JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Diabetes medication have been flying off the shelves at pharmacies nationwide. This comes after users on social media raved about the instant weight loss you could get from the drugs intended to treat type 2 diabetes.
Semaglutide is the active ingredient in three type 2 diabetes medications.
The most popular that people are using for weight loss are Ozempic and Wegovy, leaving diabetic patients without the prescriptions that they need.
THE QUESTION
Are there risks for those using a diabetic drug if you are not diabetic?
THE SOURCES
- Katherine Zheveleva, pharmacist at UF Health Jacksonville
-The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration
THE ANSWER
No, there are no risks for those using a type 2 diabetic drug if you are not diabetic. But just like any medication you take, pharmacist at UF Health Jacksonville, Katherine Zheveleva says there’s always a small risk.
WHAT WE FOUND
The three forms of Semaglutide is Ozempic and Wegovy which are once a week injections that you do in your abdomen or outer thigh. Rybelsus is a once a day pill.
“The risk that we are most concerned about is low blood sugar because if you are taking a diabetic med that will lower your sugar, it actually works whenever you eat," said Katherine Zheveleva, pharmacist at UF Health Jacksonville. "And it looks at the sugar in your blood so, that risk is 1 to 2 percent is very low."
The CDC says more than 37 million Americans have diabetes and approximately 90 to 95 percent of them have type 2 diabetes.
“The way that it works it is a glucagon-like peptide 1 agonist, so there are incretin hormones that are released whenever we eat that increase insulin and decrease glucagon release so basically it works in that gut brain access. And it also helps in the diabetic population with increasing insulin secretion on when you eat," said Zheveleva.
Zheveleva says Semaglutide is very beneficial for people with type 2 diabetes because it decreases insulin requirement, which is important because insulin makes patients gain weight.
“When we take these away from the diabetics, they have to require way more insulin," said Zheveleva. "Their diabetes become very uncontrolled and people are using Wegovy and Wegovy has been impossible to get which is the weight loss one. So, people have been getting Ozempic prescribed even though that one is indicated for type 2."
According the FDA, the drug Ozempic currently has a shortage.
Zheveleva also says that there’s currently not enough data that backs up the long-term effects of taking these diabetic medications for weight loss.