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Ozempic and Wegovy: Are these drugs helpful or harmful?

Ozempic and Wegovy

I guess it’s not black and white; as with many things, the question of these medications’ usefulness depends on context.

I can understand the effectiveness of the medication for those who needed it. What’s more, under medical guidance, my dose would have started smaller and be steadily increased, swerving the nausea and vomiting.

However, I came away with the strong feeling that if A-listers are using medication to get super teeny then there is in some ways a duty for us to know – rather than us mere mortals thinking they’re simply on point with their macros and smashing their PBs in the gym.

Just like the plethora of famous faces insisting that plenty of sleep and facials – not Botox or a facelift – are the reason for their youthful glow, isn’t there something similarly toxic about celebrities failing to come clean about the real reason behind their svelte body transformations?

Additionally, while they might help those who are obese or overweight, I can’t help feeling that these medications are finding an audience among already fairly slim women wanting to shrink even more – I’m also concerned that people might take it too far.

According to the NHS, the recommended daily calorie intake for women is 2,000, and the recommended pace for healthy weight loss being just two pounds per week. It begs the question: if semaglutide effectively suppresses your appetite, aren’t these drugs open to abuse?

‘Yes,’ says Dr Elena Touroni, a consultant psychologist and co-founder of The Chelsea Psychology Clinic. ‘For those struggling with disordered eating, pharmaceutical tools can be very damaging. They offer a shortcut to managing weight – instead of learning healthier ways of managing weight and appetite – which can be dangerous, especially for those who are vulnerable to having difficulties with body image and eating.’ Ozempic and Wegovy

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Ozempic weight loss results: What the science says

So, shouldn’t those with type 2 diabetes be the medical priority over weight loss?

‘It’s important to treat both,’ says Dr Chahal. ‘Obesity is associated with numerous illnesses, including heart disease, hypertension, stroke, PCOS, sleep apnea, cancer, osteoarthritis, many cancers and, of course, type 2 diabetes.’

In fact, he believes that the drug is ‘revolutionising’ how we think about weight management – particularly given the complexity of slimming down through diet and exercise – arguing that they could help people avoid bariatric surgery, which is offered to those with a BMI over 40 who have an associated comorbidity.

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine supports his theory. Scientists at University College London carried out the trial in 16 countries across Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.

It involved nearly 2,000 people who were either overweight or considered obese and results showed the drug could reduce body weight by up to 20%, achieving the same results as weight loss surgery.

‘No other drug has come close to producing this level of weight loss – this really is a game changer,’ said lead author of the study, Professor Rachel Batterham from UCL’s Centre for Obesity Research.

‘For the first time, people can achieve through drugs what was only possible through weight loss surgery.”

It could also help trim the £6.1 billion obesity currently costs the NHS, and £27 billion to wider society.

However, doctors say these medications aren’t a cure-all and should serve only as kick-starters to eating healthy and exercising. ‘I tell all my patients that if after six months you have not changed the way you eat or your activity, you are going to gain weight back,’ explains Dr Joseph Arulandu, who is qualified in internal and obesity medicine.

‘To rely on a drug purely for weight loss is going to end up in failure. It has to be the drug plus lifestyle modifications.’

A 2022 study published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism found that those on a 2.4mg dose of semaglutide regained two-thirds of the weight they had lost in the first year when their appetite returned to normal after stopping the medication.

So, when prescribed by a professional to people battling diseases including obesity and diabetes, these medications can be powerful. But in the wrong hands..?

Let me tell you a tale of caution if you’re thinking of turning to this drug to quickly lose a few pounds before summer.

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Ozempic side-effects: The grim reality of taking the medication

Ozempic side-effects:

The array of side effects are one of the reasons why it’s important to be issued the right dose and be monitored by a doctor or pharmacist. These can include nausea, cramping, diarrhoea, acid reflux, vomiting and constipation, as well as – less commonly – hair loss, heartburn and swelling at the site of injection. There is also a slight increased risk of pancreatitis, hypoglycemia and thyroid cancer, and it’s important to stay hydrated to avoid kidney issues.

Of course, for the medication to receive NICE and FDA approval it would have been rigorously tested for safety. However, while Dr Ahmet Ergin, endocrinologist and founder of the diabetes and lifestyle channel SugarMD, has not seen major complications in patients, he notes that the drug is relatively new. ‘There’s no way of saying long-term risks, unless we use the medications for 20 years and then look back retrospectively and find problems,’ he explains.

Indeed, other seemingly miracle weight loss solutions have left a bitter taste. In the past six decades there have been more than two dozen approved, only for some unsavoury side effects to come to light – including heart valve damage, strokes and a fatal lung condition called primary pulmonary hypertension. One of these, an amphetamine-based weight-loss drug, Tenuate Dospan, was linked to short-term ‘anxiety, insomnia and delusions of grandeur’ and long-term psychosis.

The latest alleged iteration of the ‘Kardashian effect’ – which we’ve come to know via lip filler and shapewear – is a global shortage of semaglutide, to the point where some type 2 diabetes sufferers are struggling to get hold of it.

