You’ve probably heard the catchy jingles for Ozempic, a miracle weight loss drug that has been touted by cultural titans like Oprah Winfrey. What is this stuff, where did it come from and does it really work?
At its core, Ozempic is primarily made of a compound called semaglutide. This is an artificial substance that mimics a peptide — specifically, a chemical compound found in the venom of the Gila monster. Semaglutide mimics the GLP-1 hormone found in the human body, which controls blood sugar, insulin and is responsible for what makes you feel full after eating a meal.
That last point is critical to the function of Ozempic as a drug. Ozempic helps control weight gain by making you feel fuller, longer, thus reducing the amount of food you eat and helping put your body into a calorie deficit. GLP-1 slows the rate at which food leaves your stomach and enters the next stage of your digestive tract. It also controls the release of insulin from the pancreas into the bloodstream, as well as glucose from the liver. It’s a bit of an all-in-one solution for managing weight loss, but that wasn’t why it was invented.
Ozempic and drugs like it were developed to help people manage Type 2 diabetes, which causes complications with insulin production and administration in the bloodstream. This causes the body to mismanage glucose in the blood, causing blood sugar spikes. Over time, this causes immense strain on the kidneys and body as a whole, which shows up through symptoms like frequent urination, fatigue, increased thirst and hunger, and slow-healing sores along with increased infections.
Semaglutide manages this at every level starting from the ground up. By reducing the hunger of the person taking the drug, their food intake slows, limiting the amount of glucose entering the bloodstream. In addition, it also affects the amount of insulin released by the pancreas. This all has the added benefit of weight loss, due to the restricted caloric intake.
This added benefit of Ozempic transformed it from a drug designed to maintain Type 2 diabetes into a miracle weight loss drug — resulting in massive cultural implications, especially once it entered spheres of influence within Hollywood and the media at large. Celebrities with virtually unrestricted access to vast amounts of money have been able to readily take Ozempic and transform their bodies almost overnight.
The cost of Ozempic is projected to be roughly $1,000 per month. Utilized as a weight loss drug, health insurance will not cover any of the costs; however, the expense may be mitigated if the user has been officially diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. But cost isn’t the most prohibitive feature of Ozempic — it’s the fact that it’s so readily used by the rich and famous as a miracle weight loss drug. People within the circles of the rich and famous also seek the body types of those with whom they surround themselves and admire, and are being driven to take the drug to match their peers.
This ultimately leads to shortages, and people who need Ozempic to manage their diabetes aren’t able to acquire the drug because wealthier clientele and the people seeking to meet their status have already procured the bulk of the stock.
Beyond cost and shortages, there’s another — more critical — concern surrounding Ozempic. Unlike acetaminophen or ibuprofen, which you can take when you need them and stop when you don’t, after halting Ozempic and other semaglutide medications, a user’s appetite will come back stronger than before. This means Ozempic users need to keep taking Ozempic indefinitely, especially if they want to retain a certain body type.
These medications also come with side effects, often related to the digestive tract. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, gas and bloating are the most common. Headaches, fatigue and dizziness can also occur and are related to changes in blood sugar levels. In extreme cases, users can suffer from pancreatitis, gallbladder disease, kidney failure from dehydration or allergic reactions. Ozempic hasn’t been used on humans long enough to confirm one major side effect, but lab animals were shown to develop cancerous tumors on their thyroid glands after exposure to semaglutides.
Semaglutide medications like Ozempic and Wegovy require a doctor’s prescription. No over-the-counter alternatives exist, though there is supposedly a thriving market for unapproved versions in seedy circles on the internet — though buying injectable medications from a completely random and unlicensed stranger on the internet seems like an act of pure insanity.
As is true with any pharmaceutical, the pros and cons of using semaglutides should be weighed before use. Anyone should consult their doctor extensively before seeking a prescription, especially if the primary goal is to lose weight for the sake of vanity. Semaglutides are a lifelong commitment, and they don’t come cheap.
Stay curious, 7B.
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