Johann Hari nonetheless remembers the unusual sensation he felt two days after he first injected himself with Ozempic.A health care provider prescribed the drug for weight reduction — a well-known aspect impact of the Kind 2 diabetes remedy — in 2023 when Hari weighed 203 kilos and had a physique fats share of 32%.Hari’s grandfather died of a coronary heart assault at 44, his uncle in his 60s, and his father underwent a quadruple coronary heart bypass in his 70s.Hari didn’t have diabetes and was cautious of weight-loss medicine understanding that previous choices “at all times turned out to be a catastrophe,” he says. However weight reduction with Ozempic appeared like a option to decrease his personal coronary heart illness threat.He observed the drug’s impact a few days after his first dose.“I awoke and I assumed, ‘There’s one thing bizarre. What’s it?’ I couldn’t determine what it was. After which I all of the sudden realized I had woken up and I wasn’t hungry. That had by no means occurred to me,” Hari, 45, a journalist who lives in London and Las Vegas, tells TODAY.com.“My urge for food was simply dramatically dialed down from that time on. I used to be a lot much less hungry than I’d been earlier than. I felt very full, very quick.”Johann Hari (Courtesy Johann Hari)Hari in the end misplaced 42 kilos with Ozempic after which its sister drug Wegovy, which has the identical energetic ingredient, semaglutide, and is particularly accepted for weight reduction.He got down to discover out all he may about GLP-1 drugs — which mimic at the very least one hormone produced by the intestine to sign fullness — in his new ebook, “Magic Capsule: The Extraordinary Advantages and Disturbing Dangers of the New Weight-Loss Medicine.”Hari shared his insights in an interview with TODAY.com. His solutions are edited and condensed for readability:TODAY: You name these weight-loss medicine “a mass experiment, carried out on thousands and thousands of individuals, and I’m one of many guinea pigs.” Why?Hari: I’m a part of two experiments, not only one. I used to be a part of the experiment that made us a lot extra overweight. And now I’m a part of the experiment that’s reversing that utilizing medicine.In my lifetime, we’ve had an explosion of weight problems that’s unprecedented in human historical past. We’ve been bodily altered by processed and ultra-processed meals, which have utterly taken over our food plan and are not like the meals that human beings ate earlier than us. This meals is undermining our capacity to ever really feel full.The second experiment I’m a part of is these medicine. They provide you again your sense of being full. However they create with them some dangers as nicely.What potential dangers fear you probably the most?Semaglutide has solely been used for a bit greater than two years now for individuals with weight problems. We don’t know the long-term results of taking them. There’s a priority that possibly they’ll have some impact that we simply don’t know in the long run.Skilled’s take: Dr. Christopher McGowan, an weight problems drugs specialist in Cary, North Carolina, says that when sufferers ask him whether or not it’s protected to take Wegovy for years, he tells them there are not any long-term research on it. However he notes that GLP-1 drugs have been used for greater than a decade to deal with Kind 2 diabetes, “so we do have a really reassuring monitor document normally with these drugs,” McGowan beforehand informed TODAY.com.Dr. William Yancy, medical director of the Duke Way of life and Weight Administration Middle, in Durham, North Carolina, added that after reviewing the analysis, he’s snug prescribing Wegovy understanding {that a} affected person might need to take it for years or a long time.“We’re at all times accumulating information and so that might change down the highway, however at this level we’ve sufficient data to think about this as a long-term remedy,” he informed TODAY.com.Requested if Wegovy is protected to take long-term, Novo Nordisk, its maker, tells TODAY.com GLP-1 medicines akin to semaglutide have been used to deal with Kind 2 diabetes for greater than 18 years, and for the remedy of weight problems for eight years.”Semaglutide has been extensively examined in sturdy medical improvement packages, massive actual world proof research and has cumulatively over 9.5 million affected person years of medical expertise,” the corporate says in an announcement.”Novo Nordisk stands behind the security and efficacy of all of our GLP-1 medicines when they’re used as indicated and when they’re taken beneath the care of a licensed healthcare skilled.”The corporate additionally says it work carefully with the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration to repeatedly monitor the security of its medicines.TODAY: What particularly bothered you?Hari: For myself, the one threat that I didn’t see coming was the psychological impact. That was