5-Star Wellbeing
Invest in better health for a 5-Star ROI.
Here’s an opportunity for an employee wellbeing initiative that honestly works.
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Highly effective—safely used—weight-loss medications.
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Healthy eating without sacrificing foods you love.
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Exercise that is fun—energizing, not exhausting.
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A mutually supportive community of fellow travelers.
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At-home or on-the-go access—anytime, anywhere.
This is 5-Star Wellbeing.
This isn’t a wonder drug,
a diet, or an exercise program.
None of them work alone.
It takes a combination of ALL three.
Your Sponsor Role as a Concerned Employer
In the long run—as you probably know—many wellbeing programs just don’t work.
They can be broadly classified into two categories: those with an emphasis on motivation, which generally achieve higher compliance, and those that provide lots of great wellness opportunities, but without effective motivation. We’ve studied the programs that do achieve a good ROI (for instance, J&J) and have come to understand why. In every case we’ve reviewed, the ones that work best provide a financial incentive for compliance (or financial disincentive for noncompliance.) Why? Because money is a powerful motivator. Given the perceived pain and sacrifice, powerful motivation is required to gain and maintain participation. But now there is a motivator even more powerful than financial rewards. People want access to the new weight-loss medications. The word is out: GLP-1s (with proper medical management) take the pain and strain out of losing weight. And losing weight is the first step towards lifestyle change and wellbeing. You want long-term benefits for your people. And you want them to be safe. Our program to change learned behaviors that contribute to poor dietary choices and sedentary habits was created by a team led by medical and behavioral science professionals.
The new drugs are game changers
GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide and tirzepatide are now considered by many in medicine to be most effective drugs of the decade.
In terms of weight loss, they are truly unparalleled. They are clearly effective. And research findings show more and more benefits. But keeping excess weight off is harder than losing it. And losing weight too quickly is dangerous. The body responds to weight loss by lowering basal metabolism and increasing hunger, making it extremely difficult to maintain a lower weight. The new appetite suppressant medications shield you from your body’s natural reaction to losing weight, thus making it easier to eat less. And, over time, that allows you to rewire your brain to change learned behaviors that contributed to the excessive food intake, poor dietary choices, and sedentary habits that plague most of us.
The Dangers and Promises of GLP-1s
It’s not just about losing weight. But weight loss remains the big selling point. And a race for market share within big pharma is putting way too much focus on what medication offers the greatest percent of body weight reduction in the least time. This definition of what’s the “best” medication is dangerous. There is more than one downside to rapid weight loss. A big one is losing too much muscle. About 25 to 30 percent of weight loss is from loss of muscle. But 100 percent of weight regain is fat. Losing and then regaining a lot of weight will leave someone much worse off. Another factor is that number and severity of unpleasant side effects appears to be related to the dose, with higher doses creating more. And then there’s the cost factor—also in which higher doses result in more. Our clinicians prescribe based on personal, unique metabolic profiles. The traditional BMI measurement criteria is often misleading and can exclude people whose metabolic profile (or other factors) show they would benefit in other ways than just treatment indicated by a high BMI score. That’s one reason we require a lab panel (“blood test’) as part of our diagnostic process. There is increasing realization that GLP-1s offer benefits beyond or even in the absence of weight loss. GLP-1s have been shown to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events, such as heart attack and stroke. There is growing interest in the potential roles of GLP-1s in several other areas.
Drugs Alone Won’t Create Wellbeing
There’s new evidence of GLP-1s ability to slow progression of conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. These medications have shown promise in managing chronic kidney disease. And research is exploring the potential role of GLP-1 agonists in the treatment of substance use disorders. But in all cases diet is important. Exercise is equally important. Wellbeing is dependent on healthy food choices and a reasonable amount of exercise. But diet and exercise alone rarely work long-term for wellbeing and weight management. That’s why the right medication at the right (smallest efficacious) dosage is a vital component to make lifestyle change possible.
We Prescribe But We Don’t Sell Medications
5-Star Wellbeing isn’t an employer-sponsored version of the online companies that are writing prescriptions in order to sell weight loss drugs. We are in the long-term business of helping people achieve wellbeing. That requires a long-term commitment to a continuing relationship that helps people achieve lifestyle change. We don’t own a pharmacy. We don’t have any arrangement to gain any financial benefit from any pharmacy. We do have deals that allow our members to buy certain medications direct from pharmacies at wholesale prices. We only recommend those we’ve vetted for quality and safety. Maintaining a healthy weight is fundamental to wellbeing. But sometimes a compounded lower dose of a GLP-1 medication is indicated to gain a broader wellbeing benefit beyond weight loss. When appropriate, we may write a prescription for a specifically compounded medication that contains GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide and tirzepatide but differs in composition from brand name medications. In such a case, your employee will make the purchase directly from the compounding pharmacy.
Medical Monitoring to Minimize Muscle Loss
You want your employees to be monitored for safety. Since approximately 27% of diet-induced weight loss is from loss of muscle, exercise is important. Studies have shown that muscle mass loss is reduced to approximately 13% of the total weight loss when diet and exercise are combined. A loss of only 10% of body weight in persons with obesity is associated with substantial health benefits. Clinically meaningful health benefits can even be seen with weight loss of 2%-5%. A reasonable goal for weight loss in the setting of a medical treatment program is approximately 1-2 lb/wk. However, the weight-loss goal for each person must be individualized and cannot be unilaterally based on standard BMI weight-for-height norms or claims by pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Clelia Lima, DNP, APRN
Lifestyle Change With People, not AI or a Mobile App
There seems to be an app for everything these days. And now AI is the hot topic. But people need people if they are going to change their lives. 5-Star Wellbeing is not an app. We don’t communicate via a chatbot. And our use of AI will be strictly behind the scenes. Its not that we’re luddites. There’s a cost-saving tech stack supporting our operations. But our ongoing work with your employees is person-to-person. And based on authentic relationships
