Prescriptions for weight reduction drugs have skyrocketed lately. By the top of 2024, the market valuation is anticipated to develop to a whopping $21.09 billion.1 Right this moment, one of the widespread choices are GLP-1 agonist medicine which might be bought underneath two names, Ozempic and Wegovy. Each are from the Novo Nordisk drug firm — Ozempic is bought as a diabetes drug, whereas higher-dose Wegovy is authorised for weight reduction.2
The recognition of GLP-1 agonist medicine for weight administration has boomed lately, and it exhibits — fairly actually. Right this moment, extra customers are fighting a aspect impact dubbed the “Ozempic face”3 — a situation that happens when an individual loses an excessive amount of facial fats, resulting in a hollowed, gaunt look, because of taking these medicine.4
How Do GLP-1 Mimetics Work?
Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists work by boosting the hormone GLP-1. The drug was first authorised in 2017 to handle blood sugar ranges in diabetics, and, in 2021, the FDA authorised Wegovy to handle weight problems.5 Semaglutide is the energetic ingredient in each.
Your physique naturally makes GLP-1 within the small intestines,6 and its major operate is to decelerate digestion, enhance satiety, block glucagon secretion (a hormone used to regulate blood sugar ranges) and set off the pancreas to launch insulin.7
When used as an injectable remedy, semaglutide mimics the hormone, so the remedy binds to the receptor and triggers the identical results. Consequently, the passage of meals via your abdomen slows down, making you are feeling fuller longer. Based on an article revealed in El Pais:8
“Ozempic offers the sensation of being ceaselessly full, to be able to say goodbye to snacking, and be glad with smaller parts of meals. Quickly, although, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation can seem. After a number of months, the ‘Ozempic face’ could present up within the type of prematurely aged pores and skin.”
Trims Inches Off the Waist, however Provides Years to Your Face
Whenever you take semaglutide, it doesn’t simply trigger you to shed fats from particular physique drawback areas; it might probably additionally deplete your facial fats leading to misplaced quantity.9 When your physique slims down very quickly, the elasticity of your pores and skin, particularly on the face, might be severely affected.10 The outcome — sunken eyes, tremendous strains, indents and wrinkles, drooping cheeks, sagging pores and skin (together with underneath the chin) and adjustments within the measurement of the lips and chin.11,12
Semaglutide has helped some to slim down, however at the price of ageing pores and skin, notably in your face. In a Forbes article, Mojgan Hosseinipour, D.O., a board-certified dermatologist, says, “Subcutaneous facial fats gives structural help; with quantity loss, there’s an accelerated aged look of the face with noticeable strains and wrinkles.”13
These bodily results could also be extra obvious in folks with skinny faces who’ve skilled drastic weight reduction. Aesthetic physician, Mar Mira, explains in an El Pais article:14
“[I]n obese or overweight sufferers, weight reduction doesn’t often lead to vital facial skeletonization.
Nevertheless, shadows beneath the cheeks could also be accentuated by reabsorption of fats compartments, and facial flaccidity can change into extra pronounced across the jowls and jaw line because of the lack of temporal and preauricular fats compartments, that are often the primary to be reabsorbed throughout the growing older course of.”
Skincare Corporations Are Taking Benefit of the Ozempic Face
A 2023 research15 notes how the growing variety of folks with Ozempic face are impacting the sector of cosmetic surgery. Based on the researchers, “As the recognition of Ozempic grows, facial plastic surgeons should concentrate on each the affect on facial look and perioperative concerns.”
The research additionally mentions that strategies like dermal fillers, pores and skin tightening strategies and surgical procedure could also be wanted to handle extra pores and skin and restore a affected person’s facial quantity. This has prompted some skincare corporations to organize for the surge of people that could need to tackle the growing older results brought on by Ozempic.
In a Bloomberg article, skincare agency Galderma’s CEO Flemming Ornskov stated their Sculptra pores and skin remedy, which boosts collagen manufacturing, and different fillers will help “restore” sufferers’ facial options.16
Some physicians have additionally commented on the adjustments they see amongst individuals who took Ozempic. In an article revealed in Attract, Julius Few, MD, a Chicago-based, board-certified plastic surgeon, says, “I’ve seen various sufferers for facelifts who’re on Ozempic, and the best way their tissue behaves shouldn’t be the identical. The pores and skin has extra of a doughy consistency.”
What’s extra, Few feedback that individuals of their 20s and 30s are actually going past fillers — they’re additionally inquiring about procedures like facelifts, that are often tailor-made for these over 50 years previous.17
Ozempic’s Facet Results Can Be Alarming
However apart from the facial adjustments, Ozempic and different GLP-1 medicine can produce other extra disturbing unwanted side effects. A Girl’s World journal article,18 for instance, demonstrated the drastic weight reduction that Sharon Osbourne underwent after taking Ozempic. The 70-year-old TV persona misplaced a whopping 42 kilos.
The change to her facial look is noticeable and has change into one of the startling examples of the Ozempic face. Nevertheless, the article quotes an interview with Piers Morgan that Osbourne did again in September 2023, the place she additional shared her disagreeable expertise after utilizing the drug:20
“At first, I imply, you are feeling nauseous. You don’t throw up bodily, however you’ve obtained that feeling. It was about two, three weeks the place I felt nauseous the entire time. You get very thirsty and also you don’t need to eat. That’s it.
You may’t keep on it ceaselessly. I misplaced 42 kilos now and it’s simply sufficient. I didn’t really need to go this skinny, nevertheless it simply occurred, and I’ll most likely put all of it on once more quickly.”
