New Weight Loss Drug for Kids Features Black Box Warning

No one can deny that America’s children have a weight problem. According to the CDC, one in five kids is obese, an increase of 3% over the past 15 years. This means they have a body mass index (BMI) at the 95 percentile for their age and sex. This problem runs across all age groups under 18 as parents scramble to solve this growing crisis among their children.

With this alarming increase, the American Academy of Pediatrics set new guidelines last year for treating childhood obesity. These options include medications and surgery. At the time, most medications available for treatment were only available to patients aged 12 and above.

Until, that is, recently. An FDA-approved drug called Saxenda is positioning itself as a treatment for obesity in children as young as six. Saxenda’s study on the drug’s effectiveness claims to reduce BMI in children. MedPageToday reports that children aged 6 to 11 who took 3mg of this drug daily for 56 weeks lost nearly 6% of their BMI compared to a 1.6% gain in BMI for children who only did lifestyle interventions like diet and exercise. Approximately 80 children participated in this study; 56 took Saxenda, while the rest were in the control group.

These results provide more questions than answers, especially why the children who participated in lifestyle intervention gained BMI. Could the problem be that BMI is not an acceptable way to measure obesity?

Understanding BMI 

According to the CDC, body mass index (BMI) is calculated differently for adults and children. For adults, BMI is computed by measuring body weight relative to height. However, because children are growing, the ideal BMI for children, called BMI-for-age, is determined relative to other children of the same sex and age and represented as a percentile rather than a number, like it is for adults.

BMI is a crucial determinant of results for weight loss drugs, but it has inherent problems. First of all, height and weight alone cannot determine obesity. This is even more challenging for children as they experience growth spurts, changing hormones, and many other factors that influence their height-to-weight ratio.

BMI leaves out many other critical factors, too. For example, it does not differentiate between muscle and fat. Muscle mass is denser. This reads as a higher BMI in adults, even when a person is in excellent physical shape. Plus, BMI ignores factors like bone density or body composition, which change in a growing body. But that’s not all.

BMI is not just inaccurate. It can also be misleading. Several studies link obesity determined by BMI to diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, osteoarthritis, and liver and gallbladder diseases. However, some studies show that obese patients have a lower risk of cardiovascular issues and a better metabolic profile. Medical scientists need to find a more accurate way to define obesity, particularly in children, especially before prescribing these harmful drugs to them.

These drugs also have consequences for kids. Some of the children in the study lost muscle mass due to taking Saxenda. Plus, the researchers did not measure the body composition of their subjects. While the base numbers look good, BMI is an inaccurate measurement for obesity. That begs the question: is it worth the risk? Let’s take a look at the gravest adverse events that kids can face when taking this drug.

Adverse Events in Saxenda and Other Weight-Loss Drugs

Saxenda has numerous side effects. It has been shown to cause thyroid tumors in rats, which is why it carries a black box warning. The FDA reserves this determination for drugs with the most dangerous side effects, such as death or serious injury, or, in this case, thyroid cancer. Saxenda is also linked to GI disorders, breast cancer, acute pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, tachycardia (increased heart rate), kidney failure, allergic reactions, and suicidal ideation.

Saxenda differs from Ozempic. It contains liraglutide, unlike the more commonly advertised weight-loss drug. Ozempic, which is not FDA-approved for weight loss but for managing blood sugar and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, contains semaglutide. Both are GLP-1 agonists, which impact how your body controls blood sugar.

Ozempic is currently only approved for adults in the U.S. However, this cancer-linked fat loss drug is in trials for children aged six and above in the U.K. Ozempic mRNA is touted as a “revolutionary treatment for diabetes” most likely because it uses mRNA technology. mRNA stands for “messenger RNA,” a biological agent that sends messages to your DNA with instructions on what to do. This is the same technology used for many of the Covid vaccines.

Ozempic injects synthetic mRNA into your body to produce a protein called GLP-1, which helps regulate blood sugar levels. This protein increases the flow of insulin and slows digestion to reduce appetite.

The problem is that mRNA is not exactly what we were told. This synthetic mRNA, modRNA, does not work like the natural version. Although pharma companies state that mRNA molecules remain localized and break down quickly, research shows a different reality. mRNA lasts longer than advertised and may even be permanent. It also makes unpredictable changes to DNA, wreaking havoc in the body. To date, there is a plethora of evidence that mRNA vaccines cause harm.

Can we really risk our children’s health with these medications? Pharmaceutical companies have played fast and loose with this technology, doing only the bare minimum, if any, research on safety and efficacy. As child drug trials proceed, there must be better options than leaning on pharmaceuticals and BMI to treat and measure childhood obesity. If physicians do not account for lifestyle, diet, genetics, epigenetics, metabolic factors, and overall health when diagnosing obesity, mistakes will be made. Western medicine is not up to the job. BMI is a shortcut that disregards a holistic view of health in children.

American health standards aggravate the problem of childhood obesity. U.S. dietary guidelines ignore the health impact of seed oils, glyphosate, and obesogens. Our kids also suffer from an overabundance of screen time with reduced activity time, even in school. Poor thyroid health can also impact weight fluctuations in children. Proper, in-depth health reviews are necessary to help children struggling with weight. With a black box warning on the label, there are better options than Saxenda to address childhood weight management.