Is Ozempic too good to be true?

  With the surge of people, especially celebrities, using drugs like Ozempic to lose weight, it is important to know if these drugs are too good to be true. According to Tan et al., 2022, Ozempic is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist called Semaglutide, which was originally used by diabetics to lower blood glucose and release insulin. However, it also works in the brain by reducing the want of people to eat more, making the brain think that it is full faster. This drug still has not been approved yet for weight loss, only for type 2 diabetes, and a lot of the drugs that had been approved for weight loss could have bad side effects, which makes it important to look at how safe Ozempic is.

The study from Tan et al., 2022, was a review of all the studies up until that point that mentions Ozempic and fit their criteria, comparing how much weight people lost as well as the side effects that people were reporting, only for people without diabetes taking the drug. The study found that overall there was an 11.85% reduction in mean body weight with Ozempic, taking into account the different doses and lifestyle changes imposed for the study. However, it was 1.59 times more likely that a subject on Ozempic had gastrointestinal distress, being things like constipation and nausea, compared to the placebo. Severe gastrointestinal events like acute pancreatitis were also 1.6 times higher, but these events overall were less common than gastrointestinal distress. It seemed, however, that lower doses tended to reduce the likelihood of side effects, and for people who are obese, a 5% to 10% reduction in weight could help overall health. This study, however, did not look at if this weight reduction would continue after treatment had ended, or any long-term effects of the drug (Tan et al., 2022).

Overall, I think that based on this data, Ozempic could be a useful alternative for obese people with health comorbidities who are unable to lose weight through lifestyle changes. However, for the people who do not need to lose 5% to 10% of their weight to severely improve their health, or those who choose to not make behavioral changes, risks like pancreatitis or uncomfortable gastrointestinal conditions seem like unnecessary distress for the sake of appearance. 

Tan, H. C., Dampil, O. A., & Marquez, M. M. (2022). Efficacy and Safety of Semaglutide for Weight Loss in Obesity Without Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of the ASEAN Federation of Endocrine Societies, 37(2), 65–72. https://doi.org/10.15605/jafes.037.02.14