Prescriptions for weight reduction drugs have skyrocketed lately. By the tip of 2024, the market valuation is anticipated to develop to a whopping $21.09 billion.1 In the present day, one of the crucial well-liked choices are GLP-1 agonist medication which are bought beneath 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 accredited for weight reduction.2
The recognition of GLP-1 agonist medication for weight administration has boomed lately, and it reveals — fairly actually. In the present day, extra customers are scuffling with 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 medication.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 accredited in 2017 to handle blood sugar ranges in diabetics, and, in 2021, the FDA accredited 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, improve 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 via your abdomen slows down, making you’re feeling fuller longer. Based on an article printed in El Pais:8
“Ozempic provides the sensation of being eternally full, so to say goodbye to snacking, and be happy 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
Once you take semaglutide, it doesn’t simply trigger you to shed fats from particular physique downside areas; it will 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, high-quality traces, indents and wrinkles, drooping cheeks, sagging pores and skin (together with beneath 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, significantly 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 traces 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 normally lead to vital facial skeletonization.
Nevertheless, shadows beneath the cheeks could also be accentuated by reabsorption of fats compartments, and facial flaccidity can turn into extra pronounced across the jowls and jaw line because of the lack of temporal and preauricular fats compartments, that are normally the primary to be reabsorbed in the course of the growing old course of.”
Skincare Corporations Are Taking Benefit of the Ozempic Face
A 2023 examine15 notes how the growing variety of individuals with Ozempic face are impacting the sphere of cosmetic surgery. Based on the researchers, “As the recognition of Ozempic grows, facial plastic surgeons should concentrate on each the influence on facial look and perioperative concerns.”
The examine 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 firms to organize for the surge of people that could need to tackle 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 therapy, which boosts collagen manufacturing, and different fillers may help “restore” sufferers’ facial options.16
Some physicians have additionally commented on the modifications they see amongst individuals who took Ozempic. In an article printed in Attract, Julius Few, MD, a Chicago-based, board-certified plastic surgeon, says, “I’ve seen numerous sufferers for facelifts who’re on Ozempic, and the best way their tissue behaves is just not the identical. The pores and skin has extra of a doughy consistency.”
What’s extra, Few feedback that folks of their 20s and 30s are actually going past fillers — they’re additionally inquiring about procedures like facelifts, that are normally tailor-made for these over 50 years previous.17
Ozempic’s Aspect Results Can Be Alarming
However except for the facial modifications, Ozempic and different GLP-1 medication can produce other extra disturbing uncomfortable 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 character misplaced a whopping 42 kilos.
The change to her facial look is noticeable and has turn into one of the crucial 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’re 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 possibly can’t keep on it eternally. I misplaced 42 kilos now and it’s simply sufficient. I didn’t really need to go this skinny, however it simply occurred, and I’ll in all probability put all of it on once more quickly.”
Actuality TV character Scott Disick has additionally spoken up about his dramatic weight reduction courtesy of Ozempic, and that he’s “in search of assist” to get off the drug after followers raised their considerations 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 medication to deal with different well being points have additionally spoken up concerning the nasty results of Ozempic. In a In the present day 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 shedding 30 kilos, she opted to cease utilizing Ozempic as a result of the uncomfortable side effects have been “simply an excessive amount of.” Except for 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 sluggish an excessive amount of, it will probably result in well being points, significantly gastrointestinal problems. One 2023 examine26 famous that people who find themselves taking GLP-1 agonists had an elevated danger of pancreatitis, bowel obstruction and gastroparesis (abdomen paralysis).
A examine27 utilizing information from Eudravigilance, Europe’s system for analyzing adversarial reactions to drugs, additionally discovered that apart from gastrointestinal considerations, metabolic, dietary, eye, renal, urinary and cardiac problems additionally occurred in individuals who took semaglutide.
One examine notes28 the consequences on the kidneys happen extra typically in individuals who even have adversarial 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 instances 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 mentioned, she misplaced 80 kilos, which she’s been capable of maintain off. However Wright mentioned she now vomits so incessantly that she needed to take a go away of absence from her job. ‘I’ve virtually been off Ozempic for a 12 months, however I’m nonetheless not again to my regular,’ Wright mentioned.”
As a substitute of Ozempic, Improve Your GLP-1 Naturally With Akkermansia
Taking drugs to drop extra pounds is one solution to endanger your well being. Ozempic was designed as a long-term drug. In different phrases, to keep up your weight reduction, you could keep on the drug. One examine30 discovered {that a} 12 months after stopping semaglutide, individuals gained again two-thirds of the load they misplaced — a situation known as the “Ozempic rebound.”31
As a substitute of counting on GLP-1 agonists, take into account 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 potential 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 …”
The right way to Restructure Your Microbiome
Akkermansia, extremely useful micro organism in your massive gut, performs a vital function in sustaining intestine well being and will represent about 10% of the intestine microbiome. Nevertheless, it’s absent in lots of people, probably attributable to insufficient mitochondrial perform and resultant oxygen leakage within the intestine.
Consuming meals that help Akkermansia, corresponding 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 method. You can even use an Akkermansia probiotic complement.
One of many causes Akkermansia is so essential is as a result of it produces mucin, a thick, protecting gel-like substance that traces numerous elements 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 harm, 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 via the digestive course of. It additionally accommodates antibodies and antimicrobial peptides that assist combat off infections.
Lastly, mucin serves as a meals supply for different useful intestine micro organism. This relationship is crucial for digestive well being, because the micro organism fed by Akkermansia assist in digestion, produce important vitamins and assist preserve an total stability of intestine flora.
Avoiding Linoleic Acid Can Assist With Weight Administration
The abundance of linoleic acid (LA) in our weight loss program is another excuse why many are scuffling with 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 may help help a wholesome weight.
Be certain to keep away from all processed meals, as these additionally comprise excessive quantities of LA, in addition to grain-fed hen and pork. Ideally, lower your LA consumption all the way down to under 5 grams per day, which is near what our ancestors used to get earlier than power well being situations turned widespread.
LA is present in almost all ultraprocessed meals, quick meals and restaurant meals as effectively. That is why it’s greatest to organize the vast majority of your meals at residence. For extra data on linoleic acid, learn my article “Linoleic Acid — The Most Harmful Ingredient in Your Eating regimen.”