Friday Q&A: assessing COVID risk; Ozempic/Mounjaro; booster shots; & CBD gummies for sleep
You ask the best questions! 🎉
ICYMI 👉
Question #1 (on assessing COVID risk) is free for all subscribers. Questions #2-4 (on Ozempic/Mounjaro; booster shots; & CBD gummies) are for paid subscribers only. If you would like a paid subscription but it’s not in your budget, please message me directly!
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Disclaimer: The views expressed here are entirely my own. They do not reflect those of my employer, nor are they a substitute for advice from your personal physician.
QUESTION #1: ASSESSING COVID RISK
How do family members live their lives and yet also protect those in their family who ARE vulnerable/higher risk for Covid complications? We have members with autoimmune disease as well as elderly family members. All had Covid and have been and will continue to be boosted, yet in spite of that landed in the hospital, ICU, etc. How can the rest of us be a part of their lives, take them to appointments etc? What precautions should be taken? Thanks for the insight. Some of the elder's physicians have said they should simply stay home. Yet for the elders, they want to be involved and social.
-Beth
Dear Beth,
Thank you for this important question. The pandemic laid bare how difficult it is quantify risk. Of course, health is about protecting ourselves and our communities from viruses; it is also about the ability to live, work, socialize, and connect with loved ones—not in a state of perpetual fear.
The challenge here is that COVID isn’t going away. And despite highly effective vaccines and therapeutics, COVID can do harm in high-risk patients and populations. That said, avoiding COVID exposures in perpetuity has emotional, physical, and mental health costs.
So I suggest reframing your question from “Should I take my elderly high risk family member to their appointments?” To “What matters most to me (and to my loved ones), how much risk am I willing to tolerate in order to do something I want to, and how can I mitigate that risk without doing more total harm than good?”
Protecting yourself from serious COVID outcomes means:
Getting vaccinated and boosted if needed
Optimizing your underlying health
Having access to your medical provider for Paxlovid if you are high risk
Protecting against infection COVID means:
Avoiding contact with people who are actively sick (the vast majority of COVID spread is from people with symptoms)
Considering a well-fitted, high-grade mask in crowded, poorly ventilated indoor spaces
Protecting against COVID transmission (i.e., spreading it to others) means staying home when sick.
Balancing the risk of COVID with the risk of the mitigation measures involves a series of trade-offs. In my opinion, in December 2023, these decisions should be up to the individual and in accordance with their medical vulnerabilities and tolerance for risk. Of course you should talk with your own doctor for more specific advice. In the meantime I hope this is helpful.
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QUESTION #2: WEIGHT GAIN AFTER OZEMPIC/MOUNJARO
Do people always gain the weight back when they stop taking Ozempic or Mounjaro for weight loss? -Kathy
Dear Kathy,
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