actually unusual. For the primary six months I used to be taking the drug, I used to be getting what I wished — I used to be dropping a great deal of weight, my again ache went away, all types of excellent issues occurred.However I didn’t truly really feel higher in my feelings. If something, I felt barely worse. I noticed it was about my lack of ability to consolation eat, and the way unhealthy that was making me really feel.I went to KFC in Las Vegas and I did what I might have executed earlier than I used to be taking Ozempic — I ordered a bucket of fried hen. I had one of many hen drumsticks, and I all of the sudden thought, “I can’t eat this.” On Ozempic, you may’t overeat. You’ll vomit. I bear in mind a voice in my head going, “You’re simply going to must really feel unhealthy, then.”You might now not use meals as a stress coping mechanism?Precisely. That may be a bumpy adjustment course of for lots of people. It will possibly convey to the floor the deep underlying emotional the explanation why you ate within the first place.I noticed how a lot of my consuming was about the necessity to consolation myself — stuffing myself to calm myself. And I couldn’t try this after I was on Ozempic.The psychological results made me wish to cease taking it, however considered one of my mates stated to me, “You could find a greater option to cope with your feelings than overeating.”Johann Hari (Courtesy Kathrin Baumbach)You say you skilled “surprisingly persistent” unwanted effects. What have been they?The unwanted effects weren’t horrible, however they have been uncomfortable. They progressively diminished over 4 months.The day after I might inject myself as soon as every week, I might really feel a bit sick. It’s fairly gentle.I had one of many much less widespread unwanted effects — some individuals really feel their coronary heart beats sooner. It’s onerous when your coronary heart is racing to not really feel anxious as a result of your physique’s like, one thing is unsuitable. In order that was, for me, probably the most disagreeable aspect impact.I wish to stress that I skilled a variety of advantages from this drug. I went from consuming 3,200 energy a day to 1,800 energy a day and never feeling hungry.Editor’s notice: The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration label for Ozempic states that in placebo-controlled trials of 0.5-1 milligrams of the medicine “resulted in a imply enhance in coronary heart fee of two to three beats per minute.”Do you propose to maintain taking Ozempic indefinitely? Sure, due to the guts assault threat in my household, for me personally, the advantages of those medicine outweigh my very actual issues concerning the long-term results. Research present that Wegovy (which comprises the identical energetic ingredient as Ozempic) reduces coronary heart assault or stroke threat by 20%.You must weigh two units of dangers — the dangers of weight problems towards the danger of those medicine. Weight problems makes nearly all of the well being situations we worry extra probably — coronary heart illness, stroke, dementia, most cancers.Skilled’s take: When contemplating taking weight-loss medicine akin to Wegovy and Zepbound, each particular person must weigh the risk-benefit to themselves, together with how continued weight problems will have an effect on their well being, Dr. Beverly Tchang, an endocrinologist and weight problems drugs doctor at Weill Cornell Medication in New York, beforehand informed TODAY.com. She’s an advisor for Novo Nordisk, the pharmaceutical firm that makes Ozempic and Wegovy.“For lots of my sufferers, I do know they’ve struggled with weight problems for all of their childhood and maturity already, and the advantages outweigh the dangers as quickly as they begin the medicine,” Tchang stated.Are these medicine actually “magic,” as you name them in your ebook title?There are 3 ways these medicine could possibly be magic.The primary is the obvious: They may simply clear up the issue. There are days when it looks like that. My complete life, I’ve overeaten. Now, I inject myself as soon as every week and I don’t overeat. It looks like magic.The second approach it could possibly be magic is way more disturbing. It could possibly be like a magic trick. It could possibly be that over time, the dangers related to these medicine outweigh the advantages. I don’t rule that out.The third approach is, I believe, the most certainly. Take into consideration the tales of magic, like “Aladdin.” You discover the lamp, rub it, the genie seems, grants your needs, and your want comes true — however by no means fairly in the way in which that you simply anticipated.The medicine are such a strong software. They will have big and unpredictable results — constructive and unfavorable. That’s why we have to take a beat and actually take into consideration this unimaginable revolution that’s hitting us.This text was initially revealed on TODAY.com