“Especially if you’re taking it for not the medically-indicated reasons and maybe not under the same amount of supervision, the side effects can be severe.

“Because it acts on the GI tract, it can cause a lot of nausea and even pretty severe vomiting, so not everyone who qualifies can even tolerate the medication,” she says.

Plus, Oh says, the drugs can have intense side effects. Not to mention plastic surgery bills for fixing the so-called “Ozempic face,” where users lose so much weight that their facial skin sags and looks older. And for those without those conditions, getting insurance to cover the drugs can be a struggle, which means shelling out more than $1,000 a month. The interest has led to a shortage of medications for people with diabetes or obesity who might actually need them. As rumors and news stories swirled that celebrities were on it–from Elon Musk to Remi Bader to Chelsea Handler to the Kardashians–more and more people started asking their doctors for the drugs. “It acts directly on the GI tract to slow down food passing through and therefore increase that feeling of being full.”īasically, it makes your body digest food more slowly, and patients who take it report barely being hungry or having to remind themselves to eat. “It’s thought that because this hormone acts in several places, in addition to the effect on insulin, it also acts on the brain to decrease the hunger feeling,” she says. Deborah Oh, an endocrinologist with Sharp HealthCare in San Diego. Its chemical makeup is the same as Wegovy, which is intended to treat obesity, and which got a lot of attention when Elon Musk tweeted he was taking it to look “fit, ripped and healthy.” Both work by mimicking the action of a naturally occurring hormone, GLP-1, that helps the body make more of its own insulin, says Dr. Ozempic is meant for people with diabetes. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play

Hunger memoir