Weight loss drugs have transformed an American city.

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Weight loss drugs have transformed an American city. Is that a good thing?

August 19, 20246:12 PM ET

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https://www.npr.org/2024/08/19/1198913093/weight-loss-drugs-bowling-green-kentucky

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Boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

They've been called "Hollywood's worst-kept secret."

Weight loss medications like Ozempic and Mounjaro, which are commonly used to treat diabetes, are part of the zeitgeist these days, as more and more celebrities are opening up about taking them to lose weight.

So when looking at where they're most popular, you might imagine a place like Los Angeles or New York.

The actual capital of weight-loss drugs in the U.S. might surprise you. Why would the small city of Bowling Green, Ky. have the highest rate of prescriptions for these drugs?

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A high obesity rate and options to treat it.

Kentucky has one of the highest obesity rates in the country.

In Bowling Green, and the surrounding area, at least four percent of residents have gotten prescriptions for one of these weight-loss drugs in the last year.

Madison Muller is a health reporter for Bloomberg News. She went to Bowling Green to learn more about why weight-loss drugs have become so pervasive.

"Diabetes rates are really high," says Muller.

"So it's actually a good thing. It seems like at least maybe people who actually really need these drugs are getting them if the rates are so high in this area."

Muller explains that one employer, Med Center Health, a health system company, has been covering the drugs for employees.

"Having these these different factors, and also the fact that Bowling Green is a middle class community, where people might be able to afford these $1,000 a month or more drugs out of pocket if necessary, created the perfect conditions for weight loss drugs to take off in that area."

The general impact.

Muller says that it's too soon to know what the overall general impact these drugs have had on this community is.

Patients in Bowling Green and across the U.S. have also been forced to deal with supply chain issues and drug shortages as they have become more popular.

But anecdotally, she says that what she has heard has been positive.

"From talking to patients and from talking to doctors, we know that these patients, have seen measurable declines in their blood sugar levels or their knee pain. Head pain has gotten better. And the doctors that we spoke to in Bowling Green said, without a doubt, their patients health is improving as a result of these drugs."

One potentially unexpected impact has also been a decline in bariatric surgery.

"One of the people we spoke to in Bowling Green, Brittney Felton, works at a rehab clinic that treats and helps people after they've had surgery. And she said that one of the most common reasons that patients used to come to this rehab clinic was after bariatric surgery to help in the recovery process. And she said that that's not happening anymore. She's not seeing patients come into the rehab center anymore as a result of bariatric surgery."

This episode was produced by Kathryn Fink. It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.