Q. With the recent buzz around weight loss drugs like Wegovy, how exactly do they work to help you lose weight?

I personally enjoy eating, so I deeply empathize with how difficult it is to control one’s appetite; it’s never as easy as it sounds. These medications primarily work by mimicking the body's insulin-regulating hormones. Specifically, they act on the hypothalamus to reduce hunger and slow down gastric motility, inducing a state where you naturally consume less food. From a Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) perspective, this is viewed as a process of extinguishing 'Stomach Heat' (胃熱). When the stomach's function becomes 'overheated,' it leads to constant hunger and uncontrollable cravings. While these drugs are effective at cooling that heat, caution is necessary. Artificially slowing down the digestive system can lead to the accumulation of 'Phlegm-fluid' (痰飮)—waste products that clump together—or cause 'Spleen Deficiency' (脾虛), which can leave you feeling chronically fatigued. In clinical practice, I often see that relying solely on suppressing appetite can cause Stomach Heat to rebound once the medication is stopped, leading to the 'yo-yo effect.' Our goal is to utilize these mechanisms while focusing on restoring the body's self-metabolic capacity. We focus on clearing Stomach Heat while supplementing Qi (vital energy) to prevent Phlegm accumulation. Instead of just starving, we help you find a healthy, sustainable rhythm for your body.