I cried at my gynecologist\u2019s office. I am sure I wasn\u2019t the first and won\u2019t be the last. She started to ask about my birth control prescription and tears welled up in my eyes. She tossed over the tissues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Snot dripping down my face \u2013 a certified ugly crier \u2013 I started to tell her that I just didn\u2019t love my body at that moment and that I didn\u2019t know what the root of my problem was. She interrupted my rambling: \u201cWell, is it the weight you\u2019re worried about?\u201d she asked. \u201dBecause we could fix that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fix that?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe could get you on Ozempic,\u201d she added. \u201cYour parents could afford it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n I didn\u2019t think that was for people like me, a mid-sized girl who was upset she gained the freshman 15 and it wasn\u2019t coming off. The sobbing continued and the splotches on my face got splotchier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Isn\u2019t Ozempic for fat people?<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure I didn\u2019t think I was some fitness queen or supermodel, but I never thought I was fat. And just because she thought my parents could afford it meant that I deserved it more than someone with clinical obesity or type 2 diabetes? I didn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She had provided me with a clear, simple solution for my crippling body image issues and unrelenting negative self-talk, but at what cost?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well, at the very least a $1,375 monthly check<\/a> to my parents and a knock at my ego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n These drugs are some of the name brand GLP-1 agonists, a class of medications used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity. But how do these drugs that have taken over social media, celebrity culture and the weight loss industry really work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The biggest problem that these drugs target is insulin resistance, a defining trait of type 2 diabetes. In much of the ultra processed foods available in the United States, the combination of refined sugars, carbohydrates, trans fats and salt is referred to as the addictive trifecta. These processed foods drive up the addictive pathways in the brain, causing individuals to eat more, get less full and as a result produce less insulin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GLP-1 medications can revive this insulin production and lower blood sugar levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost like changing the locks so not as many glucose molecules get into the cell,\u201d Dr. Karla Lester, a board certified pediatrician and now telehealth life and weight coach, said on how the medications lead to weight loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to a 2023 study from the National Library of Medicine<\/a>, individuals taking these drugs have seen increased weight loss in addition to lowering blood pressure and total cholesterol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By design these medications are meant to assist those with diabetes; however, the weight loss side effects have attracted consumers, causing these drugs to fly off the pharmaceutical shelves, placing those who really need them in a tricky spot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The FDA approved Wegovy<\/a>, a GLP-1 injectable medication produced by Novo Nordisk, for weight loss for children 12 and up in December of 2022. Shortly thereafter the American Academy of Pediatrics<\/a> changed their recommendation on how to treat childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rather than their previous \u201cwatch and wait\u201d method, the AAP pushed for aggressive intervention, citing childhood obesity as a leading pediatric chronic disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For teenagers defeated after countless failed diets and strenuous workout routines, these drugs felt like an answered prayer. The medications quieted the obnoxious, unrelenting \u201cfood noise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen a child’s washing their hands, but they can’t reach it. They get a stepstool. The medicine for me is like the stepstool. It’s that little push,\u201d Demi Buckley, a 16-year-old one year into her Wegovy journey said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn’t change anything. I’m still eating the same healthy foods and working out and doing sports, and all I added was the medicine, and I finally lost the weight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n BODY IMAGE\/NUTRITION BEHAVIORAL PART \/\/ introducing Demi and her mom<\/p>\n\n\n\n Demi Buckley was 15 when she started Wegovy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She was the first teen patient her family doctor had ever put on the medication, and she had her reservations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ANECDOTE PRE-DRUGS, what elementary school friend said in 5th grade<\/p>\n\n\n\n she would make me like weigh myself when I went to her house. And she would compare Jean sizes. Like I remember one time, we went up north to a cabin, and she put on my jeans, but she put both her legs into one and was like making jokes about that <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Some other doctors have found that access to these semaglutide drugs or GLP-1 receptor agonists combined with nutritional, behavioral therapy helped their patients better manage their hunger and satiety levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want your teen to be able to have self trust eating to be able to have their own recognition of hunger and fullness cues,\u201d Dr. Lester