The miracle weight loss drug that has been trending on TikTok can cause facial aging

Drugs used to combat type 2 diabetes are all the rage on social media for quick weight loss, but some people are now reporting unwanted side effects like facial aging and vomiting.

The drugs, which include brands such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, have become wildly popular after it was rumored that several celebrities and influencers had used them to lose weight, including Kim Kardashian and Elon Musk.

But many doctors worry that the popularity has resulted in more people taking them without sufficient medical supervision. It can be risky, as there is a chance of rare but serious side effects such as thyroid cancer, pancreatitis, and kidney failure.

The most common side effects, as many women are documenting on TikTok, are nausea, vomiting, and facial aging, which has been dubbed “Ozempic face.”

Dr. Daniel Dziabas Posts An Animation Of An ‘Ozempic Face’ Shrinking From Use Of The Drug

Jennifer Berger, 41, said The New York Times that Mounjaro used to lose weight after her pregnancy. The drug, which was injected into the thigh, stomach or arm, worked wonderfully and she was able to lose 20 pounds.

But she said that her face had started to look very gaunt.

“I remember looking in the mirror, and it was almost like I didn’t even recognize myself,” he told the Times. “My body looked great, but my face looked tired and old.”

Dr. Oren Tepper, a New York-based plastic surgeon, told the Times that it’s common for key areas of the face to shrink with weight loss, so much so that the person looks older.

“When it comes to facial aging, fat is often more friend than foe,” he said. “Weight loss can push back your biological age, but it tends to put your facial clock forward.”

Mounjaro, which regulates blood sugar, suppresses appetite and apparently helps lose extra pounds, is the latest demand on the market.

“Everyone takes it or asks how to do it,” Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank, a New York dermatologist, told the Times. “We haven’t seen a prescription drug with so much chatter over cocktail parties and dinner parties since Viagra came on the market.”

Dr. Frank said he coined the term “Ozempic face” to describe the droopy face condition.

“I see it every day in my office,” he explained. “She’s going to come in a 50-year-old patient and she’s all of a sudden she’s super skinny and she needs a filler, which she’s never needed before. I look at her and say, ‘How long have you been taking Ozempic?’ And I’m right 100 percent of the time. It’s the drug of choice these days for the 1 per cent.’

One woman on TikTok opened up about her journey with injections, saying she was bloated, gassy, ​​and “not right.”

Another posted a video of himself in a towel saying he threw up while taking a shower.

There are procedures to restore volume to a patient’s face, the Times reported, with doctors performing super-expensive but non-invasive injections of Radiesse and hyaluronic acid-based fillers or Sculptra, which stimulates collagen.

Fat can also be transferred from other parts of the body to act as filler in the face.

Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali, a New York dermatologist, told The Times that “the idea is to balance the face to compensate for hollow, downward projections on the cheeks, jowls, and other areas.”

“We’re seeing more and more patients on the drugs coming in,” he said. “In general, it’s people in their 40s and 50s who lose significant amounts of weight and are concerned about facial aging and the sagging that occurs as a result.”

Everyone from Hollywood stars to tech moguls is turning to the injected drug to stay slim, and Elon Musk credited the drug in October for his recent weight loss.

Kim Kardashian is rumored to have used Wegovy to lose weight quickly so she could wear Marilyn Monroe’s famous “Happy Birthday Mr. President” dress she wore to the 2022 Met Gala.

Everyone from Hollywood stars to tech moguls is turning to the injected drug to stay slim, and Elon Musk credited the drug in October for his recent weight loss. Pictured above, Elon Musk in August 2022. Jeremy Clarkson, 62, revealed that he started injecting himself with the ‘tremendous’ drug, Ozempic, after fearing he might develop type 2 diabetes. Pictured above, the Mr. Clarkson in 2017

Kim Kardashian is rumored to have used Wegovy to lose weight quickly in order to fit into Marilyn Monroe’s famous ‘Happy Birthday Mr President’ dress at the 2022 Met Gala (pictured)

As the popularity of the drugs has skyrocketed, doctors are warning against homemade weight loss injections with crude chemicals purchased online.

People are being directed to websites normally used by research groups to buy experimental chemicals amid a national shortage of Wegovy and Ozempic.

dailymail.com I found almost a dozen websites that sell semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic, for between $80 and $300 for up to two months. Two of the websites had completely sold out of the chemical, and one had a tutorial teaching people how to mix the ingredients and inject them.

But Dr. Shauna Levy, an assistant professor of bariatric surgery at Tulane University in New Orleans who sits on the American Board of Obesity Medicine, said dailymail.com Taking the drug at home is “incredibly unsafe on many levels” and puts people at risk of side effects, dangerous ingredients, and overdose.

The websites, which often included words like ‘laboratory’ or ‘asylum’ in their title, sell a variety of research chemicals, including hormones and steroids, which they claim are ‘not for human consumption’.

Ozempic works to suppress your appetite and makes your stomach feel full longer.

The global shortage of the drug was caused by a stampede last year fueled by celebrities and influencers, endangering people who rely on it to treat their type 2 diabetes and putting semaglutide out of stock even on some drug websites. peptide suppliers.

Listings for many of the chemicals indicate that they should only be purchased for scientific research purposes, a caveat that allows sites to exploit a legal loophole.

DailyMail.com also found semaglutide on 10 sites. It was sold in powder form, to be mixed with bacteriostatic water before being injected into the abdomen.

Wegovy has become highly sought after since it first became available in the US last year, after it showed the ability to reduce a person’s body weight by about 15 percent over 68 weeks in clinical trials.

But its popularity, combined with manufacturing problems, led to a month-long shortage of Wegovy de Novo and its sister drug Ozempic.

Tirzepatide, another diabetes drug sold under the brand name Mounjaro by Eli Lilly, was also in short supply, according to the FDA’s online drug shortage database.

Wegovy and Ozempic work by triggering the body to produce a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 that is naturally released from the intestines after meals.

Wegovy and Ozempic work by triggering the body to produce a hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 that is released naturally from the intestines after meals.

The hormone helps control blood sugar and makes people feel full so they know when to stop eating.

The results of a study of 2,000 people over 15 months show that participants lost 15 percent of their body weight on average, which is equivalent to (34 pounds) (15 kg).

The group received individual counseling sessions from registered dietitians to help them stick to a low-calorie diet and exercise plan, along with weekly injections.

The volunteers reported a better quality of life and a reduction in risk factors for developing heart disease and diabetes, such as reduced waist circumference, blood fats, blood sugar and blood pressure.