In news– The dramatic weight loss of Kim and Khloe Kardashian and other celebrities has been rumoured to be the work of an injectable drug, Ozempic, that’s been called ‘Hollywood’s worst kept secret’.
About the Ozempic-
- Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus are the brandnames for an anti-diabetes medication called semaglutide.
- Developed by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, the drug is used to treat patients with type-2 diabetes.
- Wegovy, which contains a higher-dose of semaglutide, was approved as an anti-obesity drug.
- Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) drug that increases the secretion of insulin (which helps decrease blood sugar levels) after a meal while reducing the production of glucagon (which helps increase blood sugar levels).
- Besides regulating glucose levels in the body, the drug also aids in weight loss, lowers the risk of hypoglycemia, and improves heart health and kidney function.
- The drug was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2017.
- According to a 2018 study, semaglutide specifically showed greater weight loss in subjects than other GLP-1 RA drugs.
- It roughly reduced body weight by 4kgs, as compared to other drugs.
- Apart from regulating glucose, it also increases gastric emptying time, meaning food takes longer to pass through the gastrointestinal tract and it makes you feel full for a longer period of time.
- The difference between Ozempic and Wegovy is the dosage.
- Ozempic is given at a lower dose. It starts with 0.25 mg per week and increases over a period of time. For Wegovy, you start with 0.2 mg per week and slowly increase it to 2.4 mg.
Source: The Hindu
