This Drug Offers Millions a Unique Shot at Beating the Health Risks That Harm Us the Most
A Special Report
By Sheree Crute
When she was just 26, Branneisha Cooper’s much-loved grandmother pulled her aside and said, “you need to talk to a doctor about where your A1C [a test to assess diabetes risk] is,” Her grandmother added, “I can see where your life is headed and I just want you to get ahead of it, if possible.”
Cooper knew that her grandmother was referring to her family’s legacy of poor health. Both grandmothers were insulin dependent diabetic and there was obesity. “Hypertension and diabetes were so prominent in my family, I just thought that was going to be me. Without her being like, ‘girl, you have to check something out here,’ I would be prediabetic because I was definitely on that route,” Cooper said.
At her doctor visit, Cooper, who began battling weight at age of 11 or 12, discovered her grandmother was right, she was just one point shy of being prediabetic. On top that, she was living with Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome [PMOS, former called PCOS] – an illness that was making weight loss more difficult and damaging her fertility. That is when her doctor proposed she try GLP-1s.
Now, 29, Cooper, a popular influencer, inspires her 49,000 Instagram followers with regular updates on her nearly four year journey—she has lost 126 pounds, tamed her PMOS, avoided diabetes and dramatically improved her health with the help of small (10 mg) weekly doses of Zepbound. She has kept the weight off for nearly two years.
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Seeking a way to improve her health and enjoy her hard-earned retirement, journalist and former communications executive Linda Wright-Moore turned to GLP-1s at 74, after hitting a wall in her own effort to drop the 40-plus pounds she put on through years of high-level caregiving (a role more likely to be held by Black women), while working full time. “I told my doctor, ‘I want to do this because I no longer have the will to do the things I did as a younger woman to lose weight,’” Wright Moore said.
Her efforts stalled after taking off 12 pounds on her own so she tried Wegovy, but stopped after severe gastrointestinal side effects. After her doctor switched her to Zepbound, the side effects disappeared and the weight began to come off. Now 75, she is down about 50 pounds and still taking a small dose of the drug. “I started out very skeptical … but it works. My high blood pressure has improved. I feel good, and I have more energy. I am not out of breath anymore.”
Cooper and Wright Moore’s stories of rediscovering better health by addressing issues that often impact Black women through GLP-1s — even at two very different stages of life — are increasingly common. So much so that it might seem as if it is relatively easy for Black women to decide whether GLP-1s are right for them. That’s not quite the case.
Many Black women face substantial barriers to accessing and understanding the drugs. Yet, sorting through the noise surrounding GLP-1s may offer tremendous advantages because they are currently one of the most effective ways to reduce or prevent many of the life-threatening health problems that disproportionately shorten our lives.
