Ozempic and others in a brand new class of weight-loss medication have been referred to as “the medical sensation of the decade.” Are they worthy of all of the hype?
For a deep dive, please see my primer on this matter. OZEMPIC: Risks, Benefits, and Natural Alternatives to GLP-1 Weight-Loss Drugs is out there as an e book, audiobook, and paperback. You too can view my video collection without cost on the Ozempic topic page or our YouTube channel. Listed below are among the key takeaways.
What Is GLP-1?
A naturally occurring hormone in our physique, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) performs a task in regulating our blood sugar, urge for food, and digestion. Our gastrointestinal tract releases greater than 20 totally different peptide hormones, including GLP-1. The first stimuli for secreting GLP-1 are meals wealthy in fats and carbohydrates, and GLP-1’s major motion is to signal satiety to the brain. It additionally slows our digestion. Delaying the speed at which meals leaves our abdomen not solely helps us really feel fuller for longer, but additionally helps with our blood sugar control. When GLP-1 or an agonist (mimic) is dripped into individuals’s veins, urge for food is diminished, resulting in markedly reduced food consumption—a lower in caloric consumption by as a lot as 25 to 50 percent.
About GLP-1 Medicine
Our GLP-1 hormone acts as an urge for food suppressant by focusing on elements of the mind answerable for hunger and cravings. GLP-1-secreting cells don’t solely line our intestines; they’re additionally in our brains. These new anti-obesity medication are GLP-1 agonists, mimicking the hormone’s motion by binding to GLP-1 receptors.
Our physique breaks down GLP-1 so rapidly that it hardly makes it even one time round our circulatory system, which is why we will’t simply take the hormone immediately. A compound was found—within the venomous saliva of a lizard referred to as the Gila monster—that mimics GLP-1 however is proof against breakdown. Utilizing that compound as a template, the primary GLP-1 agonist was created and accredited for the remedy of diabetes about 20 years in the past. As a substitute of most of it being cleared from the physique inside two and a half minutes, like native, pure GLP-1, a lot of the drug stays within the physique for 2 and a half hours. That also means twice-daily injections, although, so then got here liraglutide, which lasts all day.
What Is Ozempic?
Finally, semaglutide was developed and branded as Ozempic, which might be injected just once a week. Ozempic was accredited in 2017 to treat diabetes. Inside a number of years, a every day oral model had been developed, once more for diabetes, however researchers operating these medical trials seen a shocking facet impact: People’s appetites diminished.
How Does Ozempic Work?
In a approach, GLP-1 agonist medication work like contraception capsules. The Tablet mimics placental hormones, thereby tricking our physique into pondering we’re pregnant on a regular basis. Ozempic-type medication mimic GLP-1, thereby tricking our physique into pondering we’re consuming on a regular basis. That’s the way it dials down our starvation drive.
Ozempic for Weight Loss
Within the longest trial to date, greater than 17,000 people had been randomized to injections of both high-dose semaglutide or placebo for 4 years. Total, these on the drug misplaced 9 p.c extra physique weight than these within the placebo group, however all the load was misplaced within the first 65 weeks. Regardless that they continued to get injected each week for 3 extra years, they didn’t lose any extra weight over the next 143 weeks.
Weight reduction tends to plateau as a result of the identical quantity of effort to chop energy—whether or not via willpower, medication, or surgical procedure—is met with rising resistance as ongoing weight reduction more and more prompts our suggestions management circuit, stimulating our urge for food. Within the case of the GLP-1 medication, the load loss attributable to the preliminary drop in urge for food is undercut by an obvious exponential improve in caloric consumption as our physique ratchets up our starvation once more. Inside 12 months, this resistance, mixed with the decreased caloric wants from being lighter, matches the persistent effort to chop energy, and weight loss plateaus. And, as quickly as we cease taking the medication, our full urge for food resumes and we begin regaining the load we initially misplaced.
