Drugs prescribed for diabetes and chronic obesity such as Ozempic are increasingly sought after for quick, cosmetic weight loss, a life choice pharmacists warn can lead to serious health risks.
“We have seen thin people try to come in and get it,” Dr. Carrie Leske, a licensed pharmacist in Minnesota, recently told Just the News. “As pharmacists we are supposed to use our judgment and, if need be, call the physician and try to understand what’s going on, because it’s supposed to only be used for obese people.”
Such prescription medications, known under such popular brand names as Ozempic and Wegovy, are a class of drugs known as Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (or GLP-1s) that mimic a natural hormone to lower blood sugar and reduce appetite. Two types of GLP-1s – semaglutide and tirzepatide – are found in such medications.
However, they were not created for weight loss in people already at healthy weights. So taking it off-label brings such serious medical risks as severe dehydration, muscle loss and pancreatitis.
“Some of the people using [these] just look so unhealthy,” Leske, also told Just the News. “They look like chemo patients to me.”
Dr. Nairi Kasparian, a clinical pharmacist in Omaha, told Just the News that while GLP-1s can be “very effective,” they are designed for continual, indefinite use as long-term weight management – not necessarily as a temporary weight loss pill.
“They are FDA-approved as chronic weight-management treatments, meaning the goal is generally to continue them as long as they are providing benefit and are tolerated,” she said.
“The biggest issue is when people stop taking the drug,” said Kasparian, while also pointing out “current obesity-treatment guidance notes that stopping semaglutide or tirzepatide abruptly can result in regaining roughly half to two-thirds of the weight lost within a year” – particularly if the individual has not maintained a strict diet.
Nevertheless, the efficacy of the medications in curbing appetite and delivering speedy results has gained the attention of otherwise healthy individuals seeking short-term, cosmetic weight loss.
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