NPR’s Ailsa Chang talks with Bloomberg Information’ Madison Muller, who reported on a Kentucky metropolis that has one of many highest concentrations of individuals with weight reduction drug prescriptions within the nation.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
They’ve been referred to as Hollywood’s worst-kept secret. We’re speaking about medicines like Ozempic or Mounjaro, that are generally used to deal with diabetes. Effectively, they’re a part of the zeitgeist today. Increasingly more celebrities are opening up about taking them to drop some pounds.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “TODAY”)
HODA KOTB: By the best way, you’ve got been working in your physique and in your well being ‘trigger you…
TRACY MORGAN: No, that is Ozempic.
(LAUGHTER)
MORGAN: That is how this weight bought misplaced.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, “THE KELLY CLARKSON SHOW”)
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: I am doing that great shot that works for…
KELLY CLARKSON: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: …People who want some assist, and it has been actually good for me.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “CALL HER DADDY”)
CHELSEA HANDLER: My anti-aging physician simply fingers it out to anyone, proper? However I did not even know I used to be on it.
CHANG: So once you think about the place these medication are prescribed most for weight reduction throughout the U.S., perhaps you are pondering Los Angeles or perhaps New York. Nevertheless it seems the capital of the burden loss drug increase is in Kentucky, particularly the southern a part of the state in a small metropolis referred to as Bowling Inexperienced. Kentucky has one of many highest weight problems charges within the nation. And in Bowling Inexperienced and the encircling space, at the very least 4% of residents have gotten prescriptions for considered one of these weight reduction medication in simply the final 12 months.
Madison Muller is a well being reporter for Bloomberg Information, and he or she went to Bowling Inexperienced to find out about why weight reduction medication have turn into so pervasive there. Welcome.
MADISON MULLER: Thanks for having me. I am excited to be right here.
CHANG: Oh, we’re so excited to have you ever. So, for individuals who have by no means been to Bowling Inexperienced, are you able to simply describe it for us? Like, should you had been driving down the primary street there, what would you see?
MULLER: You’ll see plenty of quick meals eating places. I grew up within the suburbs of Chicago, and so after I was driving into Bowling Inexperienced, it jogged my memory plenty of a lot of, you realize, the suburbs of Chicago and sort of, like, Center America and the Midwest – a lot of highways crisscrossing the city, strip malls. There’s a actually quaint downtown space. There is a faculty campus. Nevertheless it actually, to me, seemed like plenty of the areas that I grew up going to or at the very least driving via.
CHANG: Effectively, let me ask you as a result of the burden loss drug trade has struggled with provide shortages for years, which has been particularly dangerous for sufferers with diabetes as a result of they really want these medication to remain alive. So how is a metropolis like Bowling Inexperienced maintaining with demand for these weight reduction medication?
MULLER: Yeah, that is query. Provide shortages have clearly been an enormous subject, such as you mentioned, and persons are actually struggling to search out the medication. I imply, within the case of Pat Stiff (ph), who we talked to in our story, you realize, he referred to as me a number of weeks in the past and had checked each pharmacy in a 300-mile radius, he mentioned, to attempt to discover these medication and simply couldn’t discover his Mounjaro prescription in inventory wherever.
One of many ways in which the town – and that is truly occurring throughout the U.S., however it’s actually apparent in Bowling Inexperienced – is there are these medical spas and weight reduction clinics which might be popping up that provide what are referred to as compounded medication. And so they’re primarily, like, off-brand variations which might be made by compounding pharmacies, which is allowed throughout provide shortages. And so plenty of these medical spas are literally making a ton of cash promoting these compounded variations to individuals as a result of so many individuals are having issue accessing the drug.
CHANG: Effectively, moreover the gentleman that you just talked about, who could not discover a branded weight reduction drug inside, like, 300 miles of him, inform us about somebody you’ve got met in Bowling Inexperienced who takes considered one of these weight reduction medication and simply type of the journey they have been on.
