Ozempic Buzz Triggers People With Eating Disorders

OScrolling Twitter late one recent evening, Nylah Burton, a 27-year-old writer in Chicago, clicked on a post about Ozempic, the diabetes drug that is increasingly being prescribed off-label for people who want to lose weight. It wasn’t until she hit the website’s paywall that she stopped to realize she actually had no desire to read the article.

Burton struggled with eating disorders for more than a decade, starting at the age of 11, and says media portrayals of thinness and extreme dieting contributed to her eating problems. His eating habits have held steady over the past year, and Burton didn’t feel the need to dispute that progress when he read about a diabetes drug taken, often unnecessarily, to lose weight.

“I was just like, ‘You’re actually in the right place and there’s no need to go over this,’ she said. ‘I don’t need to read any more gory details.’

These days, it’s hard to avoid reading about Ozempic, a brand name for the drug semaglutide. It was covered by many national media (including this one) and regular trends on social media, not because of its effectiveness for Type 2 diabetes management, but because it has become cool, in certain circles, to take drugs to lose weight. Other similar drugs like Wegs (another drug semaglutide, this one approved for weight management in adults with weight-related health issues) and Mounjaro (approved as a treatment for type 2 diabetes) is also gaining popularity. And as these drugs become all the rage, spread across the internet and social media, they add another “flame in the dumpster fire” of diet culture and normalize unhealthy weight loss, says Jessica Setnick, Registered Dietitian and Eating Disorders Expert.

Research has been suggesting for decades that media exposure is linked to increased risks of eating disordersso the onslaught of articles, ads and social media posts that seem to glorify the use of drugs for weight loss is concerning, says Jessica Saunders, an assistant professor of psychology at Ramapo College in New Jersey who studies the disorders food.

“It’s probably both a trigger for people in recovery from an eating disorder and an encouragement for people at risk of developing an eating disorder,” Saunders says. “It could be planting a lot of seeds in a pretty dangerous way.”

Ozempic is designed to control blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes. In doing so, it also suppresses the appetite and slows down the rate at which the stomach empties, which means users do not need to eat as often. Although Ozempic is not currently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for weight loss, many people have found practitioners willing to prescribe it off-label for this purpose.

In a statement provided to TIME, a representative for Novo Nordisk, the company that makes both Ozempic and Wegovy, said it “does not promote, suggest, or encourage the off-label use of our drugs. We recognize that eating disorders are serious conditions and deserve specialized clinical attention from the healthcare providers who treat them.We believe that healthcare providers assess a patient’s individual needs. and determine which drug is suitable for that particular patient.

It doesn’t matter that many people taking Ozempic have no clinical reason to lose weight, or that it requires weekly injections and comes with the risk of side effects including nausea, constipation, diarrhea, stomach pain, vomiting, blurred vision, fainting, and possibly thyroid cancer. It flies away so fast that people with type 2 diabetes would be struggling to get their doses. In December 2022 alone, 1.2 million Ozempic prescriptions would have been filled in the USA

“We talk about explosive diarrhea, and people say, ‘Sign me up,'” Setnick said, referring to a potential side effect. “Somehow we don’t communicate well.”

That’s partly because many articles don’t focus on the risks of using prescription drugs for unintended purposes, Saunders says. Although there are patients for whom drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro are medically appropriate and helpful, much of the buzz around them focuses on the people who use them for cosmetic purposes – a population that doesn’t has not been well studied.

“Failing to eat properly also damages your body, and that goal is totally absent from these articles,” Saunders adds.

Over time, an extremely restrictive diet can lead to complications including hormonal disruption, bone loss, low heart rate, organ damage, neurological issues, etc. Extreme diets can also have psychological consequences, adds Dr. Wendy Spettigue, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Ottawa who treats young people with severe eating disorders.

“It can cause irritability, bad mood, obsessiveness, rigidity, social withdrawal, difficulty sleeping, difficulty concentrating – all those side effects that people aren’t really aware of because these articles tend to normalize the idea of ​​weight loss,” says Spettigue.

Marlene Katz, a casting director in Los Angeles who has struggled with eating disorders in the past, says articles should mention those risks, as well as how drugs can fuel eating disorders if they’re are used inappropriately. The articles “will talk about how easy it is to eat one meal a day,” she says. “It’s starvation. It’s an eating disorder.

While Katz says she’s not worried about relapsing, she worries about how the seemingly 24/7 coverage can affect those who aren’t as advanced in their recovery. She says news outlets should consider adding trigger warnings to their stories if they choose to focus on the off-label use of diabetes medications.

Some people have decided that it’s easier to avoid coverage altogether. Sophia Benoit, a 30-year-old writer in Los Angeles who had food issues in the past, cut off the word “Ozempic” on Twitter so she would stop seeing posts about it.

“It’s hard, as someone who’s had an eating disorder in the past, to read these articles about thin women using it to lose weight…and not feel like I have to think about losing weight again,” says Benoit. “Even though I really have no desire to use this drug or any other weight-loss drug, I have, in the back of my mind, the flame of an eating disorder that will always be lit that says, ‘This would be great. ‘”

Alexandra Salerno, acting supervisor of the outpatient program at the Center for Eating Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said people who feel triggered by the coverage should consider deactivating, blocking or unfollowing social media accounts. who share a lot of disturbing content, while following accounts that are positive. (The same goes for switching channels when commercials are airing on TV or radio.) Asking loved ones to refrain from talking about weight loss can also be helpful, she says, as can developing coping strategies—perhaps going for a walk or calling a trusted friend—to use when triggers arise.

Getting unhealthy thoughts out of your head and out in the open can also make a difference, Setnick says. This could mean discussing it with a friend, keeping a journal, or seeking professional help, until the trigger begins to lose its power.

“You want to notice what’s affecting you, not so you can eliminate those things from your life. Scrub the things you can, put out the flames you can, but you can’t put everything out,” Setnick says. to do is to say, ‘All the information that comes to me is not worth my time.'”

If you need help with eating problems, call or text the National Eating Disorders Association Helpline at 800-931-2237.

Write to Jamie Ducharme at [email protected].