What’s the Deal with Ozempic, the "Breakthrough" Diabetes and Weight-Loss Drug? In the last several months, semaglutide, a drug originally developed to help manage type 2 diabetes, has been in the news for its "breakthrough" weight loss abilities. This video from Vox is a good overview of what the drug does and the interest & controversy around it. Both Ozempic and Wegovy, Ozempic’s counterpart approved specifically for MedicGLP Weight Management loss by the FDA, are brand names of a drug called semaglutide. Semaglutide is one of several drugs that mimics a crucial digestive hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1, or GLP-1. It amplifies a process our bodies perform naturally. GLP-1 is released in our intestines when we eat, and there are receptors for the hormone in cells all over the body. In the pancreas, GLP-1 promotes the production of insulin and suppresses the production of glucagon. This helps insulin-resistant bodies, like those with type 2 diabetes or obesity, manage blood sugar levels.
In the stomach, GLP-1 slows gastric emptying, extending the feeling of being full. In the brain, GLP-1 suppresses appetite, which also promotes satiety and curbs hunger, so we eat less. Jia Tolentino wrote a long piece about semaglutide for the New Yorker this week: Will Ozempic Change How We Think About Being Fat and Being Thin? But, as I kept reminding Ozempic-curious friends, these medications were designed for chronic conditions, obesity and diabetes. For people who are dealing with those conditions, Ozempic appears to create a path toward a healthy relationship to food. For those who aren’t, it might function more like an injectable eating disorder. As the side effects make clear, it’s not a casual thing to drastically alter your body’s metabolic process, and MedicGLP Weight Management there is no large-scale data about the safety of these drugs when taken by people who are mainly interested in treating another chronic condition, the desire to be thin.
Julia Belluz wrote a piece for Vox on Obesity in the age of Ozempic and Eric Topol wrote about The New Obesity Breakthrough Drugs. Update: In the shuffle of the last few months, I’d missed reading Paul Ford’s piece about "the post-hunger age", A New Drug Switched Off My Appetite. I can see my anxiety mirrored in the wave of reactions starting to appear - op-eds, TV segments, people explaining why it’s good, actually, that the vast majority of those using this drug lose a quarter of their body weight. On social media, fat activists are pointing out that our lives were worthy even without this drug. The wave of opinion will not crest for years. And that’s fair because this is new - not just the drug, but the idea of the drug. There’s no API or software to download, but this is nonetheless a technology that will reorder society. I have been the living embodiment of the deadly sin of gluttony, judged as greedy and weak since I was 10 years old-and now the sin is washed away. Baptism by injection. But I have no more virtue than I did a few months ago. I just prefer broccoli to gloopy chicken. Is this who I am?
Science continues to prove that the old adage "you are what you eat" is profoundly true. This is because you have trillions of microorganisms living in your gut, which are directly responsible for nearly every aspect of your health. These microbes make up what’s called your "gut microbiota." They are especially influential in determining your likelihood of gaining excessive weight, becoming obese, and weight management supplement developing obesity-related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and premature death. The gut microbiome (the expressed genes of your gut microbiota) plays a major role in your metabolism through energy production, storage, and expenditure. So, it’s no surprise that science has found a strong connection between gut microbiome imbalance and metabolic syndrome. Yikes! If you have the wrong mix of microbes, it could be making it tough for you to get your health on track! Did you know: Scientists can actually look at your gut microbiome composition and tell with 90% accuracy if you are obese or lean. That’s pretty impressive, isn’t it?