Understanding Obesity and Treatment Foundations

00:01 Hi, I'm Doctor Lawes and welcome to our pharmacology lecture on the use of incretin medications in the management of Obesity.

00:09 Now in this part of the series, we'll explore some of the pharmaceutical options that are currently available.

00:14 Now, as a future member of the healthcare team, you'll encounter these medications frequently no matter where you practice.

00:21 So it's important that you understand their mechanisms, their benefits, and their risks in patient care.

00:27 Let's start with some important yet sometimes uncomfortable definitions. Now these are the classifications that guide the treatment approaches and medication selection.

00:37 So that's an important place to start.

00:39 Now this is a somewhat controversial Measurement, but it's BMI. Now let's just talk about what it is.

00:47 BMI is a calculated measure of a person's body weight in kilograms, divided by the square of their height in meters.

00:55 Now, keep in mind BMI doesn't directly measure body fat, but BMI is moderately to strongly associated with other measures that capture that amount, location, and distribution of body fat.

01:07 Now notice I said moderately to strongly associated in.

01:12 Everyone has an opinion.

01:15 Now as far as definitions, we're going to use BMI to define overweight and classes 1 to 3 of obesity. So, overweight is defined as a BMI of 25 to 29.9, classes 1 and 2 obesity are greater than or equal to 30 and 35, and class 3 obesity is defined as a BMI greater than or equal to 40.

01:39 Okay. Bmi is not accurate for all body types that is established.

01:45 For an example, you might have an athlete who has much more muscle than fat, but they can still appear to be in the BMI or the overweight range for BMI. So some providers are now using another measurement.

01:59 In addition, it's the fat to muscle ratio.

02:01 So just be aware of that's what it is.

02:03 It's called the FMR and why it's used.

02:07 Now keep in mind all pharmacological treatments should be combined with lifestyle modifications. There's no magic medication that will fix or resolve obesity. Remember your client can see health benefits with just 5% weight loss. So keep using that to help encourage them and motivate them because this is a really tough health situation to turn around.

02:32 Now how do you know which medication to use? Well, the health care team will make their treatment choices based on these things the patient's comorbidities, possible contraindications, even cost and insurance coverage can come into play.

02:47 And the patient's preferences and lifestyle.