Josephine Hatton
What do a treatment for type 2 diabetes, Khloé Kardashian’s supplement brand, Lemme, and Lizzo’s Halloween costume have in common? Josephine Hatton provides information on the weight-loss drug taking the world by storm.
So far in 2024, potentially the biggest news in the health and wellness world has been the approval of Ozempic and Wegovy. These drugs are part of the next generation of weight-loss treatments. Most have the active compound semaglutide, a substance that targets receptors for a naturally occurring hormone, Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1). It is administered via a series of injections.
GLP-1’s main actions are in response to eating, lowering blood sugar levels through increased insulin and decreased glucagon. It also slows food movement through your gut and helps regulate appetite. Semaglutide has been designed to act as a mimic, although it is not without its side effects, most commonly nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and constipation, but also can cause ‘Ozempic face’. In the most extreme cases, it can cause pancreatitis or stomach paralysis.
It was initially approved by the FDA in 2017 under the name ‘Ozempic’ as a treatment for those with type 2 diabetes to help people control their weight. In March 2024, the FDA further approved semaglutide for weight loss under a different name, ‘Wegovy’, to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease, heart attack and stroke in adults with preexisting cardiovascular disease and obesity. This was after a recent trial where Wegovy reduced the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events by 20%. The UK equivalent of the FDA, The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), also approved its use in July this year.
there is a fear that these drugs could be thought of as a shortcut to a healthy weight.
While both agencies emphasise the importance of using GLP-1 mimics in conjunction with lifestyle changes, there is a fear that these drugs could be thought of as a shortcut to a healthy weight. They could also facilitate disordered eating and unhealthy body image as those of higher weight and eating disorders are more likely to look for weight loss interventions than address the symptoms of the disorder. One of Lizzo’s Halloween costumes brought attention to the stigma of using weight-loss drugs or not as her advocacy for body positivity continues.
In America, 1 in 8 adults have taken a GLP-1 drug, and of those, half said that it was difficult to afford them. Whilst in the UK, cost is less of an issue, the demand for these drugs is ever increasing, and so there is concern that those who choose to go privately may have more ready access to these drugs. This opens a new can of worms surrounding the implications of how we view weight and its relationship to class, discrimination and health inequalities.
Many use scientific terminology in their marketing to give the appearance that they are evidence-based.
Potentially even worse are companies promoting supplements that claim to give the same effects with no scientific backing. Many use scientific terminology in their marketing to give the appearance that they are evidence-based. Khloé Kardashian has done exactly that with her supplement brand Lemme. This further perpetuates diet culture and unhealthy body image but also could be dangerous for those who require medical intervention for type 2 diabetes or other conditions and see these supplements as a sufficient alternative.
As a positive, these drugs have also been flagged for their potential to reduce the risk of many other conditions, including anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and alcoholism, among others. This is because GLP-1s are not restricted to the gut, they also play a role in the brain. There may be an effect due to improved mental health of patients; however, improvements were seen even in those who didn’t lose a significant amount of weight, indicating there is a physiological explanation, too.
GLP-1 mimics are undoubtedly going to make waves within the medical community and hopefully bring the obesity epidemic within developing societies back under control. Their promise to treat many different conditions within a controlled medical environment is tantalising; however, their use outside of this needs to be tightly regulated, as there is a substantial risk of both medical and societal side effects.
Josephine Hatton
Featured image courtesy of Diabetesmagazijn.nl via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of Supliful – Supplements On Demand via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
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