Novo Nordisk has recently announced shortages in the UK and US due to ‘overwhelming demand’. Supplies haven’t been helped, notes Dr Ergin, by the pandemic and that it is ‘a very labor intensive, high-technology medication [to be manufactured]’.

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Can you take Ozempic just for weight loss?

Can you take Ozempic just for weight loss?

At present, Ozempic and Rybelsus – the latter of which is the only tablet form of semaglutide – will continue to be available on the NHS to treat type 2 diabetes, where prescriptions will remain free for those with the condition.

‘Draft guidance from NICE indicates those with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 with an obesity-related comorbidity – like high blood pressure – will be able to access it through the NHS,’ notes Dr Chahal. For others, it will be available for treating obesity in a private setting for just under £200 per month.

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that people in the UK – including those who aren’t obese – are paying to access the medication under any brand name online.

This includes a friend of mine – slightly overweight, thanks to a more sedentary pandemic lifestyle – who was able to order Rybelsus tablets, £300 for three months, by tweaking their details on the form so their BMI fell into the obese range. They have lost two stone in a year and are now continuing to take it for ‘maintenance’.

It was the ease of access to Ozempic that also shocked Isobel, who also wasn’t obese. ‘I couldn’t believe that there wasn’t even a Zoom, phone or face-to-face consultation before they dispensed it,’ she admits.

‘They are being issued “off label” to treat obesity,’ explains Abbas Kanani, superintendent pharmacist at Chemist Click UK. ‘This is a term used when a medication is prescribed for any reason other than what is stated on its product license.’

He explains that online weight management services will issue a prescription after the patient has completed a consultation to check whether it’s clinically appropriate. ‘Of course, online, it is easier to be untruthful, as face-to-face providers will have weighing scales and physical oversight of the patient,’ he adds. ‘But to lie is dangerous.

Indeed, health professionals are worried. ‘It’s a genuine threat to a patient’s safety if they are taking prescription drugs that they have bought online without a prescription from a qualified medical professional,’ says Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, in a recent statement.

‘It’s even more worrying if those drugs are being used for purposes that they are not intended to be used for.’

One of the problems is that, on some sites, it’s not possible to verify the quality of ‘weight loss injections’ offered at the click of a button.

Not being under medical guidance, warns Dr Chahal, opens you up to complications or interactions with certain medicines.

He adds that there are strict dosage guidelines because the strength needs to be gradually increased, and – if in the instance that a patient still doesn’t lose weight – it’s important to investigate what other hormonal problem could be going on, like thyroid issues, PCOS or excess cortisol. Can you take Ozempic just for weight loss?

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Can you get Ozempic on prescription in the UK?

Can you get Ozempic on prescription in the UK? This spike in attention is filling the pockets of the medications’ Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk, who pocketed $3.4bn in 2020 alone, and are projected to make $7.8bn by 2023 – particularly as use of Ozempic in the UK soars.

Indeed, while Ozempic and Rybelsus are currently approved this side of the pond to treat type 2 diabetes, Wegovy has only just been given the go ahead for obesity by The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Doctors hope the latter will be available on the NHS from early 2023.

The drug hit headlines again in February as the Mail on Sunday reported that a self-administered weight loss injection made from the same compound as Ozempic – but called Wegovy – would be sold in high street pharmacy Boots.

The chain already promote Wegovy on their website, as part of their Boots Online Doctor weight loss prescription service.

‘You might have heard of Wegovy, an injection pen weight loss medicine that has been available in the United States since 2021. It has performed well in clinical trials, with patients reported as experiencing significant weight loss,’ the Boots site reads. ‘We expect Wegovy to come to the UK and to Boots Online Doctor in 2023.’

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Wegovy vs Ozempic for weight loss: What is the difference?

Wegovy vs Ozempic for weight loss

Ozempic, Ryblesus and Wegovy are all brand names for a compound called semaglutide. It is prescribed in various doses and can be in the form of a weekly injection – administered in the stomach, thigh or arm – or a daily oral tablet.

Wegovy is a higher dosing of an anti-obesity drug called semaglutide aimed at people with type 2 diabetes. It was developed a decade ago and has been available in a lower-dose form called Ozempic, designed for diabetics only, for the past five years.

Enthusiasm for it in the UK as a weight management tool has risen after a University College London study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found a found a third of people who took it for obesity lost more than one-fifth of their total body weight.

But how exactly does the medication that’s being hailed as a ‘gamechanger’ work?

A little science lesson. Meet gut hormone GLP-1. ‘When most people eat their levels go up, causing them to feel satisfied,’ says Dr Harvinder Chahal, consultant endocrinologist and lead bariatric physician at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

‘But patients with type 2 diabetes lack this.’ That’s why semaglutide, which works as a receptor in the intestine, was created in 2012 to help the pancreas release the right amount of insulin.

