OIC has been all over the news and social media celebrities and many others have been using it but of course they don't admit to it to properly cover the topic I asked a board-certified Internal Medicine physician Dr Elizabeth gr to help me with this topic she also happens to be my [Applause] wife hello hi we finally convinced Liz to join me for a video you're welcome so please show support in the comments so Liz what is OIC great question Dr Gary so OIC is the brand name for a medicine called semaglutide it's a Once weekly
subcutaneous injectable medication um meaning that the medicine gets injected into the skin in usually the upper arm the thigh or the abdomen and it's primarily used to treat type 2 diabetes that's what it was FDA approved for initially in 2017 OIC or semaglutide belongs to a class of medications called glp1 receptor Agonist and gp1 is basically a hormone that's produced by the GI tract and so the glp1 receptor Agonist essentially work on these glp1 receptors glp1 receptors are located throughout the body but there's three main areas that we'll talk about today the first is the
pancreas where it leads to the release of insulin insulin then promotes the absorption of glucose into tissues to be used for energy or to be used as a form of energy storage and this ultimately causes a decrease in blood glucose levels the second is the brain where it decreases appetite by reducing the feeling of hunger and the third is the GI tract where it slows down the movement of food and thus makes us feel feel more full in terms of dosing we generally start with semaglutide at 0.25 mg weekly and it can gradually be increased
to a maximum of 2 milligram as tolerated the cost without insurance can be up to about $1,200 a month and there is another form of semaglutide called wovi and this is basically semaglutide in a higher dose and this is the medication that's actually FDA approved for weight loss but it is specifically approved for people either with obesity or who are overweight with at least one weight related condition these include conditions like high blood pressure high cholesterol and heart disease so what is OIC or semaglutide used for it was initially meant for the treatment of type
2 diabetes to help decrease blood sugar by augmenting the release of insulin but people found found that there was also this impact on weight loss and it's been studied and it has been shown to reduce weight but what they've also found is that people generally need to stay on OIC in order to maintain the weight loss in terms of risks or side effects the most common side effects that we typically see are nausea vomiting constipation sometimes diarrhea we also see dizziness increased heart rate headaches reflux even sometimes acute kidney injury which is thought to be
due to dehydration from all of the nausea and the vomiting that OIC can induce it's also not recommended for people who have certain gastrointestinal tract diseases like inflammatory bowel disease things like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis there's also a blackbox warning for a specific type of thyroid cancer this comes from studies that were done in rodent modules that showed growth of a specific type of thyroid tumor acute pancreatitis which is a condition where the pancreas becomes uh quite inflamed has also been noted in this class of medications and it's really important to note that pancreatitis
can be severe and can be fatal it's unclear what this mechanism is for this possible complication it's also unclear whether or not this has any implications for pancreatic cancer in the long run but regardless if you have a history of pancreatitis or if you develop pancreatitis while on the medication you should stop it and you should never take it again significant weight loss with drugs like OIC and wovi can change the way our faces look as we've covered in other videos we have many fat compartments throughout our face and these compartments are affected by anything
that leads to weight loss such as bariatric surgery such as just a natural weight loss with diet and exercise and or with drugs like OIC and wovi as our weight drops the fat in our face decreases as well this could lead to areas appearing more Hollow more gaunt and also our skin starting to droop it may be that the faster the weight loss with these medications and the more significant the weight loss the less the body has an ability to adapt and adjust and that can lead to more sagging at a faster rate now how
are celebrities involved in all of this well the cost of OIC is about $1,200 per month for off label use of OIC as a weight loss drug and that is a major expense for most people but usually not a major expense for most celebrities and similar to the lack of transparency when it comes to plastic surgery for celebrities so too with weight loss there is a similar lack of transparency for example Kim Kardashian had to fit into that Marilyn Monroe dress for the med Gala and as many have surmised including the New York Times she
may have taken ozic to drop weight quickly to try to fit into that dress but remember that the safest way to lose weight is to do so gradually with these medications and with any other method as well I'm anticipating that the popularity of facial filler including fat transferred to the face will increase because of medications such as OIC I also think that the incidence of lifting procedures such as brow lifts and face lifts will increase as well because as we talked about previously there's an increased sagging that occurs when the fat in our face declines
and we've been talking a lot about Buckle fat removal on this channel and the risks of that procedure and keep in mind that OIC is now introducing additional hollowing of the face so if someone's had a buckle fat removal then they go on OIC to lose further weight now they're going to look even more hollowed out gaunt and they may be looking to replace that lost volume so Liz is OIC a good idea so certainly for people who have type 2 diabetes yes I like the fact that in general it's not associated with hypoglycemia which
is is when uh the blood sugar drops to a dangerously low level this can be a very serious issue for people as they're trying to get their blood sugar under control for people who are obese or are overweight with conditions like high blood pressure high cholesterol heart disease obstructive sleep apnea I think yes so Liz I've heard that there's like a shortage of OIC right now yeah this is the big problem right now um people who really need this medication are not getting it people who have type 2 diabetes who have been on this medication
for years are having trouble accessing this medication Physicians who are prescribing these medications to people who don't necessarily need it resulting in you know a decrease in the supply for people who do need it I know that not all doctors are doing this but there's probably some that do that and I would say you need to take a look at yourself in the mirror and you know the other issue I see with the increased use of OIC for people who are just trying to lose that little bit of extra weight it just speaks to this
kind of viewpoint that unfortunately we as a society seem to have that our bodies and I think in particular women's body bodies but certainly everyone's bodies as well we view our bodies as like a trend right now it's in to look thin but a few years ago it was trendy to look voluptuous but back in the '90s it was also very in to look very skinny I just think that we all need to learn to appreciate our bodies more and be kinder to our bodies and maybe even just learn to love ourselves a little more
very well said Liz thank you we have more powerful tools than ever before with drugs such as OIC and you know they're used for treating medical ailments and they can potentially be used for improving our appearance and our self-esteem but we need to apply these tools sparingly and with caution and with proper allocation around the world if you want this see more of Dr Grand in future videos let us know in the comments below don't forget to subscribe to the channel and turn on all notifications
