Ozempic—I’m sure we’ve all heard of it, but what exactly is it?

Ozempic is the new ‘in- vogue’ drug, flooding our social media feeds. Celebrities and influencers are claiming that this 'miracle’ drug is responsible for their dramatic weight loss results.  
 
Ozempic is undoubtedly a landmark drug; it belongs to a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists and is available in an injectable form. 

The active ingredient in Ozempic is semaglutide, which works by binding to GLP1 receptors, facilitating the release of insulin from your pancreas, when needed. 

In turn, this simultaneously reduces the risk of heart disease and helps to manage type-2 diabetes by keeping your blood sugar levels in check. It is clear why this drug, with its dual functions, holds such appeal to clinicians globally. 

Celebrities, however, are not utilising Ozempic for the same reasons.  

This new ‘Hollywood Blockbuster’ has some off-the-label benefits to which it owes its popularity: weight loss. 

It helps individuals to shed weight by promoting satiety, it does this by reducing the time it takes for food to travel through the digestive tract. Ozempic also helps to prevent fluctuations in blood sugar levels, inadvertently stopping you from getting hungry.

Ozempic, however, is not formally approved for this purpose in the UK. This is unlike its sister drug 'Wegovy', which contains the same active ingredient, albeit in greater quantities. 

The reason that people are choosing to use Ozempic over the approved Wegovy simply comes down to Ozempic being the more affordable option.  

 In theory, although it all sounds good, there is another side to this drug that is less well known. Most patients on Ozempic will experience their weight plateauing, which often leads to disillusionment. 

This ‘levelling-off’ period is actually one of the body's protective mechanisms, which is triggered by significant weight loss. This can be considerably damaging to the body. It combats this through a reduction in metabolism. 

Ozempic is also associated with paradoxical weight gain, which affects those individuals who stop taking the drug. 

A study published in 2022 in the Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics found that the majority of people who take semaglutide gain most of the weight back within a year of stopping the medication. In fact, one year later, participants were found to have regained two-thirds of their earlier weight loss. 

To add insult to injury, the process of weight gain is usually faster than that of weight loss. 

Medicine has taken significant strides in recent years providing us with unprecedented benefits.  Despite this, the above highlights the importance of being well-informed about novel treatments. 

We need to weigh up the potential risks and benefits of such drugs before incorporating them in to our lives. So next time you see something being endorsed by a non-medical professional, take a step back, do your own research and decide whether it truly is all that they’re making it out to be. 

Dr Zahra Ali has a passion for healthcare and journalism.