Lara went for a girls’ night out at the weekend.
A bunch of her friends were getting together for a few birthday drinks.
She was pleased to see them, and had good fun, but she came home shocked.
Out of the five other women (all aged between 48 and 60) FOUR were on Ozempic, or a version of it (they’re known as GLP-1 agonists or, more crudely “fat jabs”.)
And they were all enthusiastic about how much weight they’d lost, so quickly and easily.
For one of them, it wasn’t even a weight loss issue but an attempt to deal with high cholesterol and high blood sugar.
“None of them ate the lovely food we ordered at the bar,” Lara told me, sadly, “apart from myself and the only other person who was NOT loaded up with Ozempic.”
I think I was less shocked about this than my wife…
I know that here in the UK, 1 in 7 people have taken a GLP-1 drug, or have a family member or friend who has done so.
And who’s to blame them?
Because the coverage has come thick and fast in the media, and most of it is largely positive – or at least you’d gather as much from the tone of the headlines.
The Taylor Swift of Pharmaceuticals
I’ve noticed a ramping-up of the positive rhetoric on so-called ‘fat jabs’ – and not just from tabloid pieces.
For instance, I often look at The New Scientist to get an idea of the latest cutting-edge treatments and nutritional theories.
For the past six months they’ve included regular articles on these new drugs, often describing them as a major medical revolution that will transform society and ‘end obesity’.
For example, this month the New Scientist website has this headline: ‘The Ozempic era is only just beginning’. This kind of language makes it sound like this is the next big thing since penicillin.
In December last year they ran with this headline: ‘Why do Ozempic and Wegovy seem to treat everything?’
The editorial commented: “Over the past year, we have seen study after study examine their benefits for other conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, depression and addiction.” That article also included the immortal line, ‘Ozempic is the Taylor Swift of pharmaceuticals’.
It described how Wegovy (a version of Ozempic) has been shown to:
• reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke by 20%
• help women become more fertile
• have positive effects on depression and anxiety.
• slash the risk of kidney failure and death in people with diabetes.
• reduce brain shrinkage
• slow cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer’s.
They even went as far as to suggest that “some people would be better off taking these drugs for the rest of their lives.”
Now, if you were to scan all this news at-a-glance you’d be pretty strong-willed NOT to run to your GP asking them for GLP-1 agonists.
In fact, a lot of people do…
And if they can’t get the drugs through official channels they get them through unofficial channels.
Of course, if you read all the way through the articles in reputable publications like New Scientist you can see that the picture is not as clear as the headlines make out.
Is this Medical Revolution All it’s Cracked Up to Be?
Drilling down into it, there are clear issues…
Half of people taking GLP-1 drugs get gastrointestinal side effects like nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and constipation. More than 1 in 20 users stop taking these drugs because of this.
There’s even evidence emerging that it’s linked to a larger chance of hair loss – and who knows what other effects will eventually emerge from this gigantic social experiment?
What’s more, it is evident that the rapid weight loss causes a deterioration in bone and muscle mass.
For example, one study of people on Semaglutide showed that lean body mass decreased by 10% after 68 weeks.
Which means that people on these drugs need to do MORE exercise in order to protect their bodies from muscle and bone problems.
Yet how many are doing so?
It seems that the drugs are being used by lots of people through unofficial channels to avoid making big lifestyle changes, including exercise, stress relief, sleep management, portion control and giving up ultra-processed foods.
And what about NUTRITION?
Lara made a very interesting point about her friends who were on Ozempic.
They all admitted to her that they weren’t cooking nutritional meals that included a variety of food groups… instead they were snacking on bread, crackers, and other bits and pieces they could find whenever they felt they need to fill up.
This could cause a later knock-on effect where they develop conditions and diseases to which they would otherwise have been protected.
An Uncertain Future
So what happens if the millions of people turning to weight loss injections don’t match their GLP-drug use with a proper nutritional diet and exercises?
Well, with this massive medical experiment now underway across the globe, I guess we’re going to find out!
I also wonder if people really are willing to shell out for a drug that they may have to stay on for the rest of their lives?
Because that’s the only way this can work long-term.
For instance, last month a major pensions company that assesses life expectancy told the Mail on Sunday that ‘fat jabs won’t make people live longer’.
Why?
Because as soon as people stop using Ozempic and Wegovy, they always put the weight back on again.
So – despite this ‘medical revolution’ – this pension company is not going to alter their pricing when it comes to annuities.
My view is that these drugs should be an emergency measure for people with serious obesity problems who have no other recourse. And they should be part of a holistic programme of dietary and lifestyle changes.
Here’s a final thought…
A Warning from History
Rarely does a new technology emerge that doesn’t have serious side effects on people, society and the environment. Plastics revolutionised modern life, but now this substance is devastating oceans and filing our bodies with microplastics.
DDT was a ‘miracle’ pesticide that devastated bird populations and polluted ecosystems.
Leaded petrol was considered a breakthrough for engine performance but led to brain damage and environmental poisoning.
Even antibiotics, one of the greatest medical advances, have led to the rise of deadly, drug-resistant superbugs.
In history, we are always quick to celebrate a revolution…
But we are often tragically slow to spot the hidden costs.
Yours as ever
Ray Collins
