Ozempidemic - A Generation of Quick Fix Addicts

I’ve been wanting to write a piece on the prevalence of Semaglutide-based weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for a while now. Obesity management medication is nothing new and has been around since the 1930’s. However, the prevalence of semaglutide-based medications is relatively recent, with parabolic prescription rates and anecdotes from many Hollywood celebrities, tons of media coverage and extensive advertising. See Jimmy Kimmel at the 2023 Oscars:

While they were approved for patients with diabetes in 2017, they were more recently approved for general obesity and overweight patients in 2021. So, why the popularity?

New Vs. Traditional Weight Loss Medications

Similar to many other medications, Semaglutide-based drugs were not originally developed for their current uses. Ozempic was first designed to help diabetic patients control their blood sugar. However, after seeing its potential for weight loss (a much more marketable & attractive feature) the medication became incredibly popular.?

Semaglutide is similar to traditional weight loss medications in that it curbs appetite. However, the mechanism through which it does so is completely different.?

Traditional weight loss medications like phentermine act as stimulants. They increase your body’s release of catecholamines, neurotransmitters produced by your adrenal glands that are responsible for epinephrine, dopamine, etc. Catecholamines play a major role in your body’s fight or flight response. Essentially, this medication class tricks your brain into thinking you should be in fight or flight mode which results in weight loss through decreased appetite. The unfortunate side effect here is increased stimulation, production of ‘artificial’ dopamine (tricking your brain rather than earning a dopamine kick naturally), and more. This often leads to mood swings, heightened anxiety, depression, etc.?

Semaglutide-based medications suppress appetite through a different mechanism: hormone imitation. These medications work by mimicking glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), which targets areas of the brain that regulate appetite. Furthermore, the medication slows digestion and keeps food in your stomach longer to increase the feelings of fullness.?

While Semaglutide avoids the ‘fight or flight’ epinephrine rush of traditional weight loss medications, users are reporting a new list of side effects. One of the most common side effects has been termed ‘Ozempic Face’, sharpened facial features and sagging facial skin. This is reported to be a result of rapid weight loss rather than the medication itself. The phenomena has been associated with the medication to such a degree that it’s trended on Tik Tok.?

In addition to dehydration and wrinkling, severe nausea is a common complaint. Nausea so severe that makers of Ozempic and Mounjaro are facing a lawsuit over claims of stomach paralysis due to the drug.

This comes from the fact that semaglutide reduces the rate at which the stomach empties food; the food can harden into solid masses called bezoars.?

Furthermore, the body adapts to the effects of this drug and establishes a ‘new normal’. According to Hone Health, users gained back two-thirds of the weight they lost within one year of ceasing use.

Yes, obesity and diabetes are dangerous. So is manipulating your mind-body connection and digestive system.

Semaglutide Lobbying & Marketing

I don’t need to go into the massive market that exists for weight loss drugs. The weight loss and health industry is massive, as is the American pharmaceutical market. However, the spike in interest over the last year or so is pretty incredible. See chart below from CNN.?

Ozempic is one of the most commonly prescribed of all weight loss medications as it contains a lower dose of the active ingredient. This means that practitioners are more likely to prescribe it off-label to patients who may be overweight but don’t have Type 2 Diabetes.?

Ozempic’s parent company, Novo Nordisk, has been marketing like crazy. Anjalee Khemlani at Yahoo News reported that Novo Nordisk spent 11 million dollars on food and travel for doctors to discuss Ozempic for weight loss and Type 2 Diabetes.?

$11 MILLION just on food & travel?!??

Additionally, they’ve been lobbying congress and pushing obesity to be classified as a chronic disease, spending more than $5 million in 2022 alone.?

Novo Nordisk has repeatedly sponsored the ‘Treatment for Obesity Act’, which expands Medicare coverage for therapy that is provided by a physician who is not a primary care physician, and other health care providers.

To summarize - Novo Nordisk is paying for doctors to travel around the nation and sell clinics the benefits of GLP-1 drugs, and furthermore pushing our government to use our tax dollars to subsidize medicare for people who are obese, so that they can sell more GLP-1 drugs.?

Tt's mind-blowing that this is legal.?

Seeing such blatant manipulation is always a great reminder of how ass-backwards our regulatory systems work. There’s something deeply corrupt about paying doctors to promote/market a medication, and attempting to influence national and local politics to create bills or pass laws that benefit the corporations paying the government.?

The Infamous Native Ad

As I mentioned atop this piece, I’ve been considering writing on this topic for a bit. Any time a new product is trending with a massive (and corrupt) industry behind it, I find it worth some investigation.?

The impetus, however, was this absolutely pathetic excuse for an article from the Wall Street Journal titled ‘Ozempic Settles the Obesity Debate: It’s Biology Over Willpower’.?

The article goes on to say that ‘The brain is the body’s chief chemist, regulating appetite and making it difficult for many people to shed pounds and keep them off. The brain determines how much fat it wants people to carry’.?

As if this is some sort of new information?

The most pathetic statement of this already pathetic piece comes from Dr. Florencia Halperin, the Chief Medical Officer at Form, a virtual medical weight-loss clinic.

“This is not about willpower or personal choice… this is about your brain driving behaviors.” First of all, of course this quote comes from a CMO at a virtual ‘clinic’. Online clinics are of the most egregious pill pushers in the entire medical industry.?

Dr. Louis Arrone chimes in with “What these drugs have proven is that patients are right: It’s not their fault.”?

These doctors are essentially making a shoddy case for determinism over free will. All the entire article does is state a bunch of high-school level biology concepts and shoe horns in the idea that people are pathetic and have no control over taking care of their body so they should really just take Ozempic because that’s their only hope for weight loss.?

This, my friends, is called a ‘native ad’. Unless you're in advertising, you probably have never heard of a native ad; if you knew what they were, they wouldn't work.

A native ad is when a story surrounding a brand or product is disguised as journalism or news. Rather than providing actual information, the 'story' is just a promotion. Sometimes the company will directly pay the news outlet, other times indirectly.

But somebody's getting paid.?

There are no Shortcuts

The prevalence of these weight loss drug prescriptions speaks to a much larger issue with the current state of the world. We’re in the ‘take a pill’ era, in the case of semaglutide, take a shot. We’ve fallen in love with the illusion of cure-alls. Covering up issues rather than addressing them. Unfortunately, there’s a huge market for this illusion.?

If you’re overweight, take a pill. If you’re depressed, take a pill. And if either of these remedies give you any side effects, here’s another pill.?

This is not to say that there aren’t biological predispositions that make certain people more or less susceptible to obesity, depression, and other conditions where unique treatment is necessary. However, the profit-driven incentives in the medical industry often lead to making these medications the first resort when they were designed to be the last.?

This ‘take a pill’ phenomena has completely handicapped many people's ability to do difficult things that our mind and body naturally reward us for.?

Why make any meaningful change in your life?

Just take a shortcut.

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