The Highwire with Del Bigtree - THE DANGEROUS SIDE OF OZEMPIC

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

Everyone seems to know someone taking Ozempic these days. But, it’s not all roses for the wonder weight loss drug, with serious side effects including suicidal ideations and stomach paralysis. Jefferey Jaxen reports.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

There's a hot new drug out there, and it's an injectable drug. It's not a COVID vaccine. It's a diabetes medication vaccine. It's a weight loss drug. It's something, but a lot of people are clamoring for this thing. Take a look. All right. The hottest drugs in the country right now.

The medication has taken Hollywood by storm. It's the talk of TikTok. I just start dropping pounds left and right. The topic, OZempic, has over 300 million views. People looking to lose weight have a new tool in their arsenal. Baby, the hype is real. Prescription drugs called semi-glutide that come in a now unmistakable pen. Ozempic and Wagovi, the brand names for semi-glutide drugs that were developed to help people with type 2 diabetes.

They've been out for a long time for people with type 2 diabetes. Now, some of them have FDA approval for treating obesity. They're incredibly effective for weight loss. Ozambic works, they make you feel full, they raise insulin levels, they decrease gastric emptying, and they do work. The weight just started falling off. I have been on some gluteite for a total of 10 weeks now. And after 20 weeks, I am down 68 pounds. Big names like Elon Musk, Amy Schumer and Chelsea Handler have admitted taking it.

And from celebrities to social media influencers, this trend has taken the weight loss world by storm. Jolo, you look thin. Thank you. Osempi? Yep. What housewife isn't on Osempi? Not one. Any side effects?

No. Really? Just not hungry. Okay. Is it safe? Yes, it's considered to be generally safe. Very rare side effects of pancreatitis. How much are you expecting this drug to increase demand?

Or how much demand for this drug are you expected to be increased in the next five to 10 years? We expect this would be a very, very significant part of our business. We're just getting going, so it's a very, very sizable market. And this is a gigantic market, obviously, weight loss drugs have always been one of the leading contenders, especially in a nation like America that is struggling with obesity on such a major level and diabetes and all those things. So this certainly is played into that, and it does appear that, you know, almost everybody is taking this thing right now. I mean, I hear reports, you know, my hair salon is offering OZempi, as he called it,

and certainly clinics and, you know, it just seems like it's everywhere and everyone's down. There's commercials everywhere for this thing. And you mentioned all those people that woke up during COVID to the realities of how pharmaceutical companies operate, how messaging works. Let's take those people along a ride of what we do here and we dig deeper into these drugs. So the first really red flag is that pharmaceutical exec saying it's a sizable market. Anytime there's this much hype around a drug, this much marketing, this much put, this much push this possibility for this much money to be made. We have to pump the brakes, have some caution here. And let's look at some realities. Have a black and white conversation about this thing.

And let's look through the hype. So in 2021, when we were focused on the pandemic, everyone was focused on the pandemic. This was the headline that came out. FDA approves new drug treatment for chronic weight loss management first since 2014. They've been working on these for a long time. And then sure enough, the American Academy of Pediatrics, these make the kind of the rules for children in the United States, they came out and jumped right on board of the bandwagon. So you just saw all the Hollywood hype. They have the adults. It's at hair salons. It's a doctor's given out like candy. What about the kids? American Academy of Pediatrics said, we got you covered. Here's the headline here. Consider drugs and surgery early for obesity and kids. New guidelines say, waiting doesn't

work. And it says children struggle with obesity, struggling with obesity should be evaluated and treated early and aggressively, including with medications for kids as young as 12, aggressively with medications again here's another red flag we're treating kids aggressively as young as 12 with medications that just were recently approved off label with a diet injectable diabetes drug third red flag wow we have boris johnson obviously someone that was at the lead of the of the pandemic response in the uk he steps down goes directly into writing opeds and what does he do for his first op ed does he talk about his experience with the covid response no he pushes this drug. The wonder drug I hoped would stop my 1130 fridge rates for cheddar and trezo didn't work for me.

