That’s the title of one recent white paper Written by me and Christy Piccinini with a team from the Health & Fitness Association (Greta Wagner, Amy Bentham, Ken Griffin, Richard Bedie, Zach Weston, Cameron Saunders). Below is an excerpt:
In recent years, glucagon-like-peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists have emerged as a transformative treatment option, enabling patients to achieve significant weight loss within a relatively short time frame. The remarkable efficacy of these drugs combined with the large population affected by obesity has led to a dramatic increase in the use of GLP-1 over the past few years…
Emerging evidence indicates that combining GLP-1 treatment with structured exercise can reduce both muscle loss during treatment and weight gain after treatment. However, the long-term clinical and financial implications of this approach are unknown.
The study found that, compared with GLP-1 therapy alone, over a 10-year horizon:
- Structured exercise combined with GLP-1 therapy reduces the number of acute cardiovascular events and joint replacements; In the US this means 48,000 cardiovascular events and 160,000 joint replacements were averted.
- Structured exercise along with GLP-1 therapy enhances the patient’s quality of life and overall survival.
- Structured exercise combined with GLP-1 therapy reduces medical costs and social harms due to obesity; In the US this results in savings of US$27 billion in medical costs and US$1 billion in social costs. – Structured exercise combined with GLP-1 therapy results in a large return on investment in all countries studied; Across countries, returns on investment varied
About 30-500% in 10 years and 3001,500% in 30 years - Structured exercise combined with GLP-1 therapy produces net monetary benefits in all countries. For example, the total net monetary gain in the US is US$120 billion.
US$393 billion over 10 years and US$393 billion over 30 years.
You can read the full white paper Here.
