Prescriptions for weight reduction medicines have skyrocketed in recent times. By the tip of 2024, the market valuation is predicted to develop to a whopping $21.09 billion.1 Right this moment, some of the standard choices are GLP-1 agonist medicine which can be bought below 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 accepted for weight reduction.2
The recognition of GLP-1 agonist medicine for weight administration has boomed in recent times, and it reveals — fairly actually. Right this moment, extra customers are combating 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 accepted in 2017 to handle blood sugar ranges in diabetics, and, in 2021, the FDA accepted Wegovy to deal with weight problems.5 Semaglutide is the energetic ingredient in each.
Your physique naturally makes GLP-1 within the small intestines,6 and its major perform is to decelerate digestion, enhance satiety, block glucagon secretion (a hormone used to manage 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 by means of your abdomen slows down, making you are feeling fuller longer. In keeping with an article revealed in El Pais:8
“Ozempic provides the sensation of being endlessly full, as a way to say goodbye to snacking, and be glad with smaller parts of meals. Quickly, although, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or constipation can seem. After a couple 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
While you take semaglutide, it doesn’t simply trigger you to shed fats from particular physique downside areas; it may possibly 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, may be severely affected.10 The outcome — sunken eyes, tremendous strains, indents and wrinkles, drooping cheeks, sagging pores and skin (together with below the chin) and modifications 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 assist; 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 individuals with skinny faces who’ve skilled drastic weight reduction. Aesthetic physician, Mar Mira, explains in an El Pais article:14
“[I]n chubby or overweight sufferers, weight reduction doesn’t often end in vital facial skeletonization.
Nevertheless, shadows beneath the cheeks could also be accentuated by reabsorption of fats compartments, and facial flaccidity can develop 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 through the growing old course of.”
Skincare Firms Are Taking Benefit of the Ozempic Face
A 2023 research15 notes how the growing variety of individuals with Ozempic face are impacting the sector of cosmetic surgery. In keeping with the researchers, “As the recognition of Ozempic grows, facial plastic surgeons should concentrate on each the influence 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 arrange for the surge of people that could need to handle the growing old results brought on by Ozempic.
In a Bloomberg article, skincare agency Galderma’s CEO Flemming Ornskov mentioned 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 modifications 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 a variety of 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 at the moment are 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 Aspect Results Can Be Alarming
However other than the facial modifications, Ozempic and different GLP-1 medicine can produce other extra disturbing unwanted side effects. A Lady’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 develop into some 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 acquired 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’ll be able to’t keep on it endlessly. 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 in all probability 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 “searching 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 deal with different well being points have additionally spoken up in regards to the nasty results of Ozempic. In a Right this moment article,23 hospital employee Jeannine DellaVecchia mentioned she took the drug to “deal with signs associated to insulin resistance brought on by congenital adrenal hyperplasia and polycystic ovary syndrome.”
Regardless of dropping 30 kilos, she opted to cease utilizing Ozempic as a result of the unwanted side effects had been “simply an excessive amount of.” Other than the noticeable facial modifications, 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 may possibly result in well being points, notably gastrointestinal problems. 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 opposed reactions to medicines, additionally discovered that other than gastrointestinal issues, metabolic, dietary, eye, renal, urinary and cardiac problems additionally occurred in individuals who took semaglutide.
One research notes28 the consequences on the kidneys happen extra usually in individuals who even have opposed gastrointestinal problems 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. In keeping with a CNN article:29
“Emily Wright, 38, a trainer in Toronto, began taking Ozempic in 2018. Over a yr, she mentioned, she misplaced 80 kilos, which she’s been in a position to preserve off. However Wright mentioned she now vomits so regularly that she needed to take a go away of absence from her job. ‘I’ve nearly been off Ozempic for a yr, however I’m nonetheless not again to my regular,’ Wright mentioned.”
As a substitute of Ozempic, Enhance Your GLP-1 Naturally With Akkermansia
Taking medicines to drop some weight is one approach to endanger your well being. Ozempic was designed as a long-term drug. In different phrases, to take care of your weight reduction, it’s essential to keep on the drug. One research30 discovered {that a} yr after stopping semaglutide, contributors gained again two-thirds of the burden they misplaced — a situation referred to as the “Ozempic rebound.”31
As a substitute 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 skill to enhance glucose homeostasis and ameliorate metabolic illness by means of this mechanism. In keeping with 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 ample to induce GLP-1 secretion …”
The best way to Restructure Your Microbiome
Akkermansia, extremely useful micro organism in your giant gut, performs a vital position in sustaining intestine well being and will represent about 10% of the intestine microbiome. Nevertheless, it’s absent in lots of people, seemingly on account of insufficient mitochondrial perform and resultant oxygen leakage within the intestine.
Consuming meals that assist Akkermansia, akin to polyphenol-rich fruit, and different useful 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 manner. You too can use an Akkermansia probiotic complement.
One of many causes Akkermansia is so vital is as a result of it produces mucin, a thick, protecting gel-like substance that strains varied elements of the physique, together with the gastrointestinal tract. Mucin kinds 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 overseas particles, that are then expelled from the physique by means of the digestive course of. It additionally accommodates antibodies and antimicrobial peptides that assist battle off infections.
Lastly, mucin serves as a meals supply for different useful intestine micro organism. This relationship is important for digestive well being, because the micro organism fed by Akkermansia help in digestion, produce important vitamins and assist keep an general steadiness of intestine flora.
Avoiding Linoleic Acid Can Assist With Weight Administration
The abundance of linoleic acid (LA) in our weight-reduction plan is another excuse why many are combating weight problems or are chubby. This omega-6 fats is present in seed oils like sunflower, soybean, rapeseed (canola), cottonseed, corn and safflower, and decreasing your consumption will help assist a wholesome weight.
Ensure that to keep away from all processed meals, as these additionally include excessive quantities of LA, in addition to grain-fed rooster and pork. Ideally, minimize your LA consumption right down to beneath 5 grams per day, which is near what our ancestors used to get earlier than continual well being situations turned widespread.
LA is present in almost all ultraprocessed meals, quick meals and restaurant meals as nicely. This is the reason it’s finest to arrange nearly all of your meals at dwelling. For extra data on linoleic acid, learn my article “Linoleic Acid — The Most Harmful Ingredient in Your Eating regimen.”