Actuality TV persona Scott Disick has additionally spoken up about his dramatic weight reduction courtesy of Ozempic, and that he’s “looking for assist” to get off the drug after followers raised their issues over his alarming transformation, together with his gaunt face and sunken eyes. He has stopped taking the drug and is now working with a nutritionist to handle his weight.21
Others who’ve been prescribed GLP-1 agonist medicine to handle different well being points have additionally spoken up concerning the nasty results of Ozempic. In a Right this moment article,23 hospital employee Jeannine DellaVecchia stated she took the drug to “deal with signs associated to insulin resistance brought on by congenital adrenal hyperplasia and polycystic ovary syndrome.”
Regardless of shedding 30 kilos, she opted to cease utilizing Ozempic as a result of the unwanted side effects had been “simply an excessive amount of.” Apart from the noticeable facial adjustments, DellaVecchia additionally struggled with urge for food loss, nausea and vomiting.24
Utilizing Weight Loss Medication Can Have Disastrous Penalties on Your Intestine Well being
The issue with GLP-1 agonists is that in the event that they trigger meals passage to gradual an excessive amount of, it might probably result in well being points, notably gastrointestinal issues. One 2023 research26 famous that people who find themselves taking GLP-1 agonists had an elevated danger of pancreatitis, bowel obstruction and gastroparesis (abdomen paralysis).
A research27 utilizing information from Eudravigilance, Europe’s system for analyzing hostile reactions to drugs, additionally discovered that other than gastrointestinal issues, metabolic, dietary, eye, renal, urinary and cardiac issues additionally occurred in individuals who took semaglutide.
One research notes28 the consequences on the kidneys happen extra usually in individuals who even have hostile gastrointestinal issues when taking the drug. And, as with DellaVecchia’s expertise famous above, many individuals developed “cyclic-vomiting syndrome” — a situation the place an individual vomits a number of occasions in a day. Based on a CNN article:29
“Emily Wright, 38, a trainer in Toronto, began taking Ozempic in 2018. Over a 12 months, she stated, she misplaced 80 kilos, which she’s been in a position to preserve off. However Wright stated she now vomits so incessantly that she needed to take a depart of absence from her job. ‘I’ve nearly been off Ozempic for a 12 months, however I’m nonetheless not again to my regular,’ Wright stated.”
As an alternative of Ozempic, Improve Your GLP-1 Naturally With Akkermansia
Taking drugs to drop pounds is one method to endanger your well being. Ozempic was designed as a long-term drug. In different phrases, to keep up your weight reduction, you have to keep on the drug. One research30 discovered {that a} 12 months after stopping semaglutide, members gained again two-thirds of the burden they misplaced — a situation known as the “Ozempic rebound.”31
As an alternative of counting on GLP-1 agonists, contemplate colonizing your intestine with Akkermansia muciniphila to spice up your GLP-1 ranges naturally. Akkermansia is a sort of bacterium that naturally secretes a GLP-1-inducing protein, which raises systemic ranges of GLP-1. Analysis32 confirms its means to enhance glucose homeostasis and ameliorate metabolic illness via this mechanism. Based on the researchers:33
“A. muciniphila will increase thermogenesis and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion … by induction of uncoupling protein 1 in brown adipose tissue and systemic GLP-1 secretion … [An] 84 kDa protein, named P9 … is secreted by A. muciniphila. [We] present that purified P9 alone is enough to induce GLP-1 secretion …”
Methods to Restructure Your Microbiome
Akkermansia, extremely helpful micro organism in your massive gut, performs a vital function in sustaining intestine well being and may represent about 10% of the intestine microbiome. Nevertheless, it’s absent in lots of people, possible as a result of insufficient mitochondrial operate and resultant oxygen leakage within the intestine.
Consuming meals that help Akkermansia, resembling polyphenol-rich fruit, and different helpful micro organism, and avoiding meals like linoleic acid — present in vegetable and seed oils in most processed meals — that destroy these micro organism, will assist to restructure your microbiome in a constructive method. You can even use an Akkermansia probiotic complement.
One of many causes Akkermansia is so necessary is as a result of it produces mucin, a thick, protecting gel-like substance that strains varied components of the physique, together with the gastrointestinal tract. Mucin varieties a protecting barrier on the intestine lining, shielding the epithelial cells of the intestinal wall from mechanical injury, chemical irritation from abdomen acids and digestive enzymes, and pathogenic organisms like micro organism and viruses.
Mucin additionally helps the immune system by trapping potential pathogens and different international particles, that are then expelled from the physique via the digestive course of. It additionally comprises antibodies and antimicrobial peptides that assist combat off infections.
Lastly, mucin serves as a meals supply for different helpful intestine micro organism. This relationship is crucial for digestive well being, because the micro organism fed by Akkermansia help in digestion, produce important vitamins and assist keep an general stability of intestine flora.
Avoiding Linoleic Acid Can Assist With Weight Administration
The abundance of linoleic acid (LA) in our weight loss plan is another excuse why many are fighting weight problems or are obese. This omega-6 fats is present in seed oils like sunflower, soybean, rapeseed (canola), cottonseed, corn and safflower, and decreasing your consumption will help help a wholesome weight.
Be certain to keep away from all processed meals, as these additionally include excessive quantities of LA, in addition to grain-fed rooster and pork. Ideally, lower your LA consumption right down to beneath 5 grams per day, which is near what our ancestors used to get earlier than power well being situations grew to become widespread.
LA is present in practically all ultraprocessed meals, quick meals and restaurant meals as properly. That is why it’s greatest to organize the vast majority of your meals at residence. For extra info on linoleic acid, learn my article “Linoleic Acid — The Most Harmful Ingredient in Your Weight-reduction plan.”