It may be impossible to avoid the current hype around Ozempic, a new weight-loss-promoting drug that’s so ubiquitous it ended up mentioned in Jimmy Kimmel’s Oscar monologue.
Rachel Rodgers, associate professor of applied psychology at Northeastern, predicts the medication will fall from favor as a weight loss tool—and likely will be replaced by another “quick fix” that wreaks havoc with people’s body image and, possibly, their bodies.
“There have been weight loss drugs since the 1930s,” Rodgers says. “They inevitably are shown to have dangerous side effects. They are typically popular for a short term and then are revealed to be dangerous and are replaced with something else.”
An authority on body image and disordered eating, Rodgers says she is not an expert on the biological underpinnings of Ozempic, an injectable medication developed to treat Type 2 diabetes that has been repurposed as a weight loss drug adopted by celebrities and some on social media.
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