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 bought by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic for sort 2 diabetes or Wegovy for weight reduction. Ozempic customers sometimes lose 10-16 kilos, extra with the higher-dose Wegovy. The medicine are injected as soon as weekly, accompanied by nausea and vomiting in 50% of customers, can enhance threat for thyroid most cancers and pancreatitis, and price round $1000-$1500 per thirty days. Though initially authorised just for sort 2 diabetes, the load loss impact has induced a scarcity of the medicine in some areas, since folks desperate to shed weight have emptied pharmacies.
However this phenomenon highlights a number of drawbacks of dropping pounds by this route:
- GLP-1 medicine work by decreasing urge for food and thereby calorie consumption. Weight reduction achieved by lowered 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 lowered metabolic charge that makes future weight reduction harder, generally unattainable. 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 belly visceral fats. This can be a downside as a result of practically all the issues related to chubby and weight problems are usually not as a consequence of subcutaneous however to belly visceral fats. Stomach fats that surrounds the intestines, liver, pancreas, and so forth. is answerable for a lot of the well being issues related to extra weight akin to insulin resistance, hormonal disruption, and elevated potential for sort 2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart illness, cancers, and cognitive decline/dementia. Weight reduction with GLP-1 agonist medicine 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 eating regimen and GLP-1 agonists, the lack of facial fats is a matter that may present the looks of accelerated ageing.
In fact, dermatologists are stumped since their pondering not often goes past topical steroids and filler injections. They’re due to this fact advising folks with the sagging pores and skin of Ozempic face to endure expensive beauty procedures to treatment the looks of accelerated ageing. It’s the standard healthcare paradigm: “deal with” with prescription drugs and procedures, then introduce extra prescription drugs and procedures to repair the issues that outcome. In any case, healthcare is about cash, not well being.
Wouldn’t it’s higher to shed weight with a technique that particularly favors lack of belly visceral fats and thereby yields higher metabolic enhancements whereas not inflicting lack of subcutaneous fats out of your face? You obtain this by addressing insulin resistance by way of adjustments in eating regimen (eliminating meals that provoke insulin akin to wheat, grains, sugars), addressing widespread nutrient deficiencies akin 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 packages and outlined in my books and DrDavisInfiniteHealth.com web site. There may be due to this fact much less lack of subcutaneous fats from areas such because the face, since normalizing insulin responsiveness favors lack of belly fats. There may be additionally little to no lack of muscle mass.
Go just a few steps additional and interact in methods that enhance dermal collagen and protect or enhance muscle mass, as outlined on this earlier weblog put up. Losing a few pounds this fashion is cheap, yields a protracted listing of different well being advantages, no expensive fillers or different procedures required to compensate.
