Ozempic Is A Permanent Treatment To A Preventable Problem That Already Has A Cure
If ever there were a perfect drug to capitalize on our health crisis without actually solving anything, it would be Ozempic.
Diet pills are out. Ozempic is in.
As Americans lose the fight against obesity, doctors have begun prescribing a popular type 2 diabetes medication off label to help desperate patients lose weight. But while actual diabetes patients are now struggling to access Ozempic, the name-brand medication for Semaglitude, evidence suggests the drugs could be counterproductive for weight loss.
My reporting in The Federalist on the latest health craze to sweep the nation last week:
The pharmaceutical solution being sold as a “miracle” cure to runaway obesity has become such a blockbuster success that the weight-loss drugs are “reshaping Denmark’s economy.” Denmark is home to the manufacturers of two name-brand obesity medicines, Ozempic and Wegovy.
New maps from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released last week underscored both the severity of the obesity crisis and the scale of the opportunity to profit from it. Every single state and territory now has at least a 20 percent obesity rate. Three states, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and West Virginia, have populations where at least 40 percent of residents are obese. At least 35 percent of residents are obese in 19 other states.
About 33 percent of American adults 18 and older are categorically obese, and another 34 percent are overweight. A decade after the launch of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign, about 1 in 5 children have already reached the same deadly metabolic milestone, a rate that’s tripled over 30 years. Individuals who are at an otherwise standard weight are in the minority, and have been for some time.
The obesity epidemic is associated with an unprecedented outbreak of chronic disease, leaving the nation fat, sick, and depressed. Obesity is linked to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, mental illness, and many types of cancer, just to name a few.
The CDC estimates 6 in 10 Americans already have at least one chronic illness. Four in 10 have two or more. People who are obese can expect to pay double in health care costs over their lifetime. Those costs triple and quadruple as weight gain accelerates.
Put simply, there is far more money to be made on a population chronically obese than one at an otherwise healthy weight. Ozempic, meanwhile, is a medication that can exploit the desire for weight loss without solving the crisis. A spring report from The Wall Street Journal noted patients who quit taking Ozempic often see their weight go back up.
“Patient testimonies have focused not only on the dramatic effect on their waistlines, but also on how quickly many seem to pack the pounds back on if they stop taking the injections,” the report read. “That may not be ideal for patients, but for Wall Street it is a feature rather than a bug.”
On the other hand, remaining on Ozempic brings consequences of its own. A study from 2020 that examined patients who took once-weekly injections over a 52-week period found that while users of Semaglitude lost 7.4 pounds of fat, they also lost 5 pounds of muscle. It’s hard to describe a weight loss drug where 40 percent of the weight lost is muscle as some kind of “miracle” elixir.
The study was even funded by Novo Nordisk, the Danish company behind Ozempic. Novo Nordisk is now being sued alongside other weight-loss drug manufacturers over allegations their medicines have caused stomach paralysis.
Ozempic’s website lists nausea, diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, and constipation as possible side effects. The medication has reportedly led to a spike in emergency room visits with patients suffering blurred vision, pancreatitis, malnutrition, and drooping faces. There’s even a new term to describe the latter: “Ozempic Face.”
In November, New York Magazine’s The Cut offered a blunt feature on the new weight-loss warning in the headline, “You Might Go Through Hell for You Post-Ozempic Body.” Considering 40 percent of weight lost, on average, is muscle, it might not even be a healthy one.
Despite the risks, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published new guidelines on treating childhood obesity aimed at pumping more money into expensive temporary fixes. The updated guidelines published in January recommend children as young as 12 be prescribed Ozempic to treat weight gain.
Substack journalist Lee Fang published another column last week documenting how surrogates for the weight-loss drugs have promoted the medicines without outlets disclosing corporate profits. That might have to do with the fact that television ad spending from the pharmaceutical industry accounted for 75 percent of the total spending.
Obesity is already both preventable and reversible.
Links:
Daily Mail: Ozempic burned my genitals and butt - leaving ‘pieces of skin’ falling off and causing excruciating pain
Washington Post: AN EPIDEMIC OF CHRONIC ILLNESS IS KILLING US TOO SOON
New York Times: What Is Insulin Resistance and How Do You Know If You Have It?
Wall Street Journal: Elite Athletes Swear By These Extreme Treatments. Scientists Think They Could Boost Your Health, Too
New York Times: A New Way to Prevent S.T.I.s: A Pill After Sex
Photos:
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