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How to know if Ozempic is right for you

FILE - The injectable drug Ozempic is displayed, July 1, 2023, in Houston. Federal regulators are challenging patents on 20 brand name drugs, including the blockbuster weight-loss injection Ozempic, in the latest action by the Biden administration targeting industry practices that drive up pharmaceutical prices. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File) (David J. Phillip, Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

More than 2 in 5 U.S. adults have obesity. It’s a serious public health problem that puts them at higher risk of other chronic diseases.

“For many people, obesity is a brain disease,” said neuroscientist Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

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Gupta spent the past year investigating what’s called GLP-1 drugs -- a class of medications that have been available for nearly 20 years and used to treat diabetes.

Now they’re helping hordes of people lose weight -- sometimes off-label.

While these drugs are exploding in popularity -- about 1 in 8 U.S. adults have taken Ozempic or similar medications used to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity -- they do come with some risks and aren’t for everyone.

“One of the ways these medications work is by essentially slowing down your digestion. So that allows you to absorb your energy better as opposed to just shoveling calories in,” Gupta explained.

But there are possible side effects including:

  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Constipation
  • Abdominal pain

These are typically felt when a person first starts taking the drug.

Gupta said other side effects that are rare, but serious include stomach paralysis and pancreatitis.

“For people who are taking it for medically necessary reasons, it seems to be a situation where the benefits outweigh the risks,” Gupta said.

You may qualify for GLP-1 medications for weight loss if you have a body mass index of 30 or higher or if your BMI is 27 or higher and you have at least one weight-related health condition like high blood pressure.

Gupta said most people stop using it after 12 weeks, whether that’s due to the cost, side effects or something else.

“For a significant percentage of people, it just stops working for them as well, whether it’s a tolerance or something else, they just don’t seem to get the benefit,” Gupta said.

He said this medication isn’t a “magic bullet.” To keep weight off, he said, the medication has to be paired with exercise and a healthy diet --

Gupta said many people regain somewhere between a half to two-thirds of their weight after going off the medications, but he said not every patient does. And most didn’t gain back all the weight that was lost.

If you’d like to learn more about Gupta’s year-long investigation into this class of drugs, his report called “Is Ozempic right for you” airs at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17 on CNN.


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