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It took Alexis Adebanke Ladejobi more than a year to try the weight loss drug Ozempic due to fears about its side effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very skeptical at first,\u201d said Ladejobi, who lives in Toronto. \u201cI had a nurse practitioner that would tell me, \u2018Don\u2019t take it, they all have side effects\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after the 46-year-old finally started taking Ozempic in July, it changed her life.<\/p>\n
In just five months, she shed 26 pounds, developed a new relationship with food and regained confidence she thought she\u2019d lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I want to show my figure eight,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ladejobi joins a growing number of patients and physicians who are touting the benefits of Ozempic and its competitor drugs, Wegovy and Mounjaro.<\/p>\n
But while doctors say these GLP-1 drugs can be life-changing for some, there is also a need for careful medical oversight and realistic expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re like any other medication. They will work for a lot of people [but] they don\u2019t work for every person,\u201d said Jennifer Lake, a pharmacy professor at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour regular health-care provider \u2026 knows you the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
How it works<\/p>\n
GLP-1s, short for glucagon-like peptide-1, were first approved by Health Canada in 2018 to treat Type 2 diabetes. In 2021, the agency approved Wegovy for weight management; a year later, it approved Mounjaro for diabetes.<\/p>\n
Today, all three drugs are widely used for weight loss, with Ozempic and Mounjaro often prescribed off label.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dr. Stephen Glazer, an obesity medicine specialist and medical director at Humber River Regional Hospital in Toronto, says GLP-1s slow how quickly the stomach empties, helping people feel full on smaller meals.<\/p>\n
\u201cCentrally, it works within the brain, activating centres that are responsible for control of our eating,\u201d said Glazer, who prescribed Ozempic to his patient Ladejobi. \u201cSo that would include hunger, satiety, cravings.\u201d<\/p>\n
GLP-1s blunt the dopamine hit from high\u2011fat, high\u2011sugar foods, making meals feel more satisfying and junk food less tempting.<\/p>\n
Ladejobi, who is not diabetic, has experienced this firsthand. \u201cBefore, when I\u2019m stressed, I binge eat,\u201d she said. \u201cNow, I don\u2019t anymore, because the noise of the food \u2026 just went away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glazer says he is cautiously hopeful the drugs could also improve brain health and cognition, and offer other multi-organ benefits. \u201c[T]here\u2019s some suggestion that it may lower the risk of dementia,\u201d he said. \u201c[But] the jury is out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
GLP-1s in Canada<\/p>\n
Uptake of Ozempic in Canada has been rapid and significant.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe that close to two million Canadians are actually using a GLP-1 drug to lose weight,\u201d said Sylvain Charlebois, a professor and director of Dalhousie University\u2019s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, which conducted a 2024 survey<\/a> on GLP-1 use in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s like Manitoba and New Brunswick combined.\u201d<\/p>\n And this number is expected to grow. The lab\u2019s survey showed one in five Canadians are considering taking the drug. And nearly two-thirds of Canadian adults are either overweight or obese, according to a 2024 government study<\/a>.<\/p>\n Glazer, who is also president of the Canadian Association of Bariatric Physicians and Surgeons, says obesity is a chronic, biologically driven disease. He sees GLP-1s as far more than a cosmetic weight loss tool.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a very exciting opportunity for us because now we can have further legitimacy, not only for the medication, but even in the management of treating people with obesity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On Dec. 1, the World Health Organization released its first global guideline<\/a> on the use of GLP-1s, recommending them for long-term treatment of obesity.\u00a0<\/p>\n In Canada, most people pay out-of-pocket or rely on private insurance to cover their GLP\u20111 drugs, which are self-administered by an intravenous shot once a week. The drugs cost about $200 to $600 a month, depending on factors such as brand, dose and location. Currently, public drug plans generally only cover GLP-1s to treat Type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n However, generic drugmakers plan<\/a> to sell semaglutide \u2014 the unbranded, lower-cost version of Ozempic \u2014 in Canada by June 2026, after its patent expires.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised by 2030 to see anywhere between three to five million Canadians using some of these drugs,\u201d said Charlebois.<\/p>\n Side effects<\/p>\n GLP-1 drugs have been studied for years in people with diabetes. But there is no long-term human data on the effects of taking them for weight loss. The longest<\/a> large clinical trials of GLP-1 drugs in humans follow patients for about four to five years.<\/p>\n The drug\u2019s side effects can be another concern.\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts say gastrointestinal side effects are common, including constipation, reflux, belching, nausea and extreme fullness. In some patients, this can progress to severe conditions such as gastroparesis, where the stomach takes too long to empty.<\/p>\n \u201cThe worst form of that is people tasting or feeling like they have fecal matter [in their mouth] \u2026 when they belch,\u201d said Lake, of the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n And the side effects likely affect more people in practice than the clinical trials suggest, as trials typically exclude older or medically complex patients.<\/p>\n \u201cAbout 10 to 15 per cent of people can\u2019t tolerate these drugs,\u201d said Lake. Among older patients or those with complex conditions, the percentage is likely higher, she says.<\/p>\n Risks<\/p>\n GLP-1s have also been known to cause rare but severe complications, including bowel obstruction.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn the extremes of constipation, you can have poor motility within the GI tract, which can lead to very serious constipation and even emergency room visits,\u201d said Glazer.<\/p>\n Physicians also monitor for risks such as pancreatitis<\/a>, or inflammation of the pancreas, which presents as the more common side effects of nausea and vomiting. Emerging evidence<\/a> suggests a rare optic nerve problem in some diabetic patients on GLP-1s, which can cause permanent vision loss.<\/p>\n For Ladejobi, the early side effects were mild. These included a headache after her first meal and delayed bowel movements that caused no discomfort.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t work for you, then it doesn\u2019t,\u201d said Ladejobi. \u201cIt\u2019s something that is retractable. It\u2019s not a permanent thing.<\/p>\n