A New York dermatologist coined the phrase “Ozempic face” to explain the sagging, deflated facial options that develop after weight reduction achieved with the drug semaglutide, a glucagon-like peptide, or GLP-1, agonist offered by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic for kind 2 diabetes or Wegovy for weight reduction. Ozempic customers sometimes lose 10-16 kilos, extra with the higher-dose Wegovy. The medication are injected as soon as weekly, accompanied by nausea and vomiting in 50% of customers, can improve threat for thyroid most cancers and pancreatitis, and value round $1000-$1500 monthly. Though initially accepted just for kind 2 diabetes, the burden loss impact has triggered a scarcity of the medication in some places, since folks wanting to reduce weight have emptied pharmacies.
However this phenomenon highlights a number of drawbacks of losing a few pounds by this route:
- GLP-1 medication work by lowering urge for food and thereby calorie consumption. Weight reduction achieved by decreased calorie consumption are related to lack of muscle. For each 10 kilos misplaced, about 3 kilos are from muscle loss. This isn’t a benign phenomenon, as it’s related to decreased metabolic price that makes future weight reduction harder, generally inconceivable. It is usually related to elevated mortality, regardless of the advantages of fats loss.
- Many of the fats misplaced is from subcutaneous fats within the buttocks, thighs, chest, arms, and, sure, face, much less misplaced from stomach visceral fats. This can be a downside as a result of almost all the issues related to chubby and weight problems will not be because of subcutaneous however to stomach visceral fats. Stomach fats that surrounds the intestines, liver, pancreas, and many others. is chargeable for a lot of the well being issues related to extra weight similar to insulin resistance, hormonal disruption, and elevated potential for kind 2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart illness, cancers, and cognitive decline/dementia. Weight reduction with GLP-1 agonist medication improves modestly on this profile with an approximate 50:50 lack of subcutaneous:visceral fats. As a result of there’s subcutaneous fats misplaced with most food plan and GLP-1 agonists, the lack of facial fats is a matter that may present the looks of accelerated getting older.
After all, dermatologists are stumped since their pondering not often goes past topical steroids and filler injections. They’re subsequently advising folks with the sagging pores and skin of Ozempic face to bear pricey beauty procedures to treatment the looks of accelerated getting older. It’s the everyday healthcare paradigm: “deal with” with prescribed drugs and procedures, then introduce extra prescribed drugs and procedures to repair the issues that end result. In any case, healthcare is about cash, not well being.
Wouldn’t or not it’s higher to reduce weight with a technique that particularly favors lack of stomach visceral fats and thereby yields better metabolic enhancements whereas not inflicting lack of subcutaneous fats out of your face? You obtain this by addressing insulin resistance via adjustments in food plan (eliminating meals that provoke insulin similar to wheat, grains, sugars), addressing frequent nutrient deficiencies similar to magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, iodine, and vitamin D that affect insulin responses, then managing your gastrointestinal microbiome, i.e., all of the methods we use in my applications and outlined in my books and DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com web site. There’s subsequently much less lack of subcutaneous fats from areas such because the face, since normalizing insulin responsiveness favors lack of stomach fats. There’s additionally little to no lack of muscle mass.
Go a number of steps additional and have interaction in methods that improve dermal collagen and protect or improve muscle mass, as outlined on this earlier weblog publish. Shedding pounds this manner is cheap, yields an extended record of different well being advantages, no pricey fillers or different procedures required to compensate.
