Thanks to celebrities, Ozempic is buzzing all over the media for all the wrong reasons. Using medications to lose weight is not a particularly bad thing, but using the wrong type is not the best idea. People are noticing multiple celebrities have been shedding weight, and fast. This could be because they are using a drug to help those with diabetes. 

To give a brief background, Ozempic is described as an injectable typically used for type 2 diabetes in adults to improve blood sugar and offers an array of other positives, such as lowering the risk of cardiovascular events such as a stroke or heart attack. In other words, this drug is not recommended for weight loss, but that doesn’t stop people from reaching their desired body goals. 

The drug has been used for weight loss for some time but didn’t gain popularity until late 2023 after multiple people reported seeing a difference in their favorite celebrity’s body and face.

Notable figures who have admitted to using the medication consist of Amy Schumer, Sharon Osbourne, and Tracy Morgan. These people shared their experiences of the medication as being a good thing. However, Schumer and Osbourne have admitted they have stopped the medication because it made them start to feel sick. On Watch What Happens Live, Schmer mentions how she became so skinny but sick as well that she couldn’t even play with her son. 

“I couldn’t play with my son. I was so skinny, and he’s throwing a ball at me, and I couldn’t play with him.”-Amy Schumer. 

Many people enjoy the effortless advances in using the medication. It offers a way to lose weight without having to go to the gym, and it was simple to acquire. It was more convenient, especially for those who don’t have time to hit the gym, want the easy weight out, or can’t lose weight.

However, with rapid weight loss comes face fat loss. As the medication’s popularity started to grow, it became increasingly easier to spot people who used the drug they called ‘Ozempic face.’ Doctor Jeremy White, a plastic surgeon, explains in a TikTok how Ozempic face works, “We lose a lot of fat in our face, so sometimes it comes off the spots where we do want it to come, but sometimes we don’t want to lose it on the face.” This results in hallow eyes, sagging mouth, and hallow cheeks.

Even though this seems like a miracle drug for weight loss, it also comes with consequences. Using this medication as a non-diabetic can be dangerous and life-threatening. The dangers consist of allergic reactions, hypoglycemia, increased risk of thyroid cancer, and swelling of the pancreas. All of which can lead to irreversible damage and death. The medication was never intended for weight loss purposes, so they never researched how the medicine reacts to non-diabetics. Since the medicine is not approved by the FDA as a weight loss drug, it raises serious concerns about its popularity and the fact that it’s facing a shortage. 

In 2022, it was declared that Ozempic was going through a shortage, which means serious problems for those who need it. There’s no set-in-stone reason as to why these medicines face storage, but it can be due to factories having a hard time supplying the product with all the demand and quality issues. They limit the medicine for patients, but even that’s not enough, being that it’s easy to get your hands on the medication. There are websites on the internet you can go to and apply to receive Ozempic. It’s as easy as three steps when, instead, you should be consulting with the doctor to make sure you are right for the drug. However, correlation does not equal causation, so we can’t conclude that these celebrities and other civilians use the medication for weight loss. 

For these reasons, Ozempic shouldn’t be the first choice for weight loss when there is a plethora of safer and more effective weight loss methods available. Using something that seems too good to be true might turn out to be too good and not reveal the whole truth. It’s important to be safe when using strong medications and always important to consult with a professional.