The article discusses the growing trend of using the medication Ozempic, intended for treating type 2 diabetes, as a weight loss drug among people without diabetes. The author warns against the potential dangers and limitations of relying on weight loss drugs and emphasizes the importance of lifestyle changes through healthy eating habits and exercise. The article also highlights the side effects of Ozempic and the high cost of using it without insurance. The author argues that lifestyle changes are a more effective and long-lasting way to achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

People are using a new drug to help them lose weight; it’s called Ozempic. While the medication Ozempic has its place for treating diabetes, it isn’t a good idea to use it for weight loss if you don’t have diabetes. And yet, doctors are doing just that, giving Ozempic injections to overweight people who don’t have diabetes. Remember that almost every weight loss drug brought to market so far doesn’t have an outstanding track record, not just for weight loss but also for our health. This particular drug was brought to market to help treat diabetes, it wasn’t approved by the FDA to be a weight loss drug.

Medicines that lower blood sugar have been around for a long time. Many doctors have prescribed diabetic drugs to patients to help them lose weight by allowing their bodies to use and burn carbohydrates better. Glucophage and Metformin are two of the oldest diabetic medicines used. The problem with using drugs like that is that they have many side effects and rarely work long-term for non-diabetic patients.
One issue with being given a drug to lose weight is that people consciously or unconsciously think it will do all the work for them and that they don’t have to do much work. The truth is that if you’re going to use these drugs for weight loss, you better learn how to change your eating habits for life and find an exercise program you would enjoy doing to add activity to your daily life. If you don’t get those two things in check, then when you quit taking the drug, your lifestyle choices that you never changed will bring back all the weight you lost.

There are several reasons why people should avoid weight loss drugs; for one, it can cost you your life. In the mid-1990s, American doctors prescribed millions of doses of Fen/Phen to patients wanting to lose weight. Did it work? Yes, it did, but it also caused a large number of cases of a life-threatening disease called PPH, or Primary Pulmonary Hypertension. It isn’t reversible; the only cure was having a lung and heart transplant or death. Forget that this drug combo came out in France years before, and cases of PPH went up by 9%; Americans heard about it and flocked to their doctors demanding the combo. Yes, the evidence of PPH was already in, but those hope seekers and doctors wanting to get rich quickly never mix well. It was outlawed in 1997. Doctors and drug companies were sued, and people died. Weight loss drugs often have serious side effects that can risk your health; Ozempic is no exception.

Some weight loss drugs can become habit-forming, leading to dependence and addiction. You may recall that military’s across the globe gave their soldiers a weight loss drug called amphetamines to keep them awake and alert on military missions. And after World War Two, those so-called “pep-pills” infiltrated everyday life, from movie stars to housewives who found them helpful to quit eating and lose weight. Some weight loss drugs like that can be habit-forming, leading to dependence and addiction. This can be particularly dangerous for people with a history of substance abuse. But after numerous cases of abuse, heart attacks, and psychological issues emerged, they were outlawed and restricted. That is until they found a new use for it that the medical establishment calls ADHD.
Almost every drug developed for weight loss in the last 40 years has had limited effectiveness on what they were supposed to resolve. There are more obese people today than ever before. Which should tell you how ineffective all the drugs invented up to this point have been. After the initial rush to try the new drug, it simply fades and loses its popularity once everyone discovers that they still have to make the right changes to their lifestyle for it to work. While weight loss drugs can help some people lose weight, they are not a miracle cure. They usually only result in modest weight loss, which isn’t very long-lasting because the drugs do not address the underlying causes of a person’s obesity or overeating. And get this, one study showed that almost all the participants that used Ozempic to lose weight gained it back within a year.

Then there’s the expense to consider, especially if not covered by insurance. And for some, the cost of these drugs may not be worth the modest weight loss they provide. Ozempic without insurance will cost you just about $975.00, give or take, for a 30-day supply. So how does a non-diabetic person get it covered by insurance and get the price to $70.00? Well, your doctor will use the insurance codes to diagnose you with a health problem related to diabetes, like high A1C, insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, or other related health issues.
Lifestyle changes are far more effective when the person understands a more effective way to make them. And we all know the best way to lose and maintain a healthy weight is through diet and exercise. Making lifestyle changes can also have additional health benefits beyond just weight loss, such as improved cardiovascular health, better mental health, and reduced risk of chronic diseases.
Ozempic is a prescription drug used to treat type 2 diabetes. It contains the active ingredient semaglutide, which increases insulin production and reduces glucose in the liver. Like all medications, Ozempic can cause side effects, so here are the most common ones of Ozempic and some of the less common ones. Less common doesn’t mean it won’t happen to you; it just means fewer people in the original study came down with them. Since those studies are so small, once the drug is released for public use, those side effects that are less common will go up as more people use it.

The Most Common Side Effects of Ozempic

Nausea and vomiting. Loose bowels or constipation. Headache, Dizziness, Abdominal pain, Decreased appetite, Fatigue, Indigestion and Gastric Upset, Hypoglycemia (reduced blood sugar reaction), brain fog, Injection site reactions, such as redness, swelling, and itching

More serious side effects of Ozempic can include:

Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas), Kidney problems, Thyroid cancer or other thyroid problems, Allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis (a severe and potentially life-threatening closing of the throat)

Ozempic has caused new or worsening kidney disease in a few patients, including kidney failure, which is a good reason reason to avoid it. When weight loss drugs are introduced to the public, then later removed for harmful reasons, it’s the patients that trusted them who suffer the most. We trust our doctors to do their homework and not harm us with new drugs, but it’s too late once something terrible happens to you. Many people are desperate to lose weight and often put their lives on the line by trying the newest craze. It’s difficult to estimate the exact number of patients who die yearly from stomach stapling surgery, as no centralized database tracks all weight loss surgeries and their outcomes. However, the medical literature puts the death rate at 1 per every 1,000 surgeries. According to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), in the United States alone, approximately 252,000 bariatric surgeries were performed in 2018. That would mean that 2,520 people have lost their lives by having weight loss surgery, yes, a small number perhaps, unless it’s you.