Ozempic and others in a brand new class of weight-loss medicine have been referred to as “the medical sensation of the last decade.” Are they worthy of all of the hype?
For a deep dive, please see my primer on this subject. OZEMPIC: Dangers, Advantages, and Pure Alternate options to GLP-1 Weight-Loss Medication is out there as an e-book, audiobook, and paperback. You may as well view my video sequence without cost on the Ozempic subject web 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, together with GLP-1. The first stimuli for secreting GLP-1 are meals wealthy in fat and carbohydrates, and GLP-1’s primary motion is to sign satiety to the mind. It additionally slows our digestion. Delaying the speed at which meals leaves our abdomen not solely helps us really feel fuller for longer, but in addition helps with our blood sugar management. When GLP-1 or an agonist (mimic) is dripped into folks’s veins, urge for food is lowered, resulting in markedly lowered meals consumption—a lower in caloric consumption by as a lot as 25 to 50 %.
About GLP-1 Medication
Our GLP-1 hormone acts as an urge for food suppressant by concentrating on elements of the mind answerable for starvation and cravings. GLP-1-secreting cells don’t solely line our intestines; they’re additionally in our brains. These new anti-obesity medicine are GLP-1 agonists, mimicking the hormone’s motion by binding to GLP-1 receptors.
Our physique breaks down GLP-1 so shortly that it hardly makes it even one time round our circulatory system, which is why we will’t simply take the hormone instantly. A compound was found—within the venomous saliva of a lizard referred to as the Gila monster—that mimics GLP-1 however is immune to breakdown. Utilizing that compound as a template, the primary GLP-1 agonist was created and authorised for the therapy 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 may very well be injected simply as soon as a week. Ozempic was authorised in 2017 to deal with diabetes. Inside just a few years, a every day oral model had been developed, once more for diabetes, however researchers working these scientific trials observed a stunning aspect impact: Individuals’s appetites diminished.
How Does Ozempic Work?
In a approach, GLP-1 agonist medicine work like contraception tablets. The Tablet mimics placental hormones, thereby tricking our physique into considering we’re pregnant on a regular basis. Ozempic-type medicine mimic GLP-1, thereby tricking our physique into considering 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 thus far, greater than 17,000 people have been randomized to injections of both high-dose semaglutide or placebo for 4 years. Total, these on the drug misplaced 9 % extra physique weight than these within the placebo group, however all the burden was misplaced within the first 65 weeks. Though 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 by way of willpower, medicine, 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 medicine, the burden 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 reduction plateaus. And, as quickly as we cease taking the medicine, our full urge for food resumes and we begin regaining the burden 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 must be paid in perpetuity since any misplaced weight can pile again on should you cease taking it. So, that might price greater than $16,000 a 12 months if paid out-of-pocket for these whose insurance coverage doesn’t cowl it.
Ozempic Aspect Results
Probably the most widespread uncomfortable side effects embrace nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. Gallbladder points are one other aspect impact; extra ldl cholesterol shed from fats cells can crystalize in our bile like rock sweet, forming gallstones.
Uncommon however critical adversarial results are additionally rising. The package deal inserts for each semaglutide and tirzepatide record a sequence of “warnings and precautions” that embrace thyroid tumors, acute irritation of the pancreas (pancreatitis), acute gallbladder illness, acute kidney damage (that will stem from dehydration on account of extra vomiting or diarrhea), allergic reactions, a heightened danger of bottoming out blood sugars whereas on blood sugar–reducing drugs, worsening eye illness for these with kind 2 diabetes, a rise in coronary heart fee requiring monitoring, and suicidal ideas and behaviors.
What Is “Ozempic Face”?
“Ozempic face” is a time period used to explain a distorted facial look amongst customers of the drug. (Comparable accounts have been fabricated from “Ozempic butt.”) Media studies have linked the drug with facial growing older, however the sagging look has been ascribed merely to the accelerated lack of fats within the face. Whereas this interpretation appears logical, a evaluation of the phenomenon concluded that “this rationalization can not totally account for the markedly accelerated facial growing older….” Different components suspected as being answerable for the looks of untimely facial growing older embrace the lack of facial muscle mass, diminished structural integrity of the pores and skin, and adjustments in stem cell perform and hormonal secretion.
Is Ozempic Secure?
Within the first quantitative benefit-versus-harm steadiness evaluation, the researchers concluded that these reaching a ten % weight reduction had a greater than 90 % probability that the advantages of taking the medicine outweigh the harms, however the reverse was discovered for people reaching solely a 5 % weight reduction.
At the moment, we don’t know in regards to the long-term harms or advantages as a result of a few of these medicine and dosing schedules are so new. To complicate issues, the American Academy of Pediatrics has advised providing these medicine for teenagers and even tweens as younger as age 12. These medicine work by performing on the mind, so who is aware of what impact they may have on childhood growth and past if younger folks find yourself taking them for the remainder of their lives. Though we now have proof of close to-term profit over just a few years, we can not assume long-term security till it has been demonstrated.
Ozempic Alternate options
We don’t have to take GLP-1-mimicking medicine. 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 also can trigger weight reduction by boosting our resting metabolic fee 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 shortly, excessive up, earlier than reaching the a part of our digestive tract the place we produce many of the hormone that suppresses our urge for food, GLP-1. Because the cells that produce GLP-1 in response to calorie publicity are concentrated on the finish 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 nowadays. From a GLP-1 standpoint, when we’ve 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 instances what most of us are getting nowadays. We developed consuming large quantities of complete plant meals—the one locations fiber is present in abundance. That enabled out pure satiety mechanisms to maintain us from overeating. By consuming the best way nature meant, we will launch GLP-1 the best way nature meant. That helps explains why within the medical literature, in comparison with another approach of consuming that didn’t contain portion management, an entire meals, plant-based food regimen has been proven to result in higher common weight reduction than another food regimen.
For extra in-depth data on Ozempic and GLP-1, take a look at these assets:
Discussion about this post