And you start reading this article and it sounds like it was written by a pharmaceutical rep. Listen to this. It's a cinch, said the doctor. All you need to do is inject a tiny dose of clear ozyphic fluid into your abdomen once a week. And hey, presto, no more rating the fridge at 1130 for cheddar and trezo washed down with a half a bottle of wine. It's a dark life you got there, Boris. I don't think an injection is going to help on that one. But so, but now we start covering the story. So this thing's been out a couple years. It's all the rage. But then you start seeing headlines like this. And we're no stranger to these type of headlines. Is OZMPIC causing a wave of suicidal Americans? FDA has received 60 reports of side effects. And drug maker

Nova Nordis says it's taking the issue very seriously. Amid fears of five million people taking the shot. We go to OZimpix package insert. It's required. We know these with vaccines. It's required for every drug and injectable product. Talk about everything, including harms and adverse events, you can look on this product everywhere and you see nothing about the word suicidal ideation, suicidal attempts, suicidal anything. So we got a problem. We're giving this thing out in mass quantities. We have, I mean, a large marketing campaign and we have a side effect that is obviously a really big deal that's no one no one's really talking about. We're just starting to see in the headlines. This is Reuters. Not only is the FDA looking at this, but the European Union is looking at this as well.

EU investigates Ozympic weight loss drug, Saxendra, after suicidal thoughts reported. There's a lot of brand names of these drugs, so just try to follow me on that. It says, although Iceland's regulator has flagged only three cases, the issue of suicidal thoughts linked to weight loss drugs is sensitive and has hobbled previous attempts by the drug industry to develop lucrative weight loss drugs.

So we have a history now. And it says here, in clinical trials for Ozympic and Saxandra, Novo excluded people with a history of psychiatric disorders, or recent suicidal behaviors. So, Del, they stack the deck in the pre-licensure trials. Where have we saw that? Where have we seen this before? Yeah.

And it's almost like they knew there might be an issue. Yeah, exactly. And so we go on and it says here, Sonofi's accomplia in the article of Reuters, which never won US approval, was withdrawn in Europe after, in 2008 after being linked to suicidal thoughts. So we have drugs being withdrawn exactly weight loss drugs, being withdrawn because of suicidal thoughts.

So I mean, there's a lot of breadcrumbs here to follow. So started digging even more and we see this study. We have a systemic review of this is the post-marketing withdrawal of anti-obesity medical products because of adverse drug reactions. We go into the study and we see this written. The authors identified 25 anti-obesity medications withdrawn between 1964 and 2009. Did you know there that me? I didn't.

No. 23 of these were centrally acting via monoamination. neurotransmitters case reports were cited as evidence for withdrawal in 80% of instances. Here we go. Psychiatric disturbances, cardio toxicity, mainly attributed to re-uptake inhibitors, and drug abuse or dependence mainly attributed to neurotransmitter releasing agents. Together accounted for 83% of the withdrawals. And the conclusion the authors gave was this.

Most of the drugs that affect monoamine neurotransmitters licensed for the treatment of obesity over the past 65 years have been withdrawn because of adverse reactions. The reason for withdrawal raise concerns about the wisdom of using pharmacological agents that target monoamine neurotransmitters and managing obesity. So, Dell, guess what Ozypic and Wagovi and all of these drugs plodding the market are? They are the same monoamine transmitters. They're acting on the same parts of the brain. And if you go to the Mayo Clinic, they actually do have the warning.

So all of these drug brand names are, the drug is semi-glutide. And so you go to the Mayo Clinic and you look under semi-glutide and you see this. This medicine may cause some people to be agitated, irritable, or display other abnormal behaviors and may also cause some people to have suicidal thoughts and tendencies or to become more depressed. You know what's so upsetting about this? It's the same story we see when we've covered vaccines or everything else. And this is what it is. It's the regulatory agencies, folks.

They're the ones that are part of. the corruption. This is what, you want to talk about a swamp? This is it. Because look at this. For 65 years, you're telling me, they know that this line of drugs, that this approach towards weight loss causes suicidal thoughts. And when they're overseeing and looking into the trials for a Zempic, wouldn't you think if your regulatory agencies care about you, they would at least ensure that the one thing this trial was doing was ruling out the fact that it would cause suicidal thoughts? That's the one thing you know you should be looking for. And instead, you look the other way while they take away anyone that has depression or any problems that might be affected this way.

So you let them stack their own deck. It's not like this is accidental. This didn't just show up as this one drug suddenly has this problem. Literally the entire line of drugs like this for 65 years has one major problem. And your regulatory agencies just push it all the way through. You've got, you know, children being recommended to take this thing. And oh, all of a sudden you have a rise in school shootings and couldn't have anything to do with pharmaceuticals. It's all about guns.