Doctors soon noticed that as well as improving blood sugar levels, patients – who were feeling fuller, sooner – also reported weight loss. Indeed, research has shown that obese people also lack satiety-signalling GLP-1 – and so semaglutide was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for weight management in 2021, with NICE (the UK’s equivalent) following suit this year.

It’s effectiveness is clear: Dr Chahal points to research that has found a weekly 2.4mg dose of semaglutide can trigger up to a 15 per cent reduction in body weight in the space of six to nine months. Wegovy vs Ozempic for weight loss

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Ozempic weight loss: Did Kim Kardashian use Ozempic to lose weight?

Did Kim Kardashian use Ozempic to lose weight? The words ‘Kim Kardashian’ and ‘Ozempic’ have also been increasingly uttered in the same breath. Per US Vogue, it has been widely speculated that the reality TV star-turned-mogul’s 16-pound weight loss ahead of May’s Met Gala (to, famously, slip into Marilyn Monroe’s dress) was claimed to be enhanced by the drug.

Indeed, the rapid weight loss of Kardashian, and that of her younger sister Khloe, have taken the medication mainstream.

When a controversial New York Post article last month noted the ‘comeback’ of the ‘thin, heroin-chic body of the 1990s and early aughts’ it suggested increasing numbers were turning to ‘suddenly trendy diabetes drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy’.

The swell of interest is evident across Reddit forums and TikTok feeds, where on the latter #ozempic has 589 million views and #wegovy has hit 228 million.

Did Kim Kardashian use Ozempic to lose weight?
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Ozempic weight loss: Why is everyone talking about it?

Ozempic weight loss Injection
Isobel is not alone in pausing her pursuit of weight loss through traditional means to take a bite of this new rather attractive ‘shortcut’.

That Ozempic, and its sister brands Wegovy and Rybelsus, can help you get lean by suppressing appetite has been whispered about in exclusive circles for the past year.

Then, in September, talk show host Andy Cohen broke rank when he tweeted that celebrities were mysteriously ‘showing up 25 pounds lighter’ all of a sudden, and joked: ‘What happens when they stop taking #Ozempic?’

The rumours that it had become Hollywood’s best-kept secret for staying in shape without so much as lifting a dumbbell were made weightier by The Guardian who reported that a number of musicians and actors had told them they ‘personally’ knew high-profile people using it.

A much-discussed Variety article from September shed more details: A-listers were ‘quietly singing the drug’s praises’ on the encrypted messaging app Signal, paying $1,500 for a month’s supply, with it now an accepted part of the preparation for red carpet events alongside hair and make-up.

Such is the hush-hush nature of the medication that it remains unknown who among the rich and famous has dabbled – bar, unsurprisingly, Elon Musk who responded to questions on Twitter about his newly slimmed-down physique by crediting ‘fasting’ before adding ‘and Wegovy’.

Ozempic weight loss Injection

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Ozempic for weight loss

Ozempic for weight loss. Its sister drug, Wegovy, will soon be prescribed for weight loss in the UK

If you’re curious about Ozempic for weight loss – how the drug works, Ozempic side effects and what real women’s Ozempic experiences have been like, you’re not alone.

As millions struggle to lose weight – and keep it off – the appetite for solutions that purport to short-circuit the ‘eat-well-and-move-more’ approach is wholly understandable. And the appeal of weight loss injections is nothing new.

It’s vital to note that doctors say the drug – also known by other brand names Ryblesus and Wegovy – should only be used as a weight loss tool under medical supervision, and by those who are struggling with obesity, to a ‘severe’ degree.

Scroll down for the full story, including the science behind how the medicine works, when it’s set to become available on prescription for weight loss in the UK – and what happened when one health writer took the drug, off-label.

Women’s Health does not endorse off-label use of the medication and always advocates for lifestyle-first weight loss methods.

For any questions about weight loss medications, contact your GP or pharmacist.

When Isobel* first heard the rumours that there may be more to Kim Kardashian’s recent weight loss than a dedicated healthy eating and workout routine she was intrigued.

The 37-year-old PR from Swindon had always kept in shape with the guidance of a personal trainer. ‘But time for myself has become more limited since becoming a mum and working for myself,’ she explains, noting that a busy schedule had stifled regular gym visits and encouraged 9pm sweet cravings, leaving her persistently 1.5 stone above her goal.

Could there be a faster, more efficient way? All it took was a simple Google search for ‘Kim Kardashian weight loss drug’ to satisfy her curiosity: Ozempic.

Almost as swiftly, Isobel was able to purchase a month’s supply of the type 2 diabetes medication via an online pharmacy for £195 with just an email consultation. Once it had dropped onto her doorstep the only sticking point was self-injecting a 0.25mg dose into her stomach on a weekly basis without leaving a bruise.

The change to Isobel’s hunger levels was immediate. ‘I’m hit by a wave of terrible nausea, that feels just like pregnancy morning sickness,’ she explains of how it effectively quelled her desire to munch on anything sweet in the evening.

The effects gradually fade throughout the week before she needs to administer a fresh shot. At the time of writing, she is a solid three pounds down in just a fortnight.
Ozempic for weight loss
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