![]() It can also decrease the production of the hunger hormone ghrelin, which further reduces appetite.īut this pathway is only one of three pathways our brains use to regulate appetite, David Lau, professor emeritus of medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biology at the University of Calgary, tells Inverse. GLP-1 (or semaglutide) can slow the rate at which your stomach empties, leading to a longer-lasting feeling of fullness. Other neurons that make a protein called neuropeptide Y are told to stand down, decreasing feelings of hunger.īut these effects aren’t confined to the brain. In the arcuate nucleus, two neurons - the cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (or CART) and proopiomelanocortin (POMC) - pump up their activity, helping you feel full. Typically after you eat a meal, cells in the intestine release GLP-1 and the signal travels up to the brain to bind to specific receptors located in an area called the hypothalamus, particularly the arcuate nucleus involved in regulating hunger and satiety signals, Priya Jaisinghani, an endocrinologist and obesity medicine specialist at New York University Langone Medical Center, tells Inverse. These are used to treat type two diabetes. The active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy is semaglutide, which belongs to a class of medications called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists. Inverse spoke to several experts studying Ozempic and drugs like it to try and understand how much we know, and don’t know, about how these drugs influence our brain’s delicate chemistry. This extends to the neuroscience of obesity and the circuits involved in controlling hunger and eating behaviors. But one of the challenges of neuroscience is that while we know a lot about the brain, there’s a lot more we don’t know. The crux of Ozempic is that it seems to dull the activity in the hunger centers of the brain, which in turn makes you eat less and experience fewer cravings. ![]() “They can have secondary effects on cognition and so forth.” “Once you talk about brain circuitry, you have these really complex circuits that send off collaterals projecting to other parts of the brain,” Zachary Freyberg, an associate professor of psychiatry and cell biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, tells Inverse. But the brain fog speaks to a bigger, much murkier issue: Neuroscientists don't fully understand how Ozempic and drugs like it affect the brain long-term, especially for people taking the prescription for something it wasn’t originally intended for. ![]() That nausea might be a side effect of a drug that hijacks how you eat and process food may not be a surprise. “Once you talk about brain circuitry, you have these really complex circuits that send off collaterals projecting to other parts of the brain.They can have secondary effects on cognition and so forth.” Some even report bizarre dreams, like Clint Eastwood assisting them at Home Depot or shoe shopping with Jeff Goldblum. Anecdotally on social media, Ozempic users trade stories about neurological side effects, some documented and some not, like brain fog and sleeplessness. One 40-week study found that over the course of about 10 months, participants on 1 milligram of Ozempic lost up to 13 pounds while those on 2 milligrams lost about 15 pounds.īut alongside this weight loss are side effects, like the inability to concentrate, nausea, GI troubles, muscle loss, and reports of weakened bones. Ozempic does seem to cause reliable weight loss, though it’s far from dramatic. With the hype came the money: Behemoth weight loss company Weight Watchers acquired telehealth service Sequence, which offers Ozempic prescriptions, in April. abounded, profoundly affecting the people with diabetes who take the drug for that chronic condition. Prescriptions reached a high in late February, and reports of shortages throughout the U.S. Since the diabetes drug caught on among celebrities looking to shed a few pounds before awards season, inventory has been flying off pharmacy shelves. If a drug could be said to be having a blockbuster moment, then 2023 is as much Ozempic's year as it is Pedro Pascal's. ![]()
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