Watch Perception’s episode The Ozempic Video games, exploring if in style weight reduction medicine are a long run answer and the way they’re altering our relationship to weight, on Tuesday 8:30pm on SBS or on
Singer Shauna Jensen says she’s all the time felt the strain to be skinny since childhood and being a performer on stage exacerbated that want to lose a few of her physique weight.
Jensen, who’s in her late 60s, mentioned she instructed her physician that she was weight-reduction plan an excessive amount of however nonetheless needed to drop some pounds.
Her GP mentioned to attempt the drug Ozempic, so she weighed up the dangers and advantages and determined to offer it a go after being prescribed it off-label.
“I used to be taking it for weight reduction and I misplaced about roughly 21 kilos in about 10 or 11 months previous to having knee surgical procedure,” Shauna instructed Perception.
“However I used to be sick all the time. I used to be nauseous, if I wasn’t nauseous, I used to be additionally constipated. If I wasn’t constipated, I had diarrhoea and the nausea was simply relentless.
“It wasn’t a enjoyable option to be, but it surely definitely curbed my urge for food,” she mentioned.
Bans on compounding replicas of in style weight reduction medicine like Ozempic are coming into impact on 1 October 2024. Supply: Second RF / Iuliia Burmistrova/Getty Pictures
The load-loss ‘surprise drug’
Ozempic is a brand-name treatment used to deal with sort 2 diabetes however is commonly prescribed ‘off-label’ as a weight-loss drug.
It accommodates the lively ingredient semaglutide — which works by decreasing urge for food by concentrating on areas within the physique together with the mind, pancreas and digestive system.
It reduces urge for food within the mind and slows down how shortly the abdomen empties — triggering a sense of feeling ‘full’.
It additionally helps the pancreas produce insulin, which is the way it helps handle sort 2 diabetes.
One other treatment, Wegovy, which additionally accommodates semaglutide, has been developed purely as weight-loss therapy. It turned accessible in Australia final month.
It is solely prescribed for these residing with weight problems or who’re chubby with a minimum of one weight-related comorbidity, comparable to hypertension, sort 2 diabetes, or excessive ldl cholesterol.
Elevated demand for Ozempic results in shortages
The ‘off-label’ prescribing of Ozempic for weight reduction is
With the typical price of Ozempic starting from $130 to $200 for a month’s provide when prescribed off-label for weight reduction, many individuals are turning to compounding pharmacies to entry replicas of the drug at a cheaper price level.
It is estimated that a minimum of 20,000 Australian sufferers are injecting compounded reproduction weight reduction medicine with the bulk utilizing them for weight reduction administration.
Nonetheless, compounded merchandise are usually not held to the identical security, high quality and efficacy requirements required for mass produced medicines.
In Might this yr tit could ban replicas of semaglutides from being compounded in a bid to maintain Australians protected from critical opposed negative effects.
The ban is ready to return into impact on 1 October 2024.
The glamourization of weight-loss medicine on social media
When Jeanette Wilczak noticed Hollywood stars shedding weight and getting thinner within the media, she thought Ozempic is likely to be the important thing to fixing her worries round her weight as she discovered shedding it obtained tougher as she aged.
“I believe there’s an actual stigma nonetheless about being chubby. Persons are considered much less worthy,” Jaenette instructed Perception.
“I assumed this has obtained to be the way in which for me to go, as a result of I used to go to the gymnasium and I used to work out actually, actually onerous to attempt to preserve my weight down.”
After being prescribed off-label Ozempic by a well being practitioner, six hours after taking the treatment she reacted badly.
Jeanette suffered excessive negative effects shortly after injecting herself with Ozempic. Supply: SBS
“I began vomiting and diarrhoea, however after I was vomiting, it was really actually unhealthy sulfuric, like rotten egg gasoline was developing, and I had stunning pains to the abdomen,” she mentioned.
Wanting to offer it one other crack, the physician steered a decrease dose, however she had the identical excessive response — regardless of the branded treatment being prescribed by her physician.
“That was a faster response, and I used to be simply so sick,” she mentioned.
“I used to be scared. The odor that was developing was simply stunning.”
Although some folks have extra optimistic experiences, Jeanette mentioned she gained’t be touching injectables that would assist with weight reduction once more.
“There isn’t any fast repair. I might by no means go down that highway once more,” she mentioned.
“I believe we have to return to the fundamentals of higher weight loss plan and train and never be counting on these type of medicine.”
Dr Terri-Lynne South is a metabolic well being specialist. Supply: Equipped
The consultants weigh in
Dr Terri-Lynne South, who’s the weight problems administration chair for the Royal Australian Faculty of Normal Practitioners, says negative effects from taking these medicine are widespread however can usually be managed underneath the steering of a health care provider.
“There’s an enormous variability in whether or not somebody’s going to endure the negative effects, what these negative effects are, and the severity, ” South instructed Perception.
“However on the whole, negative effects comparable to nausea, negative effects comparable to modifications in bowels are widespread, often delicate and often not long-term. However we’ve people with slightly excessive ends of common as properly.”
South mentioned sufferers utilizing these medicine for weight reduction shouldn’t need to put up with negative effects to make use of these medicine.
“I do not assume they need to need to put up with negative effects. I believe negative effects, definitely in my expertise, might be properly managed.”
“We handle negative effects not simply by a dose but additionally by altering what persons are consuming and consuming and being proactive about bowel administration.”
Nonetheless, South says she has had sufferers previously that have not been capable of handle a facet impact, and needed to cease the treatment. She says sufferers should not view weight-loss medicine as a ‘magic tablet’ however have to additionally consider the required way of life modifications.
“In my expertise, it is about having the suitable gradual and holistic recommendation about not simply the treatment, however how one can eat properly, to handle negative effects,” she mentioned.
Shauna says regardless of not being on Ozempic anymore, the medicine helped her change her mindset when it got here to meals. Supply: Equipped
‘I did not wish to be a slave to the drug’
As for Shauna, she determined to offer Ozempic one other go after her scheduled knee surgical procedure.
The second time she didn’t see a lot weight reduction so determined to cease due to the expense.
She gave it one final attempt however after a number of months determined that the fee and negative effects of nausea weren’t price it. Regardless of deciding that semaglutide wasn’t for her, Shauna says it has modified her angle to meals.
“Being on that drug did change the way in which I eat. My mindset is completely different now. If there’s three tacos on the plate I’ll eat two as I do know if I eat three it’s not going to be nice,” she mentioned.
“However I finished utilizing it additionally as a result of I had a revelation about being a slave to this drug. Being a slave to what was happening in my mind and the way I noticed myself and my future.
“I simply got here to a call that I wasn’t going to be a slave to it any longer, as a substitute accepting that this who I’m.”
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