All the surprisingly positive side effects of Ozempic and similar jabs apart from appetite suppression
Pretty much any medication you can take will come with some side effects that may manifest themselves if you're particularly unlucky.
However, there are some more positive side effects that can crop up as well, so if you're joining the trend of using medication for weight loss, it's handy to know what else it might be doing to you.
Despite Ozempic being the most recognisable brand name, as far as the people prescribing it are concerned weight loss is actually the side effect and not what doctors are supposed to hand it out for.
Ozempic is not approved for weight loss in the UK, with it being intended to treat people with Type-2 diabetes.
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Other jabs like Wegovy and Mounjaro are approved for weight loss, but it's ironic that the most recognised weight loss jab actually does that more as a side effect than a main purpose.
Anyhow, these drugs work by suppressing your appetite, controlling your blood sugar and making you feel like you don't need to eat as much.
Weight loss is likely to be the main consequence of that, but according to research from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, this all has the consequence of reducing your risk of death from cardiovascular related ailments.
Research indicates that people taking Wegovy are likely to have a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes, so the drug not only helps with weight loss but your heart health too.
Novo Nordisk, the company behind Ozempic and Wegovy, claimed in March that studies indicated taking semaglutide - the active ingredient in their weight loss jabs - had resulted in a significant reduction in the rates of kidney disease.
They said that a trial had resulted in 'statistically significant and superior reduction in kidney disease progression', while deaths from cardiovascular and kidney diseases had dropped by 24 percent among those taking a milligram of semaglutide.
Healthline also reports that people taking drugs containing GLP-1 such as Ozempic said they also found they weren't craving addictive substances such as alcohol or nicotine as much as they used to.
The information is anecdotal at this point, but Dr Kenneth Spielvogel told Healthline that the drugs also affected 'particular centres in the brain, within a dopamine-mediated pathway to decrease addictive-like symptoms'.
He suggested that other medications might be developed in this direction as a potential way to treat addiction.
Meanwhile, for people with Type-2 diabetes, a study indicated that taking an antidiabetic medication showed a reduction in the rates of colon cancer. However, this may be due to weight being a risk factor for the development of colon cancer, and the weight loss could be the cause.
In a roundabout way it'd be the weight loss drug's side-effect.
There are all sorts of health issues that are more of a risk if you're overweight, and getting to a healthy weight is one of the healthiest things you can do.
Novo Nordisk are also currently studying the potential impact that these drugs have on Alzheimer's and cognitive function in general, which sounds promising.
Joe Harker