MULLER: Yeah. So we talked to so many individuals in Bowling Inexperienced who’ve had wonderful success, life-changing success with these weight reduction medication. We spoke with a lady, Sweet Grey (ph). The explanation that she went on a drug within the first place – and he or she went on Ozempic – was as a result of she had misplaced a number of relations in a really brief time-frame to coronary heart illness. And he or she informed me that she sort of seemed within the mirror and was like, one thing wants to alter. I must, you realize, grasp my well being, and her sisters thought the very same factor. That they had all gone via these losses collectively.
So all of them went on Ozempic, they usually misplaced plenty of weight. Sweet dropped 30 kilos in six months, and her lab outcomes, her blood sugar began to normalize. And he or she was, you realize, discovering herself enjoying pickle together with her husband, taking her canine for longer walks and actually simply, you realize, having fun with life extra. However after that preliminary six months, her insurance coverage stopped masking the drug. And so she’s needed to change to considered one of these copycat or compounded variations of the medicines as a result of she nonetheless had weight to lose and wasn’t keen to essentially surrender but. Her journey, her well being journey was not accomplished but. , she sort of shouts it from the rooftop. She desires this to be destigmatized. So if anybody asks her what she did to lose a lot weight, she’s comfortable to inform them that she took considered one of these pictures.
CHANG: Yeah. Effectively, you talked about med spas. You talked about the burden loss clinics. How else has the burden loss drug increase in Bowling Inexperienced modified or reshaped the native economic system there?
MULLER: I imply, I anticipated to go to Bowling Inexperienced and to see eating places, you realize, shuttering their doorways and gymnasiums closing due to the burden loss drug increase as a result of that is what we hear oftentimes, from, you realize, trade professionals or analysts. However at the very least in Bowling Inexperienced, that’s not what we noticed. The eating places had been nonetheless bustling. The gyms had been truly rising, in accordance with the gymnasium staff that we talked to there.
However what you do see is these extra delicate adjustments, just like the GNC on the native mall has switched up their show, they usually’re providing dietary supplements and protein powder which might be supposed to assist with completely different uncomfortable side effects of the medication like nausea or muscle loss. And also you even see some docs who’ve been in Bowling Inexperienced for endlessly, they’re placing out ads for weight reduction pictures outdoors of their practices. And so it is simply – it is actually fascinating the way it’s, like, subtly reshaping the economic system and among the tradition in Bowling Inexperienced.
CHANG: You write, quote, “we’re all dwelling in an Ozempic city or might be quickly.” Is {that a} good factor? After spending time in Bowling Inexperienced, what do you suppose?
MULLER: I imply, everybody that we spoke to is lots happier and lots more healthy, they usually really feel like higher variations of themselves. That is to not say that these medication are a cure-all. I imply, we did speak to individuals who had actually unhealthy uncomfortable side effects from them. They don’t seem to be the suitable match for everybody. There are some points that the drug producers want to determine, that insurance coverage corporations want to determine. And, you realize, occurring and off of a drug is just not nice in your well being, both.
And one other drawback with that continuity is you realize, insurance coverage entry – insurance coverage supplier masking this, employers masking it. It is necessary for there to be equal entry to those medicines. And in Bowling Inexperienced, we did go to a pharmacy that mentioned Ozempic and different weight reduction medication usually are not an enormous factor at this particular pharmacy on this particular space of Bowling Inexperienced as a result of it did are usually a bit extra low revenue. So we’re already type of seeing these well being disparities when it comes to entry emerge in Bowling Inexperienced. And that is an necessary consideration once you’re interested by the nation as a complete and who wants these medication and who’s in a position to entry them.
CHANG: Madison Muller is a well being reporter for Bloomberg Information. Her piece is titled “What Occurs When Ozempic Takes Over Your City.” Thanks very a lot in your reporting. This was tremendous fascinating.
MULLER: Thanks for having me.
Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content will not be in its remaining kind and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could range. The authoritative report of NPR’s programming is the audio report.
