It’s a must-have sign on TikTok: an item flies through the air to fall into burning hands. The most recent is Ozempic, a diet drug that has been processed on the app some 350 million times. The girls smile for the camera as they go to get their dose. They take the injection pen out of the package. They put a needle into their stomachs. And then they share how many more pounds they hope to lose in the next week. More recently, diabetes medication has become available “without restriction” for weight loss, and is available for purchase without a prescription. His huge popularity on social media generated such a demand that there was a shortage of everything; The weight loss method is also du jour in Hollywood, where celebrities are now paying $1,500 a month for the promise of losing a few pounds.
Ozempic, whose generic name is semaglutide, produces feelings of satiety by mimicking the appetite-regulating hormone. It is given as a weekly injection dose and has been shown to produce an average reduction of 6 to 15 percent of body weight per year (for strength). Drug makers Novo Nordisk made $3.4 billion in 2020 alone, and analysts predict sales will more than double to $7.8 billion, especially when Wegovy, the 2.4mg version of Ozempic used for the NHS (National Health Service), arrives in the UK in early 2023.
In popular online posts, users share how their appetite has decreased as the number of flashes on the scale decreases. Fast waist “fixes” have been around forever. But TikTok’s influence is growing faster and faster than ever: Research by the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences earlier this year found that the site is the “worst culprit” in the bombardment of young people with online medical misinformation.
For obese patients, Ozempic “works well”, says GP Simon Gordon, who has seen many patients “lose a lot of weight. [ser] can stop blood pressure meds… So far it helps”. Although it has been so effective, it is still necessary to be careful that the drug declares a panacea for serious damage, especially since the tumultuous past of others. The drug has been approved by at least 25 medical authorities in the past six decades, and immediately banned side effects, from damaged heart valves to stroke and primary pulmonary hypertension (a life-threatening lung condition) have manifested. ), this is the only drug that could be prescribed in the UK between 2010 and the year it speaks to long-term fears.
Between the years 1930 and 1960, the story was different. Large sums of money were invested in developing amphetamine-based weight loss drugs. In fact, Donald Trump was prescribed a certain drug Tenuate Dospan in the 1980s, one of those pills known for side effects such as “confusion and hallucinations”. Psychosis is believed to be one of the more chronic problems; more briefly, they are comprised of “anxiousness, vigilance, and grandeur of imagination.”
But the medically induced weight loss genre would hit the next decade with Fen-Phen, a pill that combines fenfluramine, an appetite suppressant, and phentermine (an amphetamine similar to methamphetamine). One study of 121 patients reported an average weight loss of 14.2 kg over 34 weeks, compared with 4.9 kg in the placebo group; Its popularity skyrocketed to such an extent that a weight loss clinic was established to demand capital.
Two years, six million patients and 18 million prescriptions later became “the cautionary tale of our time” according to medical experts. Thirty percent of users suffered from heart valve problems (and others reported primary pulmonary hypertension, or PPH), which led to their power being suspended. The suspension did not come soon enough to protect people like Mary Linnen, a thirty-year-old Massachusetts woman who, trying to lose weight for her wedding, spent three months in the hospital before dying of PPH in 1997. Ten thousand trials. They filed against Wyeth, the drug maker, and were awarded $21 billion in compensation. The consequence was so great that the US Food and Drug Administration did not approve new diets for the next decade.
Since the weight loss product is licensed, the demand from those who care about their bodies can move those who really need it.
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Neither Fen-Phen nor Phentermine, another amphetamine-based weight loss drug still in use in the US, has been approved in the UK. But legal weight loss pills are not always an obstacle for those looking for quick results. As of 2013, the UK government’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has more than £4 million worth of illegal diet pills in Britain, including dinitrophenol or DNP, used to treat obesity in 1933, but which was later classified as “a”. toxic chemical”. Available to buy online, the mixture has been linked to several deaths in recent years, including the father of the baby Liam Willis, 24 and 21-year-old student Eloise Parry. A 2019 study by the Scottish Food Standards Agency found that, even if they knew it could kill them, 5 percent of respondents DNP they would still lose weight. A 2017 government survey of dieters found that more than 40 percent of people using diet pills knew of the associated health risks. Sixty percent reported “desperate weight loss” as their motivation, and the same percentage reported blood, heart problems, and vision problems. taking weight-loss.
Ozempic has been shown to be so safe and effective that with Dr. Gordon recently suggested that one of his patients, who is currently awaiting bariatric surgery, take a start, the surgeon objected; He thinks the drug is likely to “hurt the fat surgeons.” Alex Miras, Consultant Endocrinologist and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Ulster, supports its use among patients with health problems due to obesity. But he “is not surprised that it is popular” both in Hollywood and on social media, noting that “in the UK, the biggest people are responsible for the consumption of Saxenda.” [el otro fármaco legal para bajar de peso, aprobado el año pasado] They are a beauty salon.
When weight-loss is approved, the demand among conscious people can often exceed that of those who actually need it, which, without the input of a medical professional, can significantly increase the potential risks. Medicine is prescribed for a healthy diet and for exercise, but when taken alone, and then discontinued, it turns into the opposite benefit; Appetite suppression alone cannot solve the global obesity crisis. And then there is the question of what to take after the medicine. An article published in April in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism found that those taking a 2.4 mg dose of semaglutide lost two-thirds of the weight they lost in the first year after taking the drug; those who had lost the most kilos were the ones who gained the most weight. Research has repeatedly shown the dangers of crash dieting, as frequent events have more weight than loss and metabolic damage.
A new contributor to the Ozempic hashtag on TikTok tells me he started taking injections five weeks ago, after a private doctor ran a series of tests to analyze his recent weight gain and found no clear reason. He doesn’t have a specific weight loss plan, whatever he says, I lose in six months. To be honest, I just want to jumpstart my weight loss.” As the millions of hashtag numbers attest, she’s not alone.
