Vim & Vigor - Spring 2018 - Gwinnett Medical Center - 25

For Carl Franklin,
being able to see
his toes (thanks to
a reduced belly)
is better than any
food. Below right, a
"before" photo with
daughter Emmy.

nklin
Ca rl AFGrEa: 50

e plan
Make th hydrates

Limiting

c arb o

e plan
Work th at, dair y

me
Sticks toegetables,
and v
sels
rly Brus
par ticulas, broccoli,
sprout and salad
spinach

Carl

Franklin says, "I was
a pudgy kid, and
in my teenage and
early college years my weight started to get out
of control. I tried to eat less and exercise more,
but that approach usually only works for a few
days-maybe a couple of weeks if your confidence stays up. You feel like you're battling your own body."
Franklin had some success losing weight with the Atkins diet in the late '90s,
but once he stopped it the weight came back, peaking at 366 pounds.
In June 2015, he got sobering news: He had diabetes. "My doctor sounded
like she was reading me a death sentence. She said, 'I'm really sorry. This is a
progressive disease. I'm going to have to get you on medication.'"
Inspired by the success of a friend in controlling his diabetes, Franklin began
strictly limiting his carbohydrates in January 2016. "It's not a radical diet," the
Connecticut resident says. He loves to cook, so he found alternative recipes
that didn't have carbohydrates.
At first, he turned to low-carb breads, and baked goods made with almond

SWAPPING
PILLS FOR
POUNDS
Prescription drugs for weight loss have
a bad reputation. Some of that bias is a
result of weight-loss drugs in the 1990s,
when the drug Fenfluramine/phentermine
(fen-phen) was pulled after it was linked
with heart problems. So, are weight loss
drugs on the market today any better?
The Food and Drug Administration
has approved a handful of effective
medications for weight loss. These include
Qsymia, Contrave and Saxenda. "There's
no doubt that these prescriptions are
safer than over-the-counter supplements,"
says Neelima Dachuri, MD, medical director of the Medical Weight Loss program at
GMC's Center for Weight Management.
"This is because over-the-counter
supplements are unregulated. There's
no scrutiny of who makes them, or
how," explains Dr. Dachuri. "Oftentimes
when these supplements are tested,
they are adulterated, meaning they have
compounds in them that are banned or
undocumented. With prescription drugs,
we do know the side effects, and your
doctor can monitor for them."
Another thing to know: If you take a
prescription drug for weight loss, you'll
probably need to take it indefinitely to
control obesity, the same way you would
take a drug to control blood pressure
or cholesterol.

TOOL

Are You at a
Healthy Weight?
Your body mass index (BMI)
shows if you are underweight,
normal weight, overweight or
obese. Calculate your BMI at
gwinnettmedicalcenter.org/
BMI.

S PRIN G 2 01 8

http://www.gwinnettmedicalcenter.org/BMI http://www.gwinnettmedicalcenter.org/BMI

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