Thoughts on Ozempic
If you’re somewhat curious about health and wellness you’ve probably come across ozempic in your news feeds or latest podcasts. It seems to have blown up this year as the latest craze when it comes to weight loss.
After speaking with a client who had used it in the past with horrendous side effects I thought I’d explore it a little further and document my thoughts.
It was a drug initially developed to address type 2 diabetes but the resulting rapid weight loss has become desirable to many people and launched this drug as a mainstream weight loss solution (sigghhhhh). Confirming that society favours thinness over real health (another sigh).
Ozempic works as a GLP-1 receptor agonist which slows gastric emptying and communicates to the brain that you’re full. This causes stable blood sugar levels and a reduction in HbA1c, reduced appetite and weight loss. For type 2 diabetics this is a great treatment (not the first line treatment I would suggest when we know type 2 diabetes can be addressed through lifestyle change but alas this is effective and lifesaving for many people who don’t have the education/tools to change their environment).
Here are my thoughts and things you should bear in mind as you see the hype on Ozempic circulate around!
Pros:
Significantly reduces HbA1c - a 3 month marker of blood sugar levels. This is the marker that is used to diagnose type 2
Significant weight loss - beneficial for almost all health conditions as an overweight/obese state puts a massive inflammatory load on the body
Cardiovascular improvement - we know high blood sugar levels/inflammation are the key drivers of cardiovascular disease and so this area of health is improved with ozempic too.
Easy to implement aka you don’t need to change your lifestyle. Ozempic is a once-weekly self administered injection.
Cons
Gastrointestinal side effects - nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea and constipation. These are the symptoms my client reported.
Risk of malnutrition due to the serious lack of appetite.
When you stop taking ozempic, the weight piles back on. It’s a LIFETIME medication not a root cause treatment. Many people also report intense hunger and cravings when they stop ozempic which causes binge-eating-like behaviour as their body attempts to rectify the under-nourishment it has received.
It’s become so popular that supply exceeds demand and those who really need it can’t access it in some parts of the world.
Risk of hypoglycemia - low blood sugars. Particularly relevant for those taking it who are not diabetic but just taking it to lose weight (often celebrities/influencers who actually don’t need to lose weight or much weight at all).
Potential risk of thyroid c-cell cancers - this has only been studied in rodent studies but is still worth being wary of particularly those at higher risk of cancer
Cost - on average it costs $1000 per month.
On top of this it seems to confirm societies striving for being unrealistically slim and when those in the limelight - celebrities - are taking it unnecessarily it sends the wrong signals to their followers, particularly young women, that this is what they should aim for. However what these followers do not know is that they’re achieving this through medication as opposed to lifestyle change.
Not to mention the billions of dollars being made by drug companies… Novo Nordisk reported $33.7 billion in sales from ozempic in 2023.
While I understand that weight gain, obesity and type 2 diabetes are often a product of our environment, if we continue to turn to medications over environmental change we will never get healthier but keep reaching for new medications and experiencing the side effects of these! I think these medications could be used in the short-term while at the same time making lifestyle changes in the background so that by the time you come off them your body is a lot more metabolically healthy to carry on without the need for the medication and the side effects that go alongside it.
The other sad thing is, is that most people who can afford to use ozempic are also the people who can most likely afford to buy good quality food, work with a nutritionist and make lifestyle change whereas those who cannot afford ozempic are the ones that really need health support.
I believe that healthy sustainable weight loss is achievable and should be a product of a healthy body! We should aim to get healthy to lose weight, not just lose weight to get healthy.
This is what I want to delve into more in my up-coming weight loss group coaching sessions which will focus on health and in particular dive into the topics of: blood sugar regulation, movement, sleep, gut health, thyroid function, sex hormones and stress - all fey factors involved in health and therefore weight loss/maintenance.
I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
Grace x