This is the problem. This country is the problem with our regulatory agencies, and it's why we are very focused on stories just like this. And Del, I think we are part of just a small handful of voices in the darkness here against this massive marketing campaign to say, hey, we need to take a deeper look at this because, as you said, 65 years of history with dangers here. This is why this is more dangerous. The only type of hype I've seen around drugs like this before is the opioids, Oxycontin, Zoloft, the SSRI, depression medication. Those things were blockbuster drugs, and they were kind of a new version of these drugs. So you can almost, you know, we're not going to, but one could give a pass to the regulatory agencies and say, well, this is a novel product. We're just hitting the market with it. You know, they didn't do the correct studies.

But with this drug, you have this history. So there's no excuse. And so we look at the prescription chart of how many of these scripts are going out. And we can see in like 2019, you know, just probably a couple hundred thousand, 2020. But by 2022, we're up to about 5 million. And 2023 is where this aggressive marketing campaign is really taking off. So I would imagine that is going to probably at least double what's going on. It's hard to imagine.

It's only 5 million people when I run into as many people that are taking this, as many doctors as I know that are giving it. Five million is a pretty small amount of people inside, you know, the 330, 40 million, wherever the count is at now in America. So it seems like it must have exploded, I'm going to have to agree with you on that exactly because the headlines like this, because they're actually having shortages of these drugs. When have you heard of shortages of drugs that are just coming out?

This is the headline Novo-Nordis diabetes drug Ozympic back in supply in US after months of shortage. And so starting to research this topic, I'm seeing the headlines of the suicidal thoughts, but then more headlines start coming. And this drug really has an uphill battle for itself. This was out of CNN. So this drug slows the gastric emptying of the stomachs. You feel full or longer.

This is CNN. They took blockbuster drugs for weight loss and diabetes. Now their stomachs are paralyzed. Oh, my God. So, I mean, listen to these stories in here. These are just people that have these experiences. It says, and even now, being off the medication for almost a year, I'm still having a lot of problems, Alan said. She said she was at urgent care recently after vomiting so much that she became dehydrated.

Another person said in September 2020, her vomiting got much worse, standing in front. front of her classroom, right said. She began having burps that smelled so strongly of sulfur and rotten eggs that the kids began to comment on it. What is that? Where is that coming from? They asked. So I don't even know what to say it. Well, what we have to say into our audience out there is that these are pharmaceutical products. They have side effects. We have shown you time and time again that you are not being told the truth. Even here, reading the product insert, you won't get the truth, which is rare. Usually there's, you know, some truth to be found hidden in the fine print, as they say, but even here your regulatory

agencies are going out of the way to protect the company over you. This is something that's got to change immediately. It's a major part of the work we do. But I also want to say what's interesting about this, right? The suicidal thoughts connected to your gut biome. I think right now, as I'm reflecting back on Zachary Bush, who is just one of the dynamic and brilliant minds that we've been lucky enough to interview on the show. And I'll probably try and get him sometime in the near future but all the discussions he's had about how your stomach is really your second brain so much of your serotonin and a lot of your you know emotional chemicals that are moving your body are directly connected to your digestion folks if there's one thing you do not want to mess with in this world it's

your digestion okay it just because i get it you know you know we're all you know having difficulty finding time to work out or really watch our diet watch our food but when you start messing with your stomach, God knows what can go wrong, what will happen to our children, and what is the future of this? How many of these drugs, if you start slowing your digestion, slowing the whole way you were absorbing, you know, toxins and nutrients into your body, you know, we just have no idea with the long-term effects of that all, all for some sort of short-term gain. You know, I just keep thinking growing up, my dad said, you know, there's no such thing as a free ride. Everything has consequences, there's a payment for everything. Just be aware of that. Be smart. You know,

all of this sounds a little too good to be true. Apparently now showing us once again, that's the case. Yeah, and it's so important for people to do their own research, like we always say. And, you know, if you know somebody that's taking this and they're open to another form of information, maybe send them this clip and just plant a bug in their head so they can monitor their own thoughts. They can monitor their own health while they're taking this because, you know, A lot of times do you think, well, it's just another weight loss drug. I'll just take this. It's no big deal.

It's not really that big of a deal.