often at Cleveland Clinic Weston Hospital (17:45)
• The international bariatric journal Rosenthal edits (25:09)

Discover more about the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute and Section of Minimally Invasive Surgery at Cleveland Clinic in Florida.

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