When Sharon Schwartz learned that she had prediabetes in 2022 she was worried about what that meant for her future.
“I’ve been in medicine for 35 years as a nurse anesthetist, I know what diabetes does to you,” the 61-year-old from North Carolina tells TODAY.com. “It was a huge wake up call.”
Schwartz is just 5-feet-2-inches tall and, at the time, she weighed 200 pounds. She was concerned that if she didn’t lose weight she would end up like her mother who had Type 2 diabetes. She believes the disease contributed to her mother’s strokes and dementia later in life. Schwartz started eating a low carbohydrate diet and began taking Mounjaro, a GLP-1 agonist, a type medication used to treat Type 2 diabetes and can aid in weight loss. She was shocked by the results.
“Much to my surprise, it worked,” she says.
Thyroid surgery, weight gain and a new diagnosis
Growing up, Schwartz was bigger than her friends and bullies often targeted her about her weight.
“Kids are mean,” she says. “People are a lot less tolerant of larger folks.”
After being the butt of their jokes, she often ate to soothe her feelings. That led to her to gain more weight at times, but often she was able to lose it. About 25 years ago, Schwartz received a thyroid cancer diagnosis and doctors removed her thyroid. While she took synthetic thyroid to replace the missing hormones, she still struggled over the years.
“When you lose your thyroid, even being put on (thyroid medication), it’s very hard to lose weight,” she says. “I’ve been able to lose weight at times during my life … this time it didn’t work.”
Schwartz…
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