A doctor has issued an urgent warning as to why Ozempic shouldn't be used to help aid weight loss as it apparently does one alarming thing to your body.
Ozempic, an injection for people with type 2 diabetes to help them manage their blood sugar levels, has become popular in recent years among those hoping to lose weight.
The drug was approved in 2017 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help diabetics, and works through its active ingredient semaglutide, which mimics the body's natural GLP-1 hormone responsible for regulating appetite.
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The medication is administered once a week, with dosages starting from 0.25mg before increasing each time to the limit of 2mg.
While Ozempic has become increasing popular for those hoping to lose weight, Dr Annette Bosworth has expressed her concerns at those using the drug for such a purpose.
In a recent video, she said: "Ozempic should not be allowed for weight loss. Mark my words. Put them in a time capsule and open it in 15 years.
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"Ozempic has a remarkable weight loss, but what they didn't focus on is that when these people are losing weight, they are losing muscle mass at a way higher rate that they should.
"As you play this forward, especially in elder patients, when you lose that much muscle mass, you cannot gain it back without extreme measures.
"The chemistry behind how they're losing that weight is really a starvation weight loss. This is the kind of weight loss that will decrease their immune system, decrease their bone density, decrease their muscle mass, and decrease their longevity."
Ozempic and muscle mass
A study looked into how taking drugs such as Ozempic can impact muscle mass and ultimately reduce bone density.
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And while it did prove effective for those hoping to lose weight, it certainly has its drawbacks.
Dr. Rekha Kumar, a practicing endocrinologist in New York, told Healthline: "[It’s] important to note that a lower body weight does not always mean that a person is healthier. After some weight loss is achieved and a person reaches a plateau, it is important to assess body composition.
"Any time people lose weight, one-quarter to one-third of that weight can be muscle, and the faster we lose, the more likely we are to lose muscle. While 20 percent reduction in muscle mass seems normal for someone losing weight, the problem is the length of time in which this muscle loss occurs."
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Dr Ben Bickman, who is a scientist and professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, has previously claimed that muscle loss can be brought on from the use of the drug.
"You have a substantial amount of lean mass that's getting loss as the person is losing weight. To make that clear, for every ten pounds of weight loss, only six is fat - four of it is coming from non-fat sources like muscle and bone," he told Thomas DeLauer.
In a statement provided to UNILAD, Novo Nordisk said: "In clinical trials for Wegovy, Ozempic or Rybelsus, we did not specifically study the medicine’s impact on muscle mass.
"In a sub-study of 140 patients with a BMI of 40 or less conducted as part of the STEP 1 trial, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) analyses suggested that treatment with Wegovy was accompanied by reductions in both fat mass and lean body mass, with a greater reduction in fat mass than lean body mass.
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"We recommend that any patients experiencing side effects while taking Wegovy, Ozempic or Rybelsus contact their healthcare provider."
Callum Jones