Does Diabetes Medication Ozempic Mean The Weight Is Over For America’s Obesity Crisis?
“Weight loss medication isn’t cheating,” reads an online ad, “it’s science.” The ads show excited people jumping up and down and smiling over what sounds like a medical eureka. Is the cure for obesity really this easy?
Hollywood celebrities popularized taking diabetes medications off-label to lose weight, and now the trend is hitting mainstream markets. Google searches for “ozempic” and other diabetes medications spiked after last year’s Met Gala, and then hit an all-time peak around this year's Paris Fashion Week. Many fear this is the latest '90s resurgence, bringing with it the “heroin chic” body style and forgetting the dangerous weight-loss drug known as fen-phen that helped many women achieve it. But with most American women being overweight or obese, online pharmacies are jumping at the opportunity to cash in on closing the weight gap. Is America going to hit its weight loss goals with pills and shots? Or is this just the pharmaceutical child of the fad diets we grew up with?