Married couple Susan and Michael Dixon share how their experiences taking Ozempic have affected their health and changed their relationship with food.
Married couple Susan and Michael Dixon share how their experiences taking Ozempic have affected their health and changed their relationship with food.
When 51-year-old Susan Dixon was diagnosed with prediabetes, meaning her blood sugar levels were higher than normal, but not high enough to be considered type 2 diabetes, her doctor prescribed Ozempic off-label.
“I have an [aortic aneurysm], so because of my heart condition and because I’m pre-diabetic, my doctor wanted me to get some weight off,” Susan told Healthline.
Susan was already aware of Ozempic because her 54-year-old husband, Michael, began taking it about six months earlier to treat his type 2 diabetes and bring down his A1C to under 6. Within four months of taking the medication, his A1C lowered to 5. He also lost 15 pounds.
“Seeing Michael’s success absolutely influenced me wanting to try it,” Susan said.
Over the years, she tried several weight loss programs, including Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, which brought her some short-term success. In 2008, before her and Michael’s wedding, she also took the prescription phentermine, and as a result, lost 40 pounds.
However, over the years, she found it hard to keep the weight off no matter what method she used. She said Ozempic has worked the best for weight management. After taking the medication for six weeks, she lost 14 pounds.
How the Ozempic shortage has affected the couple in different ways
In 2022, the Food and Drug Administration reported shortages of Ozempic. This created controversy due to some people taking the medication off-label to lose weight.
The shortage affected the Dixons in different ways.
For the entire time Michael has been on Ozempic, he was able to get the medication filled. However, for the past three months, his insurance stopped allowing a 90-day supply, which means he no longer gets the discount (which was paying for two months’ supply and getting one month’s supply free.) He now is only able to fill one month at a time.
“Michael didn’t have an issue because his dosage is lower than mine. At the time of the shortage, my dosage was at 1mg and I couldn’t find that 1mg anywhere,” said Susan.
Due to the shortage, she was unable to fill Ozempic for two-and-a-half months, and during that time, she regained 10 to 12 pounds.
and during that time, she regained 10 to 12 pounds.
Ozempic rebound is common
This is common and expected, said Dr. Sethu Reddy, president of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology. If people lose access to Ozempic like Susan did or their insurance coverage changes and they can’t afford it, this could set back their health progress.
“The effects of GLP-1 analogs are not permanent and if the therapy is discontinued, their therapeutic effects dissipate,” Reddy told Healthline. “Theoretically, these medications will be taken for several years, but it is well known that those with type 2 diabetes eventually lose their ability to make insulin and eventually will need insulin therapy.”
Kumar added that a long-term commitment should be considered when starting any medication for a chronic condition, such as diabetes and obesity.
“If someone is taking Ozempic off-label or Wegovy on-label, those would need to be continued for weight maintenance as well,” said Kumar. “Long-term use of medicine for weight management is not unique to the GLP-1 class of medicines, but is true for all medicines used for weight management.”
By the time Susan was able to get Ozempic filled again in February 2023, her doctor increased her medication dose. Since then, she lost 5 pounds.
“I don’t feel as successful as I used to feel before I had to stop taking it. It’s working still but not as well as it did in the beginning. My appetite is not as suppressed, but like before, food doesn’t excite me,” said Susan.
Despite challenges, using Ozempic has positively affected their health
Ozempic has been successful at lowering her blood sugar, though. However, if her blood sugar continues to lower to the point where she is no longer pre-diabetic, her doctor told her she would most likely prescribe Wegovy to continue with weight loss.
“I would be happy to no longer have to take Ozempic for blood sugar control, and I’d take Wegovy to try to lose more weight,” said Susan.
Michael plans to stick with Ozempic as long as his doctor prescribes it for diabetes management.
“I also take metformin for my diabetes, so I’ll keep taking that and Ozempic since they both seem to be working,” he said.
Article Source: https://www.healthline.com/health-news/ozempic-reviews-weight-loss
