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In the six years since Ozempic’s release, the drug has grown from a relative newcomer on the market to a dominant force in the weight loss industry, influencing several similar drugs, including Mounjaro, Wegovy, Rybelsus, Victoza, and Sanxeda. But as this new wave of diets continues to grow in popularity, Ozempic is more than just a lesson on how to lose weight. Pharmaceutical companies have figured out where the self-care trap hasn’t worked, and it’s working.
Self-care is often associated with mental health, like taking a vacation or wearing the occasional 99-cent sheet mask, but the internet’s definition of wellness is the highest, most productive, and most productive. And I am evolving into becoming my most gorgeous self. Through hard work, determination, and enough cash to purchase dozens of products. Coupled with the ubiquity of image-focused social media, self-care is more than just a buzzword.It’s a marketing tool, it’s a state of mind, and according to McKinsey & Company, a $1.5 trillion economy. It is exclusive both financially and by elevating self-control to a moral virtue. But the fact that Ozempic, a medical injection that costs nearly $1,000 a month without insurance coverage, is thriving in an era of health defined by alternative medicine, expensive treatments, and pseudoscience is no coincidence. . This is a direct result of an over-inflated framework of self-care where willpower is the last resort, and the vast majority of women are left behind in the process.
Ozempic, first launched in 2017, is a type of semaglutide drug known as a GLP-1 antagonist. The injectables Ozempic and Munjaro and the oral pill Libersus are approved only to treat her type 2 diabetes in adults, while Wigoby is approved by the FDA as a weight loss drug. GLP-1 drugs mimic natural GLP-1, a hormone made in the intestines that regulates blood sugar. The drug was originally developed to treat diabetes, but the side effects of feeling full longer and decreased appetite made Ozempic a popular choice for weight loss. Since 2021, Ozempic’s demand has doubled. Estimation Although 370,000 people are taking the drug, there is currently a national shortage of this and other drugs. But the increasing use of the semaglutide option has sparked a big debate about whether weight plays a big role in what doctors consider a healthy body. And what a wellness culture (usually defined by discipline and long, arduous processes) would look like if there were seemingly easier (but no less expensive) alternatives.
Christy Harrison I am a registered dietitian and author of the following books: The Wellness Trap, a book that examines how diet culture and misinformation have taken over the online wellness space.she tells rolling stone The latest iteration of wellness and self-care culture is tied to losing weight at all costs, but uses rhetoric about caring for one’s body rather than simply wanting to look good.
“Wellness culture equates muscularity and a certain body type with health and morality, and promotes weight loss and body modification as a way to achieve higher status, while promoting those who do not fit the positive image of health. ,” says Harrison. “[They say] “You’re doing this for your health. You’re doing this to be the best you can be.”
Harrison says one of the biggest failures in self-care is that it leads many people to believe that the only thing standing between success and success is willpower and marketing reflected online. points out. Much of the self-care content on sites like Instagram and TikTok succeeds by presenting idealistic or unattainable standards of beauty and health and convincing their large followings that they, too, can achieve these goals. but without disclosing all the financial and time freedom that makes it possible. Achieve health. The first answer to these unattainable goals, Harrison says, was the resurgence of the body positivity movement, which prides itself on celebrating all body types. This was followed by neutral body movements. This means accepting your body, even if it’s a size or shape you don’t like. Now, Ozempic is being sold where self-care left off, as a way to take control of your health without blaming yourself.
The Ozempic craze also capitalizes on a problem that self-care doesn’t adequately address: an existing gap in health care for cisgender women. Weight loss and health marketing primarily targets women.at least 81% of Wegovy usersAccording to Novo Nordisk, the version of Ozempic specifically approved for weight loss purposes has been identified for women. And the majority of Ozempico’s vocal supporters and online influencers have a range of hormonal syndromes, including endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and chronic thyroid disease, which All can cause rapid weight gain or difficulty losing weight. These influencers have built a platform for the use of Ozempic in the treatment of hormone weight loss, creating an anecdote that the drug is succeeding where previous alternative medicines have failed.
Dr. Danielle Jin, an obstetrician-gynecologist at UCLA Health, says, rolling stone Getting diagnosed and treated for people with endometriosis, PCOS, or other related pelvic conditions can be extremely difficult. Ginn said it takes an average of seven to nine years to diagnose endometriosis, a process that leaves people desperate for alternatives.
“I definitely have a bias, because by the time a patient comes to me, I believe them,” Ginn says. “I also hear the same story eight or more times a week about having symptoms that have been going on for a very long time but weren’t taken seriously or were overlooked or ignored in the first place. And that’s heartbreaking. . we cry a lot [the] Because it’s the first time you see a patient feel like they’ve been heard, and that’s an honor, but it can also be disappointing because that’s not how it’s supposed to be. ”
“With so many health facilities, there is fertile ground for a wellness culture to develop. [legitimate] It’s a problem with the traditional health care system,” Harrison added. “People with conditions that are not well understood and not adequately treated, such as autoimmune diseases or PCOS. People with these conditions want some sort of solution.”
Ozempic, even as a prescription drug, has helped induce people’s self-care distrust of Western medicine into apparently ignoring their doctors’ warnings. Since the official Ozempic shortage began, the Federal Drug Administration has issued multiple warnings about compound semaglutide, a generic version of the drug that people can get from compounding pharmacies and telemedicine sites. But the practice continues, overwhelming doctors in TikTok videos who share how to get cheaper compound versions online and urge people on TikTok to heed the FDA’s warnings. And according to recent information, Report from Fortune, much of the Ozempic-themed content on TikTok has a network of “backing financial incentives and payments” that encourages influencers to post more about the drug. Online, taking Ozempic has come to mean taking your health into your own hands, even if you have to ignore your doctor’s advice.But Harrison says rolling stone As more problems with the self-care economy come to light, she said she hopes people will address the social problems that are causing them, rather than running to new solutions.
“I think it’s kind of detrimental to wellness culture to say you need to take time for yourself. The way to do that is to lose weight, eat this restrictive diet, do this exercise program, etc. That’s the thing,” Harrison says. “Larger systemic issues are not being addressed or taken into account. When in fact systemic pressures make self-care difficult, people end up feeling guilty for not doing so. Together. I wish I could Efforts to change this situation would be far better off than individual mothers, parents, and people becoming targets of rhetoric that says they need to take care of themselves. ”