said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The self-proclaimed \u201cTikTokdoc\u201d has noticed in her work with children and adolescents that parents\u2019 often well-intended nutritional intervention can give their teens heightened levels of anxiety and body shaming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Some patients felt like an outcast at their own dinner table, receiving smaller portions than their siblings. Others felt the pressures of diet culture placed on them by their parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The TikTok \u201calmond mom\u201d trope came up often in meetings with Dr. Lester and her teens. She said there is a discrepancy between parents wanting to support their kid and how that love and intervention is received. The root of it, she says, comes from self-hatred, body judging and food shaming. Many of her clients are stuck in their own heads so much that the nagging from a parent can be frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe parents think they\u2019re helping, but they get in their teen\u2019s lane when they\u2019re eating. They\u2019ll say \u2018Are you sure you wanna have seconds? You just ate,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just these huge shame triggers.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Almost all of Dr. Lester\u2019s patients struggle with body image issues before coming into her Zoom room, she said. Her approach to managing her patients\u2019 weight and health is about meeting them where they are and finding a manageable dietary and lifestyle plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NEED BETTER WRAP ON SECTION but: Body dysmorphia while on these weight loss drugs can be disorienting, especially for adolescents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n (WEALTH AND ACCESS & SHORTAGE) \/\/ INTERVIEW WITH RASHEEDA + SON<\/p>\n\n\n\n XXXX, a sophomore girl studying at Auburn University, originally went on Ozempic to lose a few pounds to make her college co-ed cheer squad as a flier. Not someone eligible for the drug due to her BMI levels or diabetes status, she paid for the medication out of pocket. After being on the injectables for a number of months and implementing regular workouts and extreme diets, she is smaller than ever and feeling better and more confident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She is not open about her experience on the drug with many of her friends nor to her cumulative following of roughly 17 thousand across social media platforms. She keeps her followers up to date with her day-in-the-life videos and get-ready-with-me\u2019s, but what they don\u2019t know is that her \u201cgirl dinners\u201d are not the only thing helping her lose the weight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wealth and access played a part in giving her the idealized body that society told her she needed to succeed. Pushed onto the drug by her own mother, XXXX felt this societal pressure for perfection from inside her own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy sense is that many people posting on social media are using these drugs but don\u2019t meet the medical criteria for using them,\u201d Dr. Celia Low Wang, a practicing endocrinologist and diabetes specialist at the University of Colorado, said. \u201cThe cost really affects access. That\u2019s a huge issue related to health equity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obesity and overweightness are more common in children and adolescents who live in poverty and underserved communities or experience discrimination, according to the AAP. Additionally, these individuals are the ones without access to a drug that could change or even save their life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Due to the overwhelming popularity of Wegovy for its use in young adults and its focus on weight loss, its pharmaceutical backing Novo Norsdick has experienced shortages of the drug, meaning people who really need it for aiding in mortality cannot access it. The Danish pharmaceutical powerhouse has invested nearly $11 billion to expand global production capacity, according to Novo Norsdick\u2019s 2023 Annual Report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Lester said that many of her clients are waitlisted for the drug by their insurance companies and feel like they are in limbo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media has changed the way consumers walk into the doctor\u2019s office. The cable television commercials with the sped-up disclaimers are a distant memory for Gen-Z, but influencer culture has changed the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro<\/a>, Zepound, you may have heard of them?<\/p>\n\n\n\nThis study came with increased scrutiny from doctors nationwide with some saying that the approach, focused on weight loss and body mass index, or BMI, minimizes the risk of disordered eating that could come from these behavioral tactics. According to the FDA, individuals with a BMI of 30 or above are eligible for insurance coverage of the drug. However those that do not meet the criteria would be using the medications \u201coff-label.\u201d<\/s><\/p>\n\n\n\nInternet users, medical professionals and parents have contested the drug\u2019s impact, specifically on teenagers and young adults. The \u201cmiracle drug\u201d has kicked off health journeys for some that seemed nearly impossible before. The drug is transforming how the nation looks at its longstanding obesity epidemic. <\/s><\/p>\n\n\n\nDrugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have captivated Americans, looking for what many see as a \u201cquick fix.\u201d But it has changed the lives of many. But, the under-researched mental and physical effects of this drug on young adults in the age of social media call into question if the risk is worth it. <\/s><\/p>\n\n\n\n