ASK DR JEFF
I want to lose 3st – are weight loss injections risky? Dr Jeff answers your health questions
A reader also asks about pain from surgery for prostate cancer
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Q) ARE weight-loss injections safe?
I’m a 36-year-old woman and would like to lose 3st.
A friend recently lost that amount and it turns out she was using injections for months.
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They seem like such a quick fix.
There is no way I could lose so much weight in that time with diet and exercise alone.
I’m tempted but also scared of the side-effects.
Shelley Tree, Cumbria
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A) Weight-loss injections are literally a quick fix.
They generally work by altering the hormone that makes us hungry, therefore over time we simply want to eat less.
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There are some crazy theories on social media that food and calories are not responsible for what makes us fat, but sadly we do know that the more you eat, the more you will gain weight.
The only difference is that all of us are different and what one person needs to sustain a stable weight may be more or less than for someone else.
However, if you reduce your appetite through an injection, you will eat less food and weight will drop.
These drugs are not risk-free.
In patients who do not have diabetes (this is what the drug was designed for originally), side-effects include burping, liver and bile problems, constipation, diarrhoea, fatigue and, more seriously, there is also a rare risk of pancreatitis, which can be fatal.
The bigger problem, however, is that once you come off the drug, your body will go back to what it was used to before.
Unless you have made major permanent lifestyle changes, you will simply put the weight back on.
Therefore, you have to ask, unless you really need the medicine, is it worth it?
Q) I RECENTLY had HoLEP surgery and radiotherapy for prostate cancer but I’m still in pain and my stomach and thighs are badly swollen.
I had the surgery in February 2023 and radiotherapy from March to May – 40 sessions in total.
I also still have problems with incontinence.
Can you please give me some advice regarding my swelling and incontinence?
Jim O’Sullivan, Manchester
Prostate cancer is common.
Every year, 52,000 men in the UK are diagnosed, and it affects one in eight men in the UK at some point in their lives.
The problem we have with prostate cancer is that not all cases need treatment, not all are detected via a PSA blood test, and we are still bad at catching the aggressive cancers that are the most serious.
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Some surgical and radiotherapy treatments can lead to urinary and sexual dysfunction.
Therefore, having a good relationship with your urologist is really important as they will be able to help you manage the long-term after-effects of treatment.
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