WARNING *This article contains mention of Eating Disorders.*

GLP-1

Glucagon-like peptide-1 is a natural hormone produced in the gut that regulates your blood sugar, slows your digestion, and sends signals to your brain when you get full while you’re eating to your brain. In recent years, there’s been a spike in GLP-1 simulators that mimic the hormone and are highly effective for managing diabetes and weight loss. Despite this, celebrities and influencers have taken it and run. Using it for their own vanity and causing the prices of these medications to skyrocket, leaving shelves empty.

Weight Loss Craze

Ozempic was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the purpose of treating type 2 diabetes at the end of 2017 and became available on the market shortly after. It was approved specifically to improve blood sugar control in adults with high levels of insulin or insulin resistance. However, its purpose was not for weight loss. The same manufacturer released a higher dose, Wegovy, for weight loss purposes in 2021. Wegovy spread like wildfire, taking over TikTok. Workout and Lifestyle influencers alike were promoting the drug to aid with weight loss alongside their workout routines. 

However, it’s just causing eating disorders. Celebrities like Amy Schumer and Sharon Osborne have opened up about how Ozempic (or other GLP-1s). Schumer stated that she lost so much weight that she was unable to function normally. It left her constantly feeling sick and bedridden and ultimately made her unable to play with her son anymore. Wife of the late Ozzy Osborne, Sharon, spoke out about how losing 42 pounds was ‘too far’ for her, and taking the drug led to excessive weight loss, and can be hard to stop. 

The obsession with being thin has gone too far. Celebrities are becoming bone-thin and promoting it to the youth of today, whether they’re doing it verbally or not. Scrolling through an Instagram feed, you come across dozens of celebrities and influencers — promoting makeup or a clothing brand — and you can’t help but notice their unusually frail appearance. 

On the other end of the spectrum, influencers have also begun to use another form of life-saving diabetic medication. Dexcom, a continuous glucose monitoring device, has recently risen in popularity, with lifestyle influencers promoting their usage to track blood sugar levels before and after eating. Tracking ‘spikes’ that are completely natural for any human being, and promoting restrictive eating as a means for weight loss. 

This promotion of disordered eating is extremely harmful, and in a time when children are on the internet at increasingly younger ages, it’s dangerous to promote such habits to underdeveloped bodies, or anyone, for that matter. Losing weight is not something to be micromanaged with a thousand-dollar medication. Exercise at a normal rate, don’t over-exert yourself. Eat healthy, don’t starve yourself. Drink water. And above all else, you probably shouldn’t listen to anything a TikTok influencer has to say.