The Price of Ozempic
Wegovy, the high-dose Ozempic used for weight reduction, prices as much as $1,350 a month, which, once more, could should be paid in perpetuity since any misplaced weight can pile back on for those who cease taking it. So, that would price more than $16,000 a year if paid out-of-pocket for these whose insurance coverage doesn’t cowl it.
Ozempic Facet Results
Essentially the most common side effects embody nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. Gallbladder points are one other facet impact; extra ldl cholesterol shed from fats cells can crystalize in our bile like rock sweet, forming gallstones.
Uncommon however serious adverse effects are additionally rising. The bundle inserts for each semaglutide and tirzepatide listing a collection of “warnings and precautions” that embody thyroid tumors, acute irritation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), acute gallbladder illness, acute kidney damage (that will stem from dehydration resulting from extra vomiting or diarrhea), allergic reactions, a heightened danger of bottoming out blood sugars whereas on blood sugar–decreasing medicines, worsening eye illness for these with sort 2 diabetes, a rise in coronary heart price requiring monitoring, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors.
What Is “Ozempic Face”?
“Ozempic face” is a time period used to explain a distorted facial appearance amongst customers of the drug. (Comparable accounts have been fabricated from “Ozempic butt.”) Media experiences have linked the drug with facial growing older, however the sagging look has been ascribed merely to the accelerated loss of fat within the face. Whereas this interpretation appears logical, a evaluation of the phenomenon concluded that “this rationalization can’t absolutely account for the markedly accelerated facial growing older….” Different components suspected as being answerable for the looks of untimely facial growing older embody the loss of facial muscle mass, diminished structural integrity of the pores and skin, and modifications in stem cell perform and hormonal secretion.
Is Ozempic Protected?
Within the first quantitative benefit-versus-harm stability evaluation, the researchers concluded that these attaining a ten p.c weight reduction had a greater than 90 p.c likelihood that the advantages of taking the medication outweigh the harms, however the reverse was discovered for people attaining solely a 5 percent weight loss.
At the moment, we don’t know concerning the long-term harms or advantages as a result of a few of these medication and dosing schedules are so new. To complicate issues, the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended providing these medication for teenagers and even tweens as young as age 12. These medication work by acting on the brain, so who is aware of what impact they may have on childhood improvement and past if younger individuals find yourself taking them for the remainder of their lives. Though we now have proof of close to-term profit over a number of years, we can’t assume long-term security till it has been demonstrated.
Ozempic Options
We don’t have to take GLP-1-mimicking medication. Not solely can the ingestion of a plant-based meal greater than double GLP-1 secretion, in comparison with a meat meal, however plant-based diets can even trigger weight reduction by boosting our resting metabolic price and incorporating “calorie-trapping” high-fiber meals that flush energy away. The most important examine of individuals consuming strictly plant-based discovered they’re about 35 kilos lighter on common.
After we eat a donut, its fats, sugar, and starch get absorbed rapidly, excessive up, earlier than reaching the a part of our digestive tract the place we produce a lot of the hormone that suppresses our urge for food, GLP-1. For the reason that cells that produce GLP-1 in response to calorie publicity are concentrated on the end of our digestive tract, whereas nearly all of the energy we eat are absorbed early on, most energy by no means make it down far sufficient. That’s why our appetites aren’t suppressed very a lot lately. From a GLP-1 standpoint, when we have now that donut, it’s like we by no means ate a lot of something. No surprise we attain for donut quantity two.
Our prehistoric ancestors are believed to have consumed as a lot as 100 every day grams of fiber, which is greater than six occasions what most of us are getting lately. We developed consuming huge quantities of whole plant foods—the one locations fiber is present in abundance. That enabled out pure satiety mechanisms to maintain us from overeating. By consuming the way in which nature supposed, we will launch GLP-1 the way in which nature supposed. That helps explains why within the medical literature, in comparison with another approach of consuming that didn’t contain portion management, a complete meals, plant-based weight loss plan has been proven to result in greater average weight loss than another weight loss plan.
For extra in-depth data on Ozempic and GLP-1, take a look at these assets:
