Why Tho? Taking meds like Ozempic can improve quality of life: Readers respond - OregonLive

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Dear readers,

A couple weeks ago, I answered a question about the off-label use of the diabetes drug Ozempic for weight loss. The topics involved – weight loss, diabetes, the medical and pharmaceutical industries in the United States – are fraught to say the least. Several readers responded. Here are a few of their letters.

These responses have been edited for length and grammar.

Hi Lizzy,

I love your column.

I’m writing because I’m feeling weary of Health at Every Size and body-positive folks criticizing those of us who choose to take Ozempic for weight loss. As a heavier person who actually does have health conditions directly related to weight gain (pre-diabetes, high BP, carpal tunnel, snoring, joint pain) I decided to try Ozempic for weight loss. I exercise five days a week and eat a varied diet, but my weight has slowly crept up into my 40s. I love and accept my body for the size that it is, but no amount of body positivity can change the aches and pains that have come with my body slowly growing larger.

I recently started taking daily meds for blood pressure, and could potentially find myself soon on meds for Type 2 Diabetes. So I decided I might as well try a weekly weight loss shot, if it would help me get off daily meds instead. Ozempic to fit into a tiny bikini on vacation? No thanks. But, for me, the body positivity movement (for which I am eternally grateful) goes too far when it minimizes that sometimes health benefits and weight loss do go hand in hand. It’s actually possible to love and accept your body, and to seek gentle weight loss. I know because that’s me. By shaming me and others who make the informed choice to seek weight loss via medication, the body positivity movement is just trading one kind of shame for another.

Thanks for listening.

Losing Weight and Loving My Body

Hi Lizzy,

Thank you for the article about this terrific medicine. I have Type 2 Diabetes and have been on insulin for 43 years. I started taking semaglutide in October and have since lost about 20 pounds. MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT, I am taking less insulin, my blood pressure is normal for the first time in years, and my hemoglobin A1c (a measure of blood sugar over several months) is lower.

The most important information in your article is that this is not a short-term miracle drug. Even with good insurance it will cost me about $300 a month for the rest of my life. Also, people need to know that if you lose weight on Ozempic and then stop taking it, you will gain the weight back. And possibly even more than you initially lost.

Keep up the good work of informing the public about current issues in medicine and elsewhere.

Very best,

Healthier Already

Dear Lizzy,

As someone with overweight people in my immediate family, I appreciate many of the things that you wrote in your article, “Why Tho? Thin-obsessed culture latches on to Ozempic’s weight loss side effect.” However, I wonder about the statement “there is very very little (virtually no) evidence that any of these are causal relationships.” A quick search yields this article: “The causal effect of obesity on prediabetes and insulin resistance reveals the important role of adipose tissue in insulin resistance.”

Kind regards,

A Reader

Me again readers! Thanks so much for the polite, kind, thoughtful responses! Keep them coming on any topic!

Lizzy

Have a burning question? Send me an email at lacker@oregonian.com or tweet @lizzzyacker!

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This is the latest installment of The Oregonian/OregonLive’s advice column, “Why Tho?” by Lizzy Acker. Lizzy’s advice also appears in our weekly advice newsletter. Want to get it? Subscribe now.

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