Page 88 - MASALA Magazine Vol.15 Issue 3 | February - March 2024

How Ozempic and Wegovy
have disrupted the way we
approach weight loss.

B Y AYU SH MADAN

t an earlier time in my life, I was consumed WHY THESE DRUGS ARE GAME-CHANGERS IN
by uncontrollable food cravings. Even after THE WEIGHT-LOSS SCENE
indulging in a full meal and dessert, there
would be a lingering itch for a pack of Initially developed as a drug to manage Type 2 diabetes, Ozempic’s active
chips once I arrived home. This excessive ingredient semaglutide mimics the hormone, glucagon-like peptide 1
eating led to drastic weight gain, placing a (GLP-1), one of several different digestive hormones released when you
physiological and mental burden on my consume food. This hormone is what gives you the feeling of fullness
health. Although I’ve since regulated after a meal. To act as a GLP-1 agonist, semaglutide binds to three key
my appetite, I’ve since discovered places in the body: the pancreas to reduce blood glucagon levels; the
that I was not alone in my struggle. stomach to slow gastric emptying of food; and the hypothalamus in the
In fact, obesity rates have surged in brain to reduce appetite. This dampens the “food noise” or constant
Thailand, with many other individuals urge to eat which many obese people struggle with.
fighting the same battle. While diet
and exercise remain the bread and Wegovy is another semaglutide-containing prescription drug by
butter of weight management, a new ally has now emerged in our Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk, was the latest to receive FDA
fight against obesity: Ozempic. approval in 2021. A paper published in the New England Journal of
Medicine (NEJM) performed a double blind study on 1,961 adults
According to the National Health Examination Survey, from 1991- to determine the effectiveness of the drug. After 68 weeks, the group
2014, the obesity rate in Thailand has more than doubled (Aekplakorn that was administered 2.4mg of semaglutide weekly lost 14.9 percent
et al., 2014). Thailand now ranks as the second highest obesity rate in of their initial body weight compared to only a 2.4 percent decrease
Asia. Fortunately as of January 2020, the Ministry of Public Health in the placebo group, proving definitively that the drug is safe and an
has approved a new injectable drug called Ozempic to help people effective tool for weight loss (Wilding et al., 2021). Remarkably, this
lose weight.
scale of weight loss is on par with more invasive surgical procedures
like the roux-en-y gastric bypass.