, there are the side-effects clearly stated on the drug companies' websites, which go all the way from short-term discomforts such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain and constipation to 'possible thyroid tumours, including cancer.' Worrying side-effect Still not put off the miracle jab? Try this: what if the drug we're all so giddy with excitement over was taking years off your life? As someone with a special interest in longevity, who has spent the past two years researching the real, sustainable hacks to a long and healthy life for my new book, 2 Weeks To A Younger You, I'm astonished by the degree to which we are ignoring what may turn out to be the most noxious side-effect of all. So the only miracle as far as I'm concerned is why anyone would be choosing to swap pounds for years, and why those in the know have held back on pointing this out. To be clear, semaglutide is an appetite suppressant, pure and simple. Yes, it also slows down gastric emptying – a natural part of digestion – which is not bad in itself, but the drastic weight loss we are witnessing in those who are injecting themselves weekly with the drug is caused first and foremost by good old-fashioned calorie-restriction. As one girlfriend marvelled just the other day: 'My husband bought me a latte the other day, and I couldn't even bring myself to drink it!' There is nothing marvellous to me about that. Anyone with a background in nutrition knows without a shadow of a doubt that drastic, sustained calorie restriction and quick weight loss ages you inside and out – and it's not sustainable. Cruel irony It's a cruel irony that the demographic who have jumped on the Ozempic bandwagon most enthusiastically are the over forties, who should be concertedly trying to maintain or even build muscle mass at that particular time of life. In a process known as sarcopenia, muscle mass decreases approximately 3–8 per cent per deca){kind=link}
Royal nutritionist Gabriella Peacock believes the ‘wonder drug’ could have the dangerous side effect of speeding up the ageing process
You’d be amazed how many clients love to sit there, in my office, promoting a fad. They will have come to see me for weight loss and yet be desperate to convince me that keto or paleo is “the way forward”, that glucose monitoring or cutting out carbs is “a game-changer”, that celery juice is “the answer.”
As a former model before I became a nutritionist [with a clientele that includes everyone from Princess Beatrice, Dame Joan Collins and Charlotte Tilbury to James Blunt and Yasmin Le Bon] I’ve seen first-hand the dangerous methods people will use to get or stay thin. Usually, I’ll laugh off these fads, knowing the worst case scenario is that they won’t work. But I’ve never seen anything catch on as fast and furiously as Ozempic: the “wonder drug” and “magic wand”. And this is one fad I’m not prepared to laugh off, because I believe it may be jeopardising that future.
For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past two years, Ozempic is a semaglutide drug invented to help type 2 diabetics regulate blood glucose levels – with one of the most desirable side-effects in modern medicine: extreme weight loss. To that aim it is now prescribed – and shockingly over-prescribed – off-label. Indeed, it’s currently so ubiquitous that when a colleague or friend suddenly walks into a party 15lbs lighter than they were two months ago, looking wan-faced, dull-skinned, thinner-haired and like they’ve just emerged from a bout of chronic illness, there’s often only the one-word question: “Ozempic?”
There’s a place on the health market for semaglutide drugs, which have been proven to be effective in treating chronic conditions such as diabetes and obesity, and both Ozempic and Wegovy are very clear about their prescriptive